The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says that two Estonian nationals pleaded guilty to operating a massive cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of thousands of victims from across the globe, including the United States.
In a statement, the DOJ says that Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin sold contracts that entitled their customers to a share of the cryptocurrency mined by their purported crypto mining service, HashFlare.
Court documents show that from 2015 to 2019, HashFlare made over $577 million in sales despite not having the computing capacity needed for most of the mining that the defendants claimed it performed.
HashFlare’s web-based platform, which was supposed to show customers their mining profits, also reflected falsified data.
The DOJ says Potapenko and Turõgin used the proceeds of the scheme to buy luxury cars and real estate, as well as maintain investment and cryptocurrency accounts.
On February 12th, both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
As part of their guilty plea, the duo agreed to forfeit assets valued at over $400 million, which will be available for a remission process to compensate victims of their fraud scheme.
A federal district court judge will issue the sentence on May 8th.
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