According to Foresight News, the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts ruled on June 13 against Aleksei Andriunin, the founder of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit, finding him guilty of telecommunications fraud and market manipulation. He was sentenced to 8 months in prison and 1 year of home confinement. The court also sentenced Gotbit to 5 years of probation during which it cannot conduct business.
26-year-old Andriunin was arrested in Portugal in October 2024 and extradited to the United States in February of this year. Prosecutors accuse him of engaging in market manipulation, including 'wash trading' for clients, by creating fake trading codes and manipulating multiple accounts between 2018 and 2024, with the amount involved reaching tens of millions of dollars. Gotbit, as a market maker, is accused of artificially generating trading volume to get tokens listed on mainstream exchanges.
