This is the sound of the private jet runway at tiny Sion Airport, high in the Swiss Alps. Sion is the gateway to the famed ski resort of Zermann, with its five-star hotels, luxury shopping, and high-end social scene. Even in a private jet, though, you can only get so close to the snow-capped mountains. Sion is still an hour's drive from the chairlifts. So the truly wealthy take a short walk across the tarmac and board helicopters to take them directly to the slopes. And on March 21st, 2021, an up and coming young Russian oligarch and his wife touch down here in a chartered private jet on their way to the slopes. It's a wedding anniversary celebration. And at that moment, the oligarch is at the absolute height of his powers.

He's personable, he smiles a lot, he's engaging, he's charismatic. That's how he was so successful in business. He's devoted to his family.

He's built a fabulously successful company. He's cultivated connections at the highest levels of the Russian government, and he works for the office of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. But what the oligarch doesn't know is that US law enforcement has been monitoring the flight since it left Moscow, and they're planning to charge him with crimes that go to the heart of the American financial system.

It's a breathless moment. You're literally holding your breath to to see how this is going to play out.

American law enforcement believes the oligarch is involved in a brazen $93 million insider trading scheme, and the victims are investors in iconic American companies, including names on the cutting edge of the US economy like Tesla, Snapchat, and Roku. At stake is the very integrity of American capital markets.

We knew that somebody was up to no good, and we knew that the scale of it was pretty big because it was happening quarter after quarter in stock after stock.

It's all part of the dangerous underground of the global financial system. In this podcast, we're going to take you inside the operation to track down and try to capture this Russian oligarch. Along the way, you'll meet the FBI agents who led the investigation and the prosecutors who worked alongside them. We've spent months working to land interviews with all the key players, but the most difficult interview of them all was with a former Russian spy. We'll introduce him to you later in the series. He's a defector who now lives in the United States under an assumed name. I got his cell phone number from a very well-placed US intelligence source, and after his security team checked me out to verify I was who I said I was, we sat down with this Russian spy at a location inside the United States, which we agreed not to disclose. He's one of the very few people in the world who can give us the Russian perspective on this story. To protect him from retribution from the Russian government, we're not going to use name. We've replaced his voice, and someone else is reading the transcript of our conversation.

It's a war right now happening between Russia and the West. Finances and banks and financial sector itself is just one of the battlefields. When I heard what he has to say, it changed everything about how I see this story. I'm Eamonn Javers from CNBC, and this is the Crimes of Putin's Traitor. The man at the center of the story is the young Russian oligarch on that private jet heading to the Swiss ski resort. His name is Vladislav Klyushin. His friends call him Vlad. Klyushin is a well-connected businessman who owns a cyber security firm in Moscow called M13. But the firm is a front. It's not doing what normal cyber security companies do. Behind the scenes, Klyushin's employees aren't always helping companies to protect their data. Sometimes, they're stealing it. They found a sneaky way to obtain American financial information before it's public and trade in the stock market ahead of the news. They're making a fortune by pillaging American investors on Wall Street. Cleucian wants to make a whole lot of money. Inside the operation, M13's computer screens are flowing with stolen stock market information. Cleucian's team pours over American corporate earnings reports before the financial world can see them.

At one point, they focus in on Tesla, the electric car company. M13 hackers steal Tesla's draft earnings release, and seeing the results, they buy shares in advance. Cleucian sends a text to two of the investors in the scheme, giving them a heads up.

Pay attention to shares of Tesla now and tomorrow after 16:30, and on how much they go up.

After the market closes, Tesla reports its earnings. For Tesla, we're seeing a pop in the after-hour session of more than 12%. But of Of course, Cleucian knows what's coming. It's a monster number, more than $6.8 billion in revenue. Ceo Elon Musk tells investors on a conference call that it was an incredibly historic quarter. Wall Street is dazzled. It's much better news than traders expected, and Tesla's shares soar. In the second quarter of 2019, the M13 team steals documents showing that sneaker company, Skechers, is going to surprise the market with positive news. The company was going to beat earnings by about 15 cents per share. The M13 traders buy stock in Skechers, betting that the price will go up. Taking a look at Skechers, up 8.7% there. The whole group ends up making more than a million dollars on that single trade.

And they're making millions of dollars just sitting at their desks, breaking into these American companies, stealing information day after day after day, and just trading on.

It gets even better with cosmetics company Ulta Beauty. M13's stolen documents showed the earnings were a miss. And what's worse for shareholders, the company's updated its financial guidance downward. The M13 gang shorts the stock, betting it's going to go down. Tanking is the right word.

