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Pastor's bail set at $2 million

A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., set bail at $2 million Wednesday for Vitaly Korchevsky, the Delaware County pastor and money manager described by federal prosecutors as the "linchpin" of a global insider-trading scheme, after 80 of Korchevsky's supporters urged that he be allowed to remain free.

Vitaly Korchevsky is also a money manager. (Bloomberg)
Vitaly Korchevsky is also a money manager. (Bloomberg)Read more

A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., set bail at $2 million Wednesday for Vitaly Korchevsky, the Delaware County pastor and money manager described by federal prosecutors as the "linchpin" of a global insider-trading scheme, after 80 of Korchevsky's supporters urged that he be allowed to remain free.

At a detention hearing, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie said he was persuaded to grant Korchevsky bail "given the faith that hundreds of people have put in him."

Korchevsky, 50, of Brookhaven, was one of nine people charged earlier this month by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Newark, N.J., in connection with an alleged alliance of hackers and traders who tapped corporate press releases before they became public and traded on the information.

Regulators said the conspiracy netted the group about $100 million. Korchevsky is alleged to have made $17 million.

"The defendant was the linchpin of a sprawling financial and hacking conspiracy that spread two continents and affected markets throughout the world," Brooklyn prosecutors said in a letter to Dearie on Tuesday. The crime has "shaken securities issuers" globally, they said.

Arkadiy Dubovoy, 51, of Alpharetta, Ga., who also is accused of taking part in the conspiracy, appeared Wednesday in federal court in Newark, where he was indicted. He did not enter a plea, and a judge ordered him detained. His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, said he will request bail later.

Dubovoy had previously appeared in federal court in Georgia after he and his son, Igor, were arrested at their homes in Alpharetta. Prosecutors argued then that he posed a risk of fleeing. A judge ordered him held without bail until his transfer to New Jersey.

In court papers, prosecutors said evidence collected includes forensic images of laptops and other computers seized by Ukrainian authorities in November 2012 from two accused hackers, Ivan Turchynov and Oleksandr Ieremenko. They remain at large.

Korchevsky's lawyer, Steven Brill, said his client, pastor of Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church in Brookhaven, has "dedicated his life" to his church. Born in Kazakhstan, he spent his early years living in the atheist former Soviet Union, where he was beaten for keeping Bibles, Brill said.

Standing silently next to Brill in jail garb Wednesday, Korchevsky nodded when Dearie asked whether he was a "credentialed" minister. Brill said his client holds master's degrees in divinity and business administration.

Korchevsky has a wife and two children. Properties offered as security for his bail include his primary residence and a home owned by his in-laws.

In a letter Tuesday, Brill said Korchevsky is a "prominent figure in the Slavic Baptist Church - both nationally and worldwide," as well as chairman of an association of 28 churches and 4,000 members.

"He has traveled far and wide to preach to congregations in all parts of the world," Brill said.

The board of Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church in Brookhaven had said in an earlier letter to the judge that Korchevsky is a "very respected and connected" member of the community who has served as senior pastor since the church was founded in 2003.

Earlier this month, another federal judge in Brooklyn, Brian Cogan, blocked a Philadelphia judge's decision to let Korchevsky go free on $100,000 bail after prosecutors claimed the pastor was a flight risk.

Korchevsky is a naturalized U.S. citizen who "retains broad family connections to Ukraine," where suspected hackers who participated in the scheme are thought to be from, prosecutors said in the letter to the judge.

Korchevsky has not fully disclosed his assets, according to the prosecutors. In addition to his home, he also owns nine properties, eight in Pennsylvania and one in Georgia, worth about $5 million in total.

The government froze about $5 million of his assets in bank and brokerage accounts, prosecutors said.

"Of the remaining $17 million in profits, Korchevsky appears to have given generously to the Slavic Baptist Church," prosecutors said in their letter.

The government alleges that hackers siphoned more than 150,000 press releases, including corporate data on earnings that could be used to anticipate stock market moves and make profitable trades.

The hackers allegedly passed the information to associates in America and Ukraine, who allegedly used it to buy and sell shares of dozens of companies.