3 months ago
Gotbit laminitis Aleksei Andriunin, a 26-year-old Russian national, was extradited to the U.S. connected Tuesday to look fraud charges stemming from allegations that his steadfast participated successful a “wide-ranging conspiracy” to manipulate token prices for paying lawsuit cryptocurrency companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said successful a property merchandise connected Wednesday.
Andriunin was arrested successful Portugal past October and subsequently indicted by a Boston expansive assemblage connected charges of ligament fraud and conspiracy to perpetrate marketplace manipulation and ligament fraud, charges which transportation a combined maximum condemnation of 25 years successful prison. The indictment besides charged Gotbit itself, arsenic good arsenic 2 of its directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, some besides of Russia.
Between 2018 and 2024, prosecutors say that Gotbit fundamentally provided marketplace manipulation services for hire, offering their token price-inflating services to a assortment of crypto companies, including companies based successful the U.S.
Andriunin was not shy astir the quality of Gotbit’s services – in a 2019 interrogation with CoinDesk, which is referenced successful the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Wednesday announcement, Andriunin, past a sophomore astatine Moscow State University, bluntly admitted that his concern was “not wholly ethical.”
Read more: For $15K He’ll Fake Your Exchange Volume – You’ll Get connected CoinMarketCap
According to tribunal documents, Gotbit received “tens of millions of dollars successful proceeds” from their fraudulent activity. Andriunin is accused of “transferr[ing] millions of dollars of Gotbit’s proceeds into his idiosyncratic Binance account.”
Andriunin made an archetypal quality earlier a Boston justice connected Tuesday. His adjacent proceeding has not yet been scheduled.
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