Two Estonian co-founders of the cryptocurrency mining service HashFlare will be sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which is part of their plea agreement with prosecutors.
On Monday, the U.S. prosecution submitted documents to the court refuting several claims made by HashFlare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin in their sentencing recommendations.
The two requested to serve time concurrently, while U.S. government lawyers asked the judge to impose a 10-year prison sentence, arguing that 'the losses suffered by HashFlare victims cannot be ignored.'
Prosecutors stated: 'The defendants claimed that HashFlare victims suffered no losses, partly based on [expert opinions] and weak attempts to downplay the victims' statements. However, the expert opinions were essentially based on the defendants' admission of false HashFlare investor return data in the plea agreement, while the defendants' own data strongly supports the victims' statements.'
The HashFlare co-founders previously claimed in court documents that users did not suffer significant losses, stating they had refunded users $400 million in cryptocurrency and agreed to forfeit their interests in assets frozen by the U.S. government in 2022. The prosecution labeled these arguments as 'false' in their documents submitted on Monday, asserting that HashFlare was essentially a 'scam, a Ponzi scheme.'
Were they asked to 'self-deport' before sentencing?
During court proceedings, the co-founders of HashFlare received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security instructing them to 'leave the United States,' as part of the Trump administration's push for mass deportations. It remains unclear whether the judge will consider their immigration status during sentencing.
Cointelegraph reached out to Potapenko's lawyer for comments on the sentencing hearing, but had not received a response by the time of publication.