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by Mike Caswell

Vitaly Korchevsky, one of those charged in a massive newswire hacking scheme, could be adding a large unpaid tax bill to his list of troubles. He owes $619,060 in state and federal taxes, but all of his money is tied up in asset freeze orders. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) New York prosecutors oppose allowing him access to any of the $5.4-million in frozen accounts to pay the bill.

Prosecutors froze the money as part of a case in which they claim that Mr. Korchevsky and others profited from a hacking scheme that targeted three newswire services, including Toronto's Marketwired LP. According to the government, he made $17-million as he and others obtained unpublished news releases from the wire services. He allegedly entered more than 600 unlawful trades based on those releases.

At the outset of the case, the government froze several bank and brokerage accounts belonging to Mr. Korchevsky and his wife. Prosecutors intend to seek the forfeiture those accounts. The forfeitures would be in addition to $5.5-million in real estate assets that the government is seeking. (The list includes a shopping centre in Pennsylvania and an apartment building in Georgia.)

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