Gotbit Founder Pleads Guilty to Market Manipulation and Wire Fraud
Aleksei Andriunin, founder of Gotbit, has pleaded guilty to charges of crypto fraud. He manipulated crypto token prices for clients and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years, but a plea deal limits his time to two years.
- Andriunin admitted to conspiracy to commit market manipulation and two counts of wire fraud.
- He agreed to pay approximately $23 million in fines.
- The indictment claims Gotbit used wash-trading techniques to inflate the volume and price of tokens for clients.
- In a 2019 interview, Andriunin detailed using bot trading to create artificial trade volume.
- He was arrested on October 8, 2022, in Portugal and extradited to the US on February 25, 2025.
- Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2025.
Two companies, Saitama and Robot Inu, that paid Gotbit also face charges, along with Gotbit employees Qawi Jalili and Fedor Kedrov.
Recent trends show rising cases of crypto fraud. Notably, Shan Hanes embezzled funds leading to the collapse of Heartland Tri-State Bank. Haru Invest CEO Hyungsoo Lee and other executives were arrested for misappropriating customer funds from March 2020 to June 2023.