Co-founders of the Defunct Crypto Mining Service Hashflare asked a US judge that they were free of further prison hours after admitting the wire fraud, but the prosecutors said they deserved a decade in prison for the porching of a $ 577 million Ponzi procedure.
In a subjugation memo submitted Wednesday to Federal court Judge Robert Lasnik, prosecutors beat Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin each should be 10 years in prison for “terrible crime” that caused nearly $ 300 million in the victims.
Prosecutors argue that the decade long sentence will be like Hashflare the biggest fraud that the court has tried, but Potapenko and Turõgin said in their sentencing memo filed the same day that the sentence would be excessive, citing their cooperation and time serving Estonian custody.
The pair was arrested in Estonia in November 2022 and behind the bars for 16 months before being laid out in the US in May 2024, where they Pleaded guilty in conspiracy to make wire fraud. They are on the US bail with their sentencing hearing set for August 14th.
Hashflare did not cause losses, founders argued
Lawyers for Potapenko and Turõgin have argued with their joint reunion that despite the overstating capacity of hashflare, company customers eventually received crypto worth more than their initial investment – especially due to rising prices in the crypto market since the scheme closed.
They argued that 390,000 customers spent $ 487 million in Hashflare Mining Contracts Since retreating $ 2.3 billion, and claimed customers have not experienced as much financial difficulty as the prosecutors did.
The Duo said each potential victim would be paid in full – likely from more than $ 400 million worth of properties that lost part as part of their request in February.
The pair has committed a “dreadful crime,” the prosecutors said
During their submission of the submission, the prosecutors focused on the size and size of Hashflare’s fraud, calling it a “terrible crime” that caused nearly $ 300 million in victims of victims – with most of the proceeds used to fund the potapenko and Turõgin’s “luxurious lifestyle.”
They said the pair was selling $ 577 million worth of mining contracts to nearly 440,000 customers between 2015 and 2019, posting fake investors returning and paying them funds from newer customers.
“Hashflare has proven that a classic Ponzi method,” prosecutors argued.
They added that the sentence should “reflect the seriousness of the guilt,” and will serve as “sufficient destruction” to protect the public from future crimes of a similar nature.
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Prosecutors delete the idea that an Estonian Court The case should be heard, noting that more than 50,000 of the 440,000 Hashflare customers are based in the US and collectively invested more than $ 130 million in the scheme.
Hashflare founders want to go back home
Potapenko and Turõgin still Looking for deportation to their native Estonia -Processing potential implications for how US courts manage foreign nationalities in cross-border crypto cases.
Despite a court who ordered them to stay in the US, the pair said in April that they received a letter from Department of Homeland Security Directing them to “throw away immediately” – causing great confusion in their future.
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