WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An engineer working for Elon Musk’s SpaceX pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring to commit securities fraud by selling inside information on the dark web, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission said. (SEC) of the United States on Thursday.
The case was the first in which the SEC filed an enforcement action alleging violations of securities on the dark web, he said.
James Roland Jones of Redondo Beach, Calif., Faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, the Justice Department said. The date of the sentence has not yet been set.
According to the agencies, from 2016 until at least 2017, Jones conspired with another unidentified person to access various dark web markets, including a website that claims to be an inside information forum, looking for material, non-public information to use in its own securities trading.
The dark web allows users to access the internet anonymously and is often used to host websites that support illegal activities. Jones could not be reached for comment.
Jones also devised a scheme to sell what he falsely claimed to be insider tips on the dark web, the agencies said. Several users who pay in bitcoin bought these tips and ultimately traded based on information provided by Jones, they said.
Michelle Price reporting; edition by Richard Pullin