Two of the 32 parties charged with trading on information stolen from hacked newswire services have agreed to settle for $30 million with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC says that Ukraine-based Jaspen Capital Partners Ltd., and its CEO Andriy Suprananok illegally profited from investments they made based on stolen press releases obtained before they were published. Jaspen was said to be among a group of individuals who conspired to steal the unreleased news statements from two newswire services, in order to make strategic investments. According to the SEC, the group carried out its scam for five years, from 2010 to 2014, before being apprehended.

Using the inside information, the investors purchased contracts-for-differences (CFD) derivatives, calculating that the value of these would rise when the illegally obtained news was released. In one example, hackers obtained a news release announcing a company was to lower its earnings and profits forecast, 36 minutes before it was due to go public.

According to the SEC, this was a violation of the U.S. Securities Act and the U.S. Exchange Act.

The SEC filed a suit against 32 companies and individuals involved in the scheme last month, seeking to recover illegally obtained profits worth $100 million. The terms of the settlement, under which Jaspen and Suprananok are not required to admit any guilt or wrongdoing, the two have agreed to pay the SEC $30 million from the profits they obtained from the scam. As for the remaining investors named in the SEC’s complaint, proceedings will continue.

“This case should serve as a shot across the bow of any trader who thinks that CFDs traded outside the United States can be used to mask their unlawful conduct,” SEC enforcement division complex financial instruments unit chief Michael J. Osnato said in a statement. “The SEC’s use of sophisticated analytical tools to identify abusive CFD trading like this demonstrates our ability to police this opaque market.”

The SEC’s complaint was filed in New Jersey, which is where the servers of one of the hacked newswire services are located. It’s also the location of the NASDAQ servers which were used to perform the illegal transactions. The defendants in the case include nationals from the U.S. as well as Cyprus, France, Malta, Russia and the U.K.

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