Ulta Beauty shares down 20% on a rough second-quarter report.

They're right. Ulta's price plummeted by 30% when that news came out. For M13, it's great news. The gang makes almost $2 million overnight on a single trade. They gleefully text details of how much they and their investors are making. Cleucian reports that one investor had already made profits of close to $1 million, nearly tripling his investment. A second investor had made profits of close to $700,000, nearly doubling his money.

Cleucian. They don't even ask why so anymore.

We'll be right back. The money Cleucian makes from the stolen financial information is literally piling up. He has a safe in which he stashes stacks of $100 bills, gradually filling it until at one point it holds $3 million in cash. But Cleucian was wealthy before he turned his operation criminal. Here's federal prosecutor Stephen Frank, who investigated the case.

He was a lot like the people that we prosecute for white-collar crime here in the United States every day, who don't really need to turn to white-collar crime in order to be successful because they already are successful. He was wealthy. He had a very nice house. He had very nice cars. He had a country house, but he wanted more, like so many of our defendants do. And he found a way to get access to easy money, and he took it.

Fbi Special Agent David Hitchcock agrees.

Vladislav Klyushin was a successful businessman before he began engaging in the insider trading.

If he's already wealthy, he's a rich guy, he He's a rich guy. He lives in Moscow. Why do this?

I think the same way individuals here in the United States commit crime that's financially motivated. It's greed.

Straight up?

That was my takeaway.

Klyushin, who was born in 1980, wasn't always rich. He grew up poor, and he had to hustle to get ahead. He's the son of a single teen mother, and he's never known his father. He started working at age 13 to help lift his family out of poverty. But his brainpower took him far. Graduates graduating from the Moscow Academy of Economics and Law and going on to get a master's degree in management. By the time he opens the cybersecurity company M13, he's successful and well-loved by his employees. His team at M13 is a social group. There are birthday parties with hats, cake, and singing.

And rooftop barbecues with the gang from the office.

Several M13 staff members members say Cleucian helps them get access to top hospitals in Moscow when they or a family member are sick. By this time, Cleucian is also a family man. He married his second wife, Janna, at an exclusive country club outside Moscow, posing for pictures with his new bride, driving a convertible Porsche and embracing under a heavily laden trellis of roses. The couple produces an extensive highlight video of the wedding, featuring scenes of Cleucian jogging and swimming, and his drinking champagne and lying on an outdoor canopy bed covered in flowers. It's all set to a blissful soundtrack. In the video, a youthful Cleucian has brown hair combed to the side, deep brown eyes, and a dimpled chin. He's just hitting that stage of life where prosperous men start to get a little stocky, and he's got the slightest tinge of gray coming in at his temples. Between his two marriages, Cleucian is the father of five children. The company and the family are both fueled sold by Cleucian's spectacular success in business. But the secret to that success is not in his technical skills. In fact, Cleucian doesn't have any specialized computer skills at all.

What he does have are contacts.

He was a well-connected guy, and he was enormously successful.

Klyushin knows highly placed people in the Russian intelligence and defense worlds. In June of 2020, Klyushin received the Russian Medal of Honor with documentation signed by Vladimir Vladimir Putin himself. He's also connected to the Russian intelligence Service, the FSB, which is a successor to the notorious Cold War intelligence Agency, the KGB. Klyushin even received an award from the FSB. The inscription expresses, Sincere gratitude to you for the productive and effective collaboration in ensuring security of the Russian Federation in the Information Sphere. It's signed by the Deputy Director of the FSB. Now, we don't know exactly what Klyushin did to earn this spying award, but we do know Klyushin is a guy who's hanging around some seriously high-powered spies. At some point along the way, Klyushin makes his most important contact yet. He connects with a young computer hacker named Ivan Irmakoff, who becomes an employee of Cleucian's firm, M13. Very quickly, the two men strike up a business partnership and something of a bromance. Suddenly, business and life are good. Here's prosecutor Seth with Kosto.

One of the things that was curious about the case was the interrelationship between Klyushin and Irmakoff. They were thick as thives. Very quickly for two men who really didn't have much contact with each other before 2018, Same.

