Founder of ‘Gotbit’ and Russian citizen sent to U.S. to face charges of fraud and market manipulation

A Russian man residing in Portugal has been transported to the U.S. to face charges linked to alleged market manipulation for various cryptocurrency companies, states the U.S. Attorney in a recent announcement. Aleksei Andriunin, aged 26, was detained in Portugal on October 8, 2024, and subsequently carried to the United States on Tuesday. Following this, he made an appearance in a federal court located in Boston on Wednesday and was remanded in custody until a scheduled hearing. On October 31, 2024, Andriunin was indicted by a Boston-based grand jury on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and manipulate markets. The indictment also cited Gotbit, a company, along with two of its key figures, directors Fedor Kedrov, and Qawi Jalili.

Court papers detail Gotbit’s activity as a prominent entity involved in market-making within the cryptocurrency sphere. According to prosecutors, from the span of 2018 to 2024, Gotbit purportedly provided services meant to manipulate markets to create artificial trading activities for multiple cryptocurrency firms, including those based in the United States. Andriunin, the founder and CEO of Gotbit, was alleged to have been at the helm of these operations. During a 2019 interview, he reportedly outlined his coding methods to “wash trade” cryptocurrencies to falsely inflate trading volumes, enabling cryptocurrencies to be listed on platforms such as CoinMarketCap. The modus operandi entailed executing wash trades discreetly through various accounts to evade blockchain scrutiny, with Gotbit alleged to have conducted wash trades worth millions and pocketing significant proceeds from these deceitful practices.

Should Andriunin be convicted of wire fraud, he may face a prison term of up to 20 years, along with supervised release, substantial fines, restitution, and forfeiture. If found guilty of conniving to orchestrate market manipulation and wire fraud, he is confronted with a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, along with potential fines, supervision, restitution, and forfeiture. Updates are anticipated as this narrative evolves.

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