Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin, a 26-year-old Russian, was extradited to the US on Tuesday to deal with fraud charges derived from allegations that his company participated in a “broad conspiracy” to manipulate token prices for paying cryptocurrency companies, the Department of Hustician Pressure Pressure Wednesday.
Andriunin was arrested in Portugal in October and subsequently accused by a Boston Grand jury on charges of fraud and conspiracy to do market manipulation and wire fraud, bringing an integrated maximum sentence of 25 years to prison. The accusation also charged the Gotbit itself, as well as two of its directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, both of Russia.
Between 2018 and 2024, The prosecutors said That gotbit essentially provides market manipulation services for rent, offering their services affecting prices at various crypto companies, including US-based companies
Andriunin was not shy about the nature of Gotbit’s services – in an interview in 2019 in CoinDesk, referenced by the announcement of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday, Andriunin, then a sophomore at Moscow State University, bluntly admitted that his business was “not completely ethical.”
Read more: For $ 15k he will fake your quantity of exchange – you will get CoinMarketCap
According to court documents, Gotbit received “ten -ten million dollars to proceeds” from their deceptive activity. Andriunin is accused of “Transferr (ING) million -million dollars of Gotbit’s proceeds in his personal account in Binance.”
Andriunin made a preliminary look before a judge in Boston on Tuesday. His next hearing has not been scheduled.
