US authorities have filed charges alleging crooks hacked into a Securities and Exchange Commission database to gain access to non-public information that was then used to make millions of dollars through illicit trades.

According to the Department of Justice, Oleksandr Ieremenko hacked the SEC's Edgar e-filing system in 2016, passing on non-public fillings such as corporate earnings announcements to others.

The information was then allegedly used to make stock trade profits worth over $4.1 million, with the traders sharing a cut of the illicit profits with Ieremenko.

Ieremenko faces a criminal indictment for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Artem Radchenko also faces charges for allegedly recruiting traders to join the conspiracy.

The SEC is bringing its own civil charges against Ieremenko, six individual traders in California, Ukraine and Russia, and two entities.

SEC enforcement division co-director Steven Peikin says: "Our staff’s sophisticated analysis of the defendants’ trading exposed the common element behind their success, providing overwhelming evidence that each of them traded based on information hacked from Edgar."

Ieremenko was charged in 2015 with a similar scheme which saw the computer networks of Marketwired, PR Newswire Association, and Business Wire hacked into, with non-public press releases then used to make trades netting more than $100 million in illegal profits.