US indicts founder of crypto firm Gotbit for alleged wire fraud - Reuters
WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The founder of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit was indicted for his
alleged role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to manipulate cryptocurrency markets on behalf of client
cryptocurrency companies, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.
Aleksei Andriunin, 26, was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire
fraud in a superseding indictment, the Justice Department said in a statement.
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The U.S. Justice Department says that between 2018 and 2024, when Andriunin was the firm's CEO, Gotbit
provided market manipulation services to create artificial trading volume for multiple cryptocurrency
companies, including companies located in the United States.
The superseding indictment also charged Gotbit and two of its directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili,
who were previously charged in an indictment unsealed on Oct. 9.
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Gotbit, Andriunin, Kedrov and Jalili could not immediately be contacted.
If convicted of wire fraud, Andriunin faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. If convicted of
conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in
prison, the Justice Department said.
Federal prosecutors said on Oct. 9 they had charged crypto firms Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global and the
leaders and employees of those and other companies in a takedown that led to four arrests, agreements by
five people to plead guilty and the seizure of over $25 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang
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Kanishka SinghThomson ReutersKanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC,
who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news
coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections;
the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO
withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious
dispute site in his native India.EmailX
