Calling his actions “brazen,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a man from Latvia in a stock price manipulation scheme that allegedly netted him more than USD 850,000 in illegal profits.

Igors Nagaicevs, 34, who apparently lives in Jūrmala, is alleged to have hijacked online securities trading accounts, using them to manipulate prices of stocks in which he had an interest, according to the SEC’s complaint filed Jan. 26 in federal court in San Francisco.

“The scheme enabled Nagaicevs to consistently derive quick trading profits, even if he manipulated the price of the security by only a small amount,” according to the complaint.

From 2009-2010, Nagaicevs is alleged to have manipulated the prices of more than 100 New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq securities, causing more than USD 2 million in harm to customers of U.S. brokerage firms, according to an SEC press release announcing the charges.

Under the scheme, Naigacevs would first establish a “long” or “short” position in a company’s stock, meaning he bought shares with the expection that they would either increase or decrease in value. Then, according to the SEC complaint, he used unsuspecting customers’ accounts to purchase or sell stock, which affected the share value. Naigacevs then closed his position, earning a profit.

“Nagaicevs engaged in a brazen and systematic securities fraud, repeatedly raiding brokerage accounts and causing massive damages to innocent investors and their brokerage firms,” Marc J. Fagel, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, said in a statement.

His first illegal trade, according to the SEC complaint, took place in June 2009 and netted him just USD 50. However, many of the trades earned him thousands of dollars. His most successful trade, in June 2010, left him with a USD 26,400 profit on one day’s work.

The SEC in its complaint says Naigacevs violated antifraud provisions of U.S. securities laws. It seeks an injunction against Naigacevs, wants him to hand over the ill-gained profits, and asks the court to fine him.

Also named in the complaint against Nagaicevs are four electronic trading firms and executives or staff members of the firms. They are accused of giving Nagaicevs access to U.S. markets. Some have already settled with the SEC.

“These firms provided unfettered access to trade in the U.S. securities markets on an essentially anonymous basis,” Daniel M. Hawke, chief of the SEC’s Market Abuse Unit, said in a statement. “By failing to register as brokers, the firms and principals in this case exposed U.S. markets to real harm by evading crucial safeguards of the federal securities laws. We will not allow firms like these to fly under the radar and become safe havens for market abuse.”

American-born Nils Muižnieks, who repatriated to Latvia and became a leader in human rights issues, has been elected the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights.

Muižnieks beat out two other candidates in the Jan. 24 vote by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Strasbourg, France. He will serve a non-renewable six-year term, replacing the current commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg of Sweden, and becoming only the third person to take up the post.

The Council of Europe includes representatives from 47 European countries. Founded in 1949, it “seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals,” according to the council’s website.

(While the Council of Europe works closely with the European Union, it is not the same as the EU. The similarly named European Council is one of the legislative bodies of the EU.)

Muižnieks received 120 votes in the assembly. Candidate Frans Timmermans of the Netherlands received 92 votes and candidate Pierre-Yves Monette of Belgium, 27 votes, according to a press release from the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“This for our country is a great achievement, because for the first time a candidate from Latvia has been elected to such a high post in an international organization,” Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said.

Muižnieks, who turns 48 later this month, was born in California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University in 1986. From the University of California at Berkeley he earned a master’s degree in political science in 1988 and a doctorate in 1993.

From 1994-2002, he led the Rīga-based Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies. From November 2002 until December 2004 he was the Latvian government’s special assignments minister for social integration affairs. Since 2005 Muižnieks has been the director of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute at the University of Latvia.

His work in human rights has included training and monitoring missions in several countries. Muižnieks since 2005 has been a member of Council of Europe’s European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Since January 2010 he has been chair of ECRI.

In his letter of candidacy, Muižnieks outlined a number of areas of concern for the new human rights commissioner, among them improving cooperation among European institutions; “combating racism in and exploiting the human rights potential of social networking sites”; and working to improve the human rights of vulnerable children.

“I think it is high time for someone from the eastern half of Europe to assume a prominent European human rights post such as that of the commissioner,” Muižnieks wrote in his letter. “Those who helped to build freedom in a post-communist context have a special contribution to make to European human rights culture.”