Gotbit Founder Pleads Guilty To Crypto Manipulation

Aleksei Andriunin, 26, founder of cryptocurrency firm Gotbit, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manipulate crypto token prices for paying clients as part of a plea deal with US prosecutors that is likely to see him spend up to two years in prison.

The charges he faces after his arrest in Portugal last October carry a maximum combined sentence of 25 years.

Andriunin pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one charge of conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud as part of a deal to receive no more than 24 months in prison, US authorities said on Friday.

Crypto fraud

He also agreed to forfeit approximately $23 million (£17.8m) in crypto stablecoins. US government prosecutors are not seeking any other fines.

Prosecutors alleged in their indictment last October that Gotbit offered market manipulation services to paying clients, using wash-trading techniques to artificially boost the volume and price of customers’ tokens.

This meant larger cryptocurrency exchanges would list the coins and allow them to be traded, prosecutors said.

The indictment cited a 2019 interview published online where Andriunin, then a 20-year-old student at Moscow State University, detailed how he used bot trading to create enough artificial trade volume for a project to be listed on CoinMarketCap.

Extradition

Russian national Andriunin was extradited last month from Portugal, where he was residing at the time of his arrest, and is scheduled to be sentenced on 16 June.

People associated with Saitama and Robot Inu, two of the crypto companies that allegedly paid Gotbit for its services, have also been charged.

The arrest was part of a wider probe called Operation Token Mirrors led by the FBI that has led to charges against 15 people and three companies.