Once their operation is up and running, they're in near constant contact. They go out drinking, and they sauna together naked. The FBI finds videos and pictures on their devices showing the two men at fancy dinners. In One, Irmakov is at a candle-lit restaurant holding his knife and fork dramatically over an impossibly large hunk of meat. In another, they pose with Klyushin's wife and Irmakov's girlfriend. The setting appears to be a high-end cocktail party. Klyushin is in a tailored dress shirt in slacks with an expensive-looking watch on his left wrist. His wife is in a polka-dotted dress, a glass of wine in her right-hand. Irmakov wears jeans and a sweater, and he has a proud grin on his face as his girlfriend hooks her elbow through his arm. The photo radiates confidence and elegance. We see more casual images, too. Irmakoff working on his golf swing at a driving range. And when the Soccer World Cup comes to Russia, it's a point of pride for Vladimir Putin's regime and a huge global event. They're caught up in the excitement as players score goals. His first goal at a major tournament. Klyushin and his crew are all in on the games.

The images captured by the FBI show them eating drinking, drinking, celebrating, and showing off their Russian colors with temporary tattoos of the Russian flag painted on their cheeks. The oligarch and the hacker also share a fondness for helicopter skiing, and videos show them sweating and exhausted but looking happy inside a chopper. The buddies shop for expensive things. Klyushin buys a luxury apartment for Irmakov and buys himself a yacht worth almost $4 million called the 7K from a shipyard in Cyprus. At one point, Klyushin sends a text to Irmakov, telling him how much he enjoys being with him. These are voice actors reading each man's text. Klyushin.

We spend a lot of time together. I feel good and calm. The fact that we can walk home together and have a beer or play golf or simply send everyone to hell knowing that you're close.

Irmakov teases Klyushin about his outburst of emotion.

This truly sounds like a nice declaration of love, like a declaration of love to a girl.

I asked prosecutor Stephen Frank about this. It sounds like a bromance.

It was definitely a bromance between those two.

Was it a romance?

I don't believe so, no. But they were very close. They spent a lot of time together, and they definitely liked each other. They were friends.

They share a favorite TV show, texting each other about Billions, the American TV drama about corrupt Wall Street traders. Ermakoff asks Cleucian if he's seen the final episode of season four of the show. That's the where a US attorney tries to prosecute a young, up-and-coming hedge fund billionaire.

The moment I let someone in a boardroom or a government office tell me what I can or cannot buy, I may as well close the shop, and I'm not closing the shop.

I asked FBI agent David Hitchcock about this. What about that show Billions? I mean, the irony of these guys conducting Wall Street fraud while texting each other about a show that's about Wall Street Fraud.

Interesting that they would pick I took that as not just something to watch, but something that they're keeping each other updated on. It was ironic.

You almost wonder if they're getting ideas from the show.

I wouldn't know.

We'll be right back. Former FBI Special Agent, B. J. Kang, says Cleucian is making more money than he's ever seen before.

He He was living the good life, right? He had the money to live the good life.

To celebrate, Cleucian buys four Porsche sports cars for himself, Irmakov, and an investor in the scheme. He plans to keep two of the cars for himself. He attaches vanity license plates featuring the number 13 in honor of their company, M13. But running a big cybersecurity company and a secret insider trading scam at the same time is exhausting. Klyushin texts his pal, Irmakov.

I'm fucking tired rushing all the time. Neither It's not a good idea.

Here's prosecutor Stephen Frank.

Well, they say money can't buy happiness, and that's as true in Russia, apparently, as it is in the United States.

He fixates on the new yacht.

At this point, I want nothing except the boat. This I want very much.

When Irmakov responds to that text, it's as if he's become his boss's therapist, trying to diagnose the root of Klyushin's problems.

Then you need nothing. Enjoy your life. You have everything.

Irmakov tries to convey some wisdom.

I I've read somewhere that if you keep buying while you have everything, it means you're unhappy.

The scam is churning out profits, but Klyushin is right that he needs a rest. He's running ragged and he's beginning to make mistakes. Their operational security, what law enforcement and intelligence guys call OPSEC, is starting to fail. Here's former FBI agent, BJ Kang.

It's very difficult to maintain that tight OPSEC every day, every day, every day. It's very tough. So If you're doing this stuff for a long period of time, there's going to be some slip up.

The M13 team knows they're playing a dangerous game. Perhaps as a warning to himself, Klyushin keeps a printout of a Reuters article in a plastic sleeve. The headline says, Ukrainian hacker gets prison in US insider trading case. The article reports a 29-year-old Ukrainian hacker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison over his role in a global scheme to conduct insider trading based on stolen yet to be published news releases. The article is from 2017, well before Klyushin and Irmakov even started their own hack-to-trade scheme. But even with an ominous warning like that sitting in his office, Klyushin starts to get sloppy. He makes a critical mistake that will later come back to haunt him when US investigators begin assembling clues.

