IT administrator gets 8 years for cyber sabotage

Chicago (IL) - Putting an interesting twist on the all too common stock fraud story, a systems administrator at financial services firm UBS Paine Webber has been sentenced to eight years in prison for planting malicious software in the company’s system in order to manipulate its stock price.

Earlier this year, Roger Durino was found guilty of securities fraud and computer fraud after it was discovered that he implanted a "logic bomb" in the firm’s computer network, with the purpose of wiping out large amounts of data. Durino then invested thousands of dollars in "put option" securities, which pay off if a specific stock price drops.

Allegedly, Durino’s actions were an act of revenge after UBS cut his annual bonus from $50,000 to $32,500, according to Business & Legal Reports. However, in addition to being caught, Durino’s investment tumbled after stock prices failed to fall as a result of the logic bomb.

Sentencing was recently announced for Durino, and the cost for his cyber crime tallies in with a 97 month jail sentence, or just over eight years, in addition to paying $3.1 million to UBS, the amount it claims was spent to repair damages done to the company from the malicious code.