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Date: 2025-02-26 19:43:39
The founder and CEO of crypto platform Gotbit, Aleksei Andriunin, has been extradited to the United States.
On February 26, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that the Russian national, who was apprehended in October 2024 in Portugal, will be facing charges of market manipulation and wire fraud.
The Department of Justice asserts that Andriunin participated in wash trading, inflating cryptocurrency trading volumes for the benefit of multiple firms. Other companies accused of market manipulation in 2024 include ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade.
Federal prosecutors indicted Andriunin in late October 2024.
According to a DOJ press release, the 26-year-old was extradited to the U.S. on February 25, 2025. He will be detained pending a hearing, as stated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Andriunin was indicted by a federal jury on October 31, 2024, with charges also being filed against Gotbit directors Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili.
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Prosecutors allege that Gotbit provided market manipulation services to various crypto entities between 2018 and 2024, creating deceptive trading volumes for cryptocurrency companies, including some based in the United States.
Andriunin allegedly discussed a wash trading code he developed during a 2019 interview. The code enabled Gotbit to artificially inflate trading volume, helping tokens gain prominence on CoinMarketCap and major exchanges.
The DOJ alleges that Gotbit received millions of dollars from these fraudulent activities, with Andriunin transferring a portion of the proceeds to a personal Binance account.
If found guilty, Andriunin could face up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to five years for conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. He may also be fined up to $250,000 or twice the gross gains from the fraudulent activities.
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