The co -founders of Hashflare, a crypto mining ponzi system, stole $ 570 million from hundreds of thousands of investors around the world and convicted of conspiracy to commit world fraud on Wednesday.
Sergei Potapenko and 40 -year -old Ivan Turõgin were arrested from Estonia in November 2022 and led to the United States for 18 count prosecution. Yesterday, both men were convicted of a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which sentenced him to up to 20 years in prison.
Between 2015 and 2019, Potapenko and Turõgin persuaded Hashflare investors to rent the ratio of cryptocurrency hashflare produced and the rate of encryption mining in return. However, according to the court document, Hashflare had only a small part of the mining equipment that was less than 1% of the computing power sold by Potapeno and Turõgin. When investors tried to claim their own proceeds, the prosecution said that the two people resisted the payment by making excuses or paying money from the open market.
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Lawyers of Potapenko and Turõgin told Coindesk that the only crime of a man is lying about Hashflare’s mining and operating size.
“Ivan and Sergei operated a successful business to provide real services, hire almost 100 Estonians, and carry out charity in Estonia. As IVAN admitted (Wednesday), one of his Sergei’s business promised to mine Crypto, and in reality he made Crypto, but not much promised. Instead, it sometimes repaid customers with encryption purchased in the open market. ”Andrey Spektor, a partner of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, said.
“However, as we showed when we sent out, no customers were damaged. Ivan and Sergei are looking forward to returning to Estonia to resume their lives. ”
According to the court document, men used the victim’s money to invest dozens of real estate and purchased luxury cars. As part of the defense contract, Potapenko and Turõgin agreed to confiscate more than $ 400 million assets, which would be used to repay investors.
Potapenko and Turõgin are sentenced to Seattle Court on May 8th.