The founder and CEO of market maker Gotbit, Aleksei Andriunin, has been extradited from Portugal to the United States to face charges related to cryptocurrency fraud. This was reported by the US Department of Justice.
The Russian national was arrested on October 8 in Lisbon. On February 25, Andriunin appeared before a federal court in Boston.
He is accused of conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines. As part of the investigation, charges have also been brought against two top executives of the company — Fedor Kedrov and Kavi Jalili.
According to court documents, in a 2019 interview, Andriunin revealed that he developed code for “wash trading” cryptocurrencies to artificially inflate trading volumes. This helped tokens get listed on CoinMarketCap and facilitated their listing on major exchanges.
Investigators allege that from 2018 to 2024, company employees used Andriunin’s scheme, employing multiple accounts to conceal data manipulation on the blockchain.
It is claimed that Andriunin transferred part of the funds to his personal account on Binance, and Gotbit earned “tens of millions of dollars” from this scheme.
Back in October 2024, federal prosecutors in Boston filed “the first-ever criminal charges against financial companies for manipulating the crypto market and wash trading.”
Eighteen individuals and organizations, including leaders of market-making companies and several crypto projects, came under the scrutiny of authorities.