Secret Shareholder Data for Sale.

(From The Moscow Times)

A secret database claiming to hold personal information on hundreds of shareholders of Russian companies is up for grabs on the Internet for $12,000.

The anonymous Internet posting, which first appeared last week, is soliciting buyers for a database purported to belong to NIKoil Registrar, a shareholder registrar. Sixteen investment funds and more than 800 joint-stock companies -- including Sun Interbrew, LUKoil and Mobile TeleSystems -- are among NIKoil's clients.

One of Russia's oldest registrars, NIKoil also collects shareholder data for privately held companies. If it falls into the wrong hands, such shareholder information could be used in hostile takeovers or extortionary schemes.

"Our clients and their shareholders have not suffered real losses, but we believe that our company became a victim of a bad-faith attack," NIKoil general director Maxim Kalinin said Monday, Interfax reported. "I don't rule out that we will go to the authorities, provided the board of directors makes such a decision. On the other hand, it is unclear whether our database was in fact leaked. Therefore, it is still unclear whom to press charges against."

Pyotr Lanskov, member of the board at PARTAD, or Professional Association of Registrars, Agents and Depositories, disagreed. "There is no question that the information leak occurred," he said.

On Monday, the posting was still present on Zahvat.ru, an Internet site dedicated to mergers and acquisitions that claims to have 7,500 registered users.