The Gotbit founder, a so-called cryptocurrency hedge fund and market marker, returned to the US from Portugal. He is facing charges related to market manipulation and wire fraud conspiracy.
Gotbit Founder Arrested in Portugal
On October 8, Portuguese officials arrested Aleksei Andriunin; on October 25, they sent him back to the US. The US Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts said on February 26 that after he appeared in a federal court in Boston. The court ordered him to stay in jail until further notice.
Two directors of Gotbit, Fedor Kedrov, and Qawi Jalili, faced charges by a federal grand jury on October 31.
Among several organizations and people allegedly caught in market manipulation, Gotbit and Andriunin were among those who fell for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s NexFundAI (NEXF) “trap token” in May. The authorities created this token to catch scammers who manipulate the market.
Gotbit reportedly used software to provide market maker services, enabling “wash trading” that artificially inflated trading volumes for clients seeking crypto token listings on market aggregators like CoinMarketCap and trading on exchanges.
Authorities stated that Kedrov and Jalili were accused of telling potential clients about these wash trading strategies.; they were accused of marketing these wash trading strategies to potential clients.
In an interview in 2019, they admitted to using a specific kind of strategy to hide those wash trades on public blockchains.
US authorities say that Gotbit “received tens of millions of dollars” from these services between 2018 and 2024.
Aleksei Andriunin Could Get 20 Years
Andriunin, a Russian citizen (26 years), faces accusations of transferring a few amounts from those sales into his personal Binance account.
If authorities find Andriunin guilty, he may serve up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud. He may also have to pay fines of up to $250,000, or “twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, restitution, and forfeiture.
In October the US Securities and Exchange Commission also sued Gotbit and Kedrov for fraud.
