By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The founding father of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit has been indicted for his alleged function in a broad conspiracy to govern cryptocurrency markets on behalf of cryptocurrency shopper firms, the U.S. Division of Justice mentioned on Thursday .
Aleksei Andriunin, 26, was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud in a dismissal indictment, the Justice Division mentioned in an announcement.
The U.S. Division of Justice alleges that between 2018 and 2024, whereas Andriunin was CEO of the corporate, Gotbit supplied market manipulation companies to create synthetic buying and selling quantity for a number of cryptocurrency firms, together with situated in the US.
The indictment replaces Gotbit and two of its administrators, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, who had been beforehand charged in an indictment made public on October 9.
Gotbit, Andriunin, Kedrov and Jalili couldn’t instantly be contacted.
If convicted of wire fraud, Andriunin faces a most sentence of 20 years in jail. If convicted of conspiracy to govern market and wire fraud, he faces a most sentence of 5 years in jail, the Justice Division mentioned.
Federal prosecutors mentioned Oct. 9 they’ve indicted crypto firms Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS World and officers and workers of these firms and others in a takedown that led to 4 arrests , to agreements by 5 folks to plead responsible and to the seizure of greater than $25 million in cryptocurrency.
