After blocking the Russian Garantex crypto exchange for 2.5 billion rubles, the US authorities took on another Russian, Andryunin, the Head of the Gotbit. Who's next?
He made a deal with the US Department of Justice, pleaded guilty to fraud and manipulation of the cryptocurrency market.
On this occasion, about $23 million worth of cryptocurrencies will be confiscated from Andryunin.
He was detained on October 6, 2024 in Portugal and handed over to the American authorities on February 25, 2025.
He was charged with fraud and manipulation of the cryptocurrency market.
According to the US Department of Justice, he, along with other defendants in the criminal case, conducted fictitious transactions (wash trading) to artificially increase the trading volume of memcoins and little-known tokens.
Andryunin refused consular assistance from Russia, sending a written statement to the embassy asking not to interfere in his case.
In 2019, in an interview with Coindesk, Andryunin stated that he had developed a special code for fictitious transactions, which the Gotbit used for transactions with customers.
The US Department of Justice cites his statements in the indictment and regards them as a direct admission of manipulation.
In order to prove the fact of fictitious trades, the FBI launched its own NexFaundAI token and, having registered the company of the same name, concluded an agreement with the Gotbit crypto exchange to "create liquidity."
As part of the judicial agreement, about $22.89 million of cryptocurrencies will be confiscated from Andryunin. Of these, $18.7 million is in USDT and $4.2 million is in USDC.
According to the document, it is explained that these funds do not include fines, taxes, penalties, damages, costs of imprisonment, tax obligations.
Andryunin also agreed to any other confiscation in this case, which may relate to vehicles, money or other personal property, and waived any objections and claims.
The Russian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud using electronic means of communication and market manipulation, as well as two additional counts of fraud using electronic means of communication.
He faced up to 5 years in prison on the first count of the charge, and up to 20 years on the other two.
All charges were also subject to fines, damages and confiscation of property, and after prison, another 3 years of probation.
After pleading guilty, the prosecutor agreed to recommend a suspended sentence of 2 to 3 years in prison.
In connection with the confiscation of property, the prosecutor suggested not to impose a fine on Andryunin, but ordered him to compensate for the damage, the amount of which will be determined at sentencing.
In their guilty verdict in October last year, the authorities claimed that the Gotbit is, in fact, a hired market manipulator offering fictitious cryptocurrency trading services and helping those who wish to artificially inflate the volume and price of their tokens.
As everyone knows, the Gotbit is not the only market maker offering such services.
U.S. prosecutors have also filed similar charges against other firms: CS Global, My Trade and ZMQuant, as well as several employees and promoters of these companies in a similar offer of market manipulation services for hire.
Only you can draw conclusions! And please take care of yourself!