There are moments when you've found that tantalizing clue and you realize that you're breaking open this case and unraveling the scheme We had a moment like that when we obtained a Threema chat. This was an encrypted chat among our hackers, a chat that they never thought anyone outside of them would see. They were being guarded in that conversation, and they were having explicit conversations about what they were doing as they were doing it.

Klyushin uses the Threema app to send pictures of his outside investors to the rest of the gang. He tells Irmakoff and an M13 employee, the investors want to know how trading is going.

What did we earn today? Our comrades are wondering.

Irmakov, the veteran intelligence officer, is alarmed. He immediately texts his boss.

Vlad, you are exposing our organization. This is bad.

Another M13 employee chimes in.

Vlad, stop sending to Threema.Klyushin.

Responds.so.

Sorry.

Irmakov says, And that's how they get you and you end up as a defendant in a courtroom. It was a bad move now.

Klyushin writes, Sorry, did a dumb thing.

Klyushin promises he'll delete the messages. When investigators search his account, they find he did delete them, but others did not. And when investigators read these texts, they're stunned. I asked prosecutor Stephen Frank about this. I'm just looking at your face and I can see that you are astonished that you got this access.

It's one of those breaks in a case that you dream about, when you actually have the criminal speaking in unvarnished tarnished terms about the crime and admitting that it's a crime. I mean, that's the evidence you don't find every day. When you have that evidence, you realize that if you're ever able to get this in front of a jury, their jaws are going to drop.

The M13 crew is also learning that winning on Wall Street is harder than it looks. Even with stolen documents, insider trading isn't easy. These are hardened Russian hackers. They're very smart, and they're brilliant even in their field, but they just don't have any experience in finance.

So even when they had inside information, they weren't 100% accurate or correct in their trading. They didn't get it right 100% of the time. Sometimes they misread the information that they had, sometimes they missed something that was in there, or sometimes the market didn't react in a way that they expected. When they didn't trade on material nonpublic information, they were actually terrible traders who lost money more than they made money.

The anguished texts of the M13 Gang sound like a bizarro version of the banter you would hear on a Wall Street trading floor. M13 employee. What are you thinking to do with Rocco? Irmakov replies, So far, there is no reason for such a drastic fall.

We acted too hastily. This was not us who were hasty. It is market that is acting strangely.

Should we wait for a comeback?

I think so. Too big of a loss otherwise. Let's see what's going to be happening today. The market situation is complicated. Whatever should going up, going down, and vice versa.

The gang comes to some tough conclusions about their own performance in the market. An M13 employee writes, We implement poor trading ideas due to low-level competencies as traders. We suck in placing stops and take profits. Trading is hard, but they are successful enough to make $93 million in less than three years. And Kleushin is making plans to go even bigger. He wants to professionalize the hack-to-trade operation to build up a hedge fund designed to prey on American companies with stolen information. Us attorney Seth Kosto explains.

We learned during the investigation that he brought in investors, significant participants in the Russian business community who gave Mr. Klyush in their money, he invested it for them using the services of his hacker and made them approximately $15 million, taking 50 to 60% of the profits as his cut, the cut that I think would make a hedge fund manager blush.

What the Russians don't know, of course, is that the FBI is watching nearly the whole time, trying to figure out how the scam works and what, if anything, they can do to stop it.

At the very beginning, we were like, Are we ever really going to be able to figure this out? And even if we can figure it out, are we ever going to be able to lay hands on these people?

Next time on the Crimes of Putin's Traitor, the FBI assembles a crack team of professionals to hunt down the Russian insider trading gang, figuring out the deviously clever secret to the operation.

That was a big light bulb moment.

And we'll reveal the astonishing truth about hacker Ivan Irmakow's real identity.

And then once we learned who this guy was, I said, Oh, my gosh, this is incredible. This is amazing.

The Crimes of Putin's Traitor was written, reported, and hosted by me, Eamonn Javers. The series is produced by Bria Cousins and Paige Torterely. The podcast was edited by Candice Goldman. We had production support from Gillian Kreitzmann, Anthony Velastro, and Caroline Rojotis. Our production crew includes Sean Baldwin, Erin Black, Carlos Waters, Magdalena Petrava, and Tasia Jensen. Cnbc's Washington Bureau Chief Matt Cuddy, Deputy Bureau Chief, M. C. Wellens, and supervising producer of digital video, Janice Pettit, oversaw this project. Oleg Frisch was the voice of Vladislav Klyushin.in. Philip Quintis was the voice of the former Russian spy.