Gotbit Founder Faces Up to 20 Years in Prison
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against Aleksei Andriunin, the 26-year-old Russian founder of Gotbit, alleging his involvement in a large-scale cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme. According to investigators, Gotbit provided services that artificially boosted trading volumes for tokens of various crypto companies, including some based in the U.S., with the intent to manipulate prices.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against Aleksei Andriunin, the 26-year-old Russian founder of Gotbit, alleging his involvement in a large-scale cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme. According to investigators, Gotbit provided services that artificially boosted trading volumes for tokens of various crypto companies, including some based in the U.S., with the intent to manipulate prices.
Aleksei Andriunin. Source: Х
The indictment, released on October 9, 2024, claims that Andriunin and his company created the illusion of active crypto trading from 2018 to 2024 to drive up token prices and deceive investors. Alongside Andryunin, two other Gotbit directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, have also been charged, though their whereabouts remain unknown.
Related: How Aleksei Andriunin Manipulated the Crypto Market
Andryunin faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the market, with a maximum potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. However, if his defense can establish that he merely collaborated with other market makers and was not the “mastermind” of the scheme, his sentence could be reduced to five years.
The investigation, which began in October 2023, has already led to multiple arrests, guilty pleas from five suspects, the deactivation of trading bots used for wash trading, and the seizure of over $25 million in cryptocurrency.
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