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The feds have charged three Indian nationals with hacking online brokerage accounts and using them to manipulate the stock of Google, Sun Microsystems and 12 other companies.

The three men, Jaisankar Marimuthu, Chockalingam Ramanathan and Thirugnanam Ramanathan, were indicted. This makes the first time an arrest was made in an online brokerage account intrusion case.

Apparently the men bought 14 different stock and then used the hacked brokerage accounts, and the victims’ funds in the account, to pump up the market shares before dumping them. This allegedly occurred between July and November of 2006 and profited $121,500 dollars. The brokerages suffered damages of more than $875,000 for the compromised accounts.

According to the indictments unsealed Monday in a Nebraska federal court, Marimuthu and Chockalingam Ramanathan were both charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of computer fraud, six counts of wire fraud, two counts of securities fraud, and six counts of aggravated identity theft. The third person in the case, Thirugnanam Ramanathan, was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of computer fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Only Chockalingam Ramanathan remains at large.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint in the case, seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, disgorgement of illegal proceeds and monetary damages. The SEC has filed four account intrusion cases since December, involving defendants in Estonia, Latvia and now Hong Kong and Malaysia.

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