Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin extradited to the U.S. for crypto fraud

Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency firm Gotbit, has been extradited to the United States on charges of market manipulation.

Gotbit founder and CEO Aleksei Andriunin has been extradited to the U.S. to face charges of market manipulation. The authorities placed the Russian national, now 26 years old, in detention during October.

After his arrest in Portugal, the integrators slapped him with conspiracy and wire fraud charges. The legal team says that he used wash trading techniques to boost trading volumes.

The techniques enabled companies to control market conditions.

A federal grand jury indicted Andriunin, together with Gotbit directors Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili on October 31, 2024.

This case continues a series of market manipulation cases brought in the wake of the cryptocurrency implosion earlier this year.

Andriunin had previously been the subject of a December 2023 report by The Chain Link which focused on the activities of the firm which is said to have provided market-making services in the cryptocurrency market.

According to supplemental court records, Gotbit, founded in 2018, provided trading volume manipulation services to various cryptocurrency businesses in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The matter came to light after a 2019 interview in which Andriunin revealed to media outlets that he had built washing code to trade (fake) for clients.

The artificial trading volume manipulation methods enabled digital currencies to secure positions on CoinMarketCap and bigger cryptocurrency trading platforms.

The prosecutors claim that Jalili and Kedrov, as well as Gotbit personnel, supplied fraudulent trading techniques to clients while maintaining multiple trading accounts to avoid detection.

This firm allegedly executed fraudulent trading for millions and realized profits of tens of millions. The prosecutors state that Andriunin put a large sum of money from this activity into his Binance account for personal use.

The defendant will face major legal consequences if he is found guilty. The penalty for wire fraud includes up to twenty years of imprisonment, together with monetary fines and asset forfeiture.

With the addition of the conspiracy charge, he could face a further five years of imprisonment. The court’s deciding authority will set the complete punishment according to U.S. sentencing regulations.