Computer Programmer Faces U.S. Fraud Charge in Virus Attack
Monty Solomon
NEWARK, Dec. 17 - A former computer expert with UBS PaineWebber was
indicted today on federal charges of trying to manipulate the stock
price of the brokerage's parent company by sabotaging its computer
system last spring, the authorities said.
The United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie,
said the suspect, Roger Duronio, 60, of Bogota, N.J., hoped to cash in
on a resulting drop in the stock value of the parent company, UBS.
The indictment said Mr. Duronio spent nearly $22,000 in February and
March buying a type of security known as a put option contract, which
increases in value as a company's stock price declines. Mr. Christie
said the plan failed when a computer virus that Mr. Duronio personally
transmitted to 1,000 of the 1,500 computers used by PaineWebber
brokers across the country failed to disrupt work seriously or cause a
sharp change in the stock price.