Russian cryptocurrency firm founder avoids further US prison time for fraud
By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -A Russian-born founder of a cryptocurrency financial services firm avoided having to spend any further time in a U.S. prison on Thursday for participating in a wide-ranging scheme to manipulate the market for digital tokens on behalf of his company's clients.
Federal prosecutors in Boston had argued that Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency "market maker" Gotbit, deserved a 15-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in March to charges that he conspired to commit market manipulation and engaged in wire fraud.
Instead, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley sentenced him to just eight months in prison, which he was deemed to have already served based on the time he spent in jail following his arrest in October in Portugal, prosecutors said. Portugal extradited him in February.
He now faces deportation. His company Gotbit was meanwhile ordered to forfeit $23 million worth of cryptocurrency as part of a separate plea deal.
"We're incredibly gratified by the sentence, and he's looking forward to getting home to his wife and family," Roger Burlingame, his lawyer at Dechert, said.
Andriunin and Gotbit were among 15 people and three firms charged last year following a novel investigation dubbed "Operation Token Mirrors," in which the FBI for the first time directed the creation of its own digital token to help catch fraudsters in the crypto market.
Before the charges were filed, Gotbit was a premier "market maker" in the cryptocurrency industry, making tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue and employing over 200 people, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that from 2018 to 2024, Gotbit engaged in "wash trading," a form of sham trading, and market manipulation on behalf of several cryptocurrency clients to help artificially inflate trading volume for their tokens.
Prosecutors cited a 2019 interview published online in which Andriunin described developing a code to wash trade cryptocurrencies to artificially inflate trading volume so they could become listed on larger cryptocurrency exchanges.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Russian aircraft intercepted over Baltic on Friday, Poland says
WARSAW (Reuters) -A Russian aircraft was intercepted over the Baltic Sea by two British fighter jets on Friday after it flew two kilometres inside Polish airspace, the Polish armed forces said on Friday. The planes intercepted and identified the Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft, which then left Polish airspace. "This is another case of provocative testing of the readiness of NATO countries' systems," the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command wrote on social media platform X. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Western military alliance ramped up its presence along its eastern flank, sending more fighter jets there and setting up ground-based air defences. The army said a pair of British fighters, stationed in Poland as part of NATO's so-called Air Policing effort, were scrambled before the Polish border was breached. The planes intercepted and identified the plane, and the incident is being analysed by the appropriate NATO commands, the army said.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senior Kenyan policeman arrested over death of blogger in custody
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenyan authorities arrested a senior policeman on Friday in connection with the death of a blogger in police custody last week, the police watchdog said, in a case that has sparked violent protests and shone a spotlight on police misconduct. The police apologised after initially claiming Albert Ojwang died by suicide in a cell in Nairobi's Central Police Station on Sunday, two days after his arrest. An independent autopsy pointed to assault as a more likely cause of death. The policeman in charge of Central Police Station was arrested on Friday, along with a closed-circuit television (CCTV) technician called to dismantle the CCTV at the station, said Samati Kemboi, commissioner of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), the police watchdog. The CCTV system at the station had been interfered with, and records "changed and formatted" in the early hours of Sunday, according to a report by IPOA, which is conducting an investigation. The 31-year-old's case has drawn close scrutiny of the country's security services, which have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for many years, a source of mounting outrage for many Kenyans. Hundreds of protesters angered by his death demonstrated in Nairobi on Thursday. Vehicles were set ablaze and police fired teargas to disperse crowds, who called for the country's Deputy Police Chief Eliud Lagat to resign. On June 4, Lagat filed an official complaint that an X account reportedly associated with Ojwang had published "continuous false and malicious publications" about him, the IPOA report said.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is Elon Musk a U.S. citizen? The SpaceX billionaire is no longer a DOGE government employee
Tesla CEO, SpaceX founder and South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk became a 'special' federal employee in February, allowing him to work for the federal government with or without pay for a limited time. Now, around four months later, Musk is coming off the heels of a very public falling out with President Trump shortly after leaving his position as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). While there are some exceptions, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, you generally must be a U.S. citizen to work for the federal government. And since supporting President Trump's 2024 campaign, flurries of comments on social media posts about Musk often accuse him of not being a U.S. citizen. Following the news of his job and due to his and President Donald Trump's strong views on immigration, some asked, "Is Elon Musk a U.S. citizen?" The short answer is yes. Regardless of his current employment status (or lack thereof) with the Trump Administration, it's still one of the most commonly asked questions about the wealthiest man in the world. Here's where Elon Musk's citizenship status stands, which countries he grew up in and where he currently lives. Musk and Trump's relationship: A timeline from campaign cash to 'disgusting abomination' Musk left his position with DOGE at the end of May and, about a week later, on June 5, started posting accusatory tweets on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. He berated Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' calling it a 'disgusting abomination,' and even accused of being involved with the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in now-deleted posts on X. But on June 11, Musk posted on X, 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.' Musk hasn't changed his opinion about the bill yet, at least publicly. While Musk has deleted some of his more inflammatory posts about Trump, some posts about killing the bill are still up on his X profile. What we know after his apologetic post: Does Musk still oppose the 'Big Beautiful Bill?' 'Musk has been a U.S. citizen since 2002 according to a 2023 biography of Musk by journalist Walter Isaacson,' Politifact and CNN reported. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African businessman, politician, mine owner, consultant, and property developer. His mother, Maye Musk, is Canadian. Through her, Elon Musk also has Canadian citizenship. In his college years, Musk came to the U.S. on an Exchange Visitor Visa, which allows visa holders to teach, lecture, instruct, study, conduct research, consult, receive graduate training and more. In October, the Washington Post reported that Musk was — at one point — working illegally during his startup days in Silicon Valley, while he and his brother were creating PayPal. President Biden later echoed the Post's report, which went viral on X, Musk's social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Musk fired back on X, saying that he 'was in fact allowed to work in the U.S.,' and described his immigration journey as a 'gray area," CNN reported. Regardless of whether or not he was working illegally at the start of his career, Musk is now a U.S. citizen and maintains his primary residence in the U.S. Elon Musk surrenders: World's richest man is caving to Trump after their epic feud Musk was mostly raised in South Africa. He moved to Canada when he was 17 to study at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. In 1992, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he graduated with bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. Yes, Elon Musk lives in the U.S. Currently, his main residence is in Boca Chica, Texas, the location of SpaceX Headquarters. He has a tiny home and a small two-bedroom home in the area, according to Architectural Digest. 'In 2021, Musk revealed in a post on X that he was living in a three-bedroom ranch, also in Boca Chica. He claimed to be renting the $50,000 property from SpaceX,' Architectural Digest reported in January. 'Like his tiny home, the property is a short drive from his company's beachfront launch site, SpaceX Starbase.' According to Forbes' real-time billionaires list, Musk is the richest man in the world as of Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. He ranks just slightly above Jeff Bezos. Musk is worth more than $400 billion, according to Reuters. Contributing: Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Elon Musk and Donald Trump: Is the SpaceX billionaire a U.S. citizen?
