美联储因人为抬高 Memecoin 甚至 BTC 价格而逮捕“加密货币”做市商

少数“加密”做市商 (MM) 被指控犯有市场操纵和欺诈罪，因为他们人为抬高了少数 memecoin 的法定价格，还有——哎呀！——强大的 BTC。

A group of ‘crypto’ market makers (MMs) have been charged with market manipulation and fraud for artificially inflating the fiat price of a handful of memecoins—but also, gasp!—the mighty BTC.

一群“加密”做市商 (MM) 被指控犯有市场操纵和欺诈罪，因为他们人为抬高了少数 memecoin 的法定价格，而且，还有强大的 BTC。

On October 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced charges against 14 individuals and four entities for “widespread fraud and manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets.” The feds seized over $25 million worth of tokens, as well as “multiple” trading bots used in the wash trading of certain tokens, while around 60 different tokens “have been deactivated.”

10 月 9 日，美国马萨诸塞州地区检察官办公室宣布对 14 名个人和 4 家实体提出“在加密货币市场中广泛欺诈和操纵”的指控。联邦政府查获了价值超过 2500 万美元的代币，以及用于某些代币清洗交易的“多个”交易机器人，同时大约 60 种不同的代币“已被停用”。

Operation Token Mirrors got help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS:CI) unit, and elements of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), along with agencies in Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Token Mirrors 行动得到了美国联邦调查局 (FBI)、美国国税局刑事调查 (IRS:CI) 部门、国家加密货币执法小组 (NCET) 以及葡萄牙和英国机构的帮助。

Four of the companies—Lillian Finance, Robo Inu Finance, Saitama, and VZZM—were ‘crypto’ firms that issued and promoted tokens. The MMs—Gotbit Consulting, CLS Global FZC, MyTrade MM, and ZM Quant—are accused of artificially pumping the trading volume of these tokens to give the impression of retail trader interest that would lure in actual retail traders on whom to dump these worthless coins.

其中四家公司——Lillian Finance、Robo Inu Finance、Saitama 和 VZZM——是发行和推广代币的“加密”公司。 MM——Gotbit Consulting、CLS Global FZC、MyTrade MM 和 ZM Quant——被指控人为地提高这些代币的交易量，给人留下零售交易者感兴趣的印象，从而引诱真正的零售交易者向他们倾销这些毫无价值的代币。 。

Incredibly, three of the MMs—CLS Global, MyTrade, and ZM Quant—stand accused of wash trading on behalf of a company/token that the FBI created for the express purpose of giving the MMs something to artificially pump.

令人难以置信的是，其中三个 MM（CLS Global、MyTrade 和 ZM Quant）被指控代表 FBI 创建的公司/代币进行虚假交易，其明确目的是为 MM 提供人为拉高的东西。

The charged individuals face up to a couple of decades behind bars if convicted on charges of market manipulation, fraud, and conspiracy (to commit wire fraud/market manipulation/money laundering/conduct an unlicensed money transmitting business).

如果因市场操纵、欺诈和共谋（实施电汇欺诈/市场操纵/洗钱/进行未经许可的资金传输业务）等罪名被定罪，被指控的个人将面临长达几十年的监禁。

We’ll get to the gory details in a second, but it’s worth noting that these indictments confirm the suspicions that have always surrounded the speculative token sector. Many of the centralized digital asset exchanges that gave these MMs free rein to ply their dark arts have featured on this site in less than savory situations, and they live down to their bad reputations in these indictments.

我们将在一秒钟内了解血淋淋的细节，但值得注意的是，这些起诉书证实了一直围绕投机性代币行业的怀疑。许多中心化的数字资产交易所让这些MM可以自由发挥他们的黑暗艺术，但在这个网站上却出现了一些不那么令人愉快的情况，他们在这些指控中名声不佳。

Also, while most of the headlines surrounding these charges focus on the relatively inconsequential memecoins that were manipulated, the indictments cite instances of BTC trading volume being boosted by a factor of 16 over its legitimate volume. That may wound the delicate sensibilities of the BTC maximalists/snowflakes who choose to believe their utility-devoid token is above these shenanigans, but as they say at the poker table, read ‘em and weep.

此外，虽然围绕这些指控的大多数头条新闻都集中在相对无关紧要的被操纵的模因币上，但起诉书列举了 BTC 交易量比其合法交易量增加 16 倍的例子。这可能会伤害比特币最大化主义者/雪花主义者的敏感情感，他们选择相信他们的无实用性代币高于这些恶作剧，但正如他们在扑克桌上所说的那样，读到它们并哭泣。

Gotbit got bit

戈比特被咬了

According to its indictment, the Belize-registered Gotbit promoted “purportedly legitimate services” on its website while “privately offering clients illegal services including market manipulation.”

根据起诉书，在伯利兹注册的 Gotbit 在其网站上宣传“据称合法的服务”，同时“私下向客户提供包括市场操纵在内的非法服务”。

In February 2022, Gotbit execs Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, Robo Inu’s Vy Pham, and other unidentified co-conspirators created a private chatroom on the Telegram messaging platform.

2022 年 2 月，Gotbit 高管 Fedor Kedrov 和 Qawi Jalili、Robo Inu 的 Vy Pham 以及其他身份不明的同谋在 Telegram 消息平台上创建了一个私人聊天室。

Gotbit is accused of artificially inflating the trading volume of the Robo Inu token on the Bitmart exchange. Gotbit staff discussed boosting the token’s volume on the exchange to “above 1.1mil daily,” with one staffer warning against raising the volume by too much too quickly “because CMC itself can detect suspicious activity in the market and exclude volumes from bitmart.”

Gotbit 被指控人为抬高​​ Bitmart 交易所 Robo Inu 代币的交易量。 Gotbit 工作人员讨论了将交易所代币的交易量提高到“每日 110 万以上”，一名工作人员警告不要将交易量提高得太快，“因为 CMC 本身可以检测市场中的可疑活动，并将交易量从 Bitmart 中排除。”

Similar discussions continued through the spring of 2024, including Pham telling Gotbit staff that “the basic goal right now is to create that FOMO [fear of missing out] by looking as organic volume.” Jalili responded affirmatively, saying, “we have good connections with Bitmart.”

类似的讨论一直持续到 2024 年春天，其中 Pham 告诉 Gotbit 员工，“目前的基本目标是通过将其视为有机量来创造 FOMO（害怕错过）。” Jalili给出了肯定的回应，称“我们与Bitmart有着良好的联系”。

When Pham requested an “official agreement” detailing the manipulation, Jalili reminded Pham that certain jurisdictions are “kinda regulated […] we’re not going to be having those things very clearly stated.”

当范要求一份详细说明操纵行为的“官方协议”时，贾利利提醒范，某些司法管辖区“受到某种监管[……]我们不会非常清楚地说明这些事情。”

Nonetheless, a contract was duly drawn up, stipulating that Gotbit would perform the desired tasks for which it would receive $15,000 for three months of activity on a single exchange, plus 20% of the net profit generated by the fraudulent trades, and 2% of the token liquidation generated.

尽管如此，合同还是正式起草，规定 Gotbit 将执行所需的任务，在单个交易所三个月的活动中将获得 15,000 美元，加上欺诈交易产生的净利润的 20%，以及欺诈交易产生的净利润的 2%。产生的代币清算。

An FBI agent’s affidavit details an August 2019 YouTube interview in which Gotbit founder/CEO Aleksei Andriunin said he’d developed code to artificially inflate the trading volume of tokens to have these tokens graduate to trading on larger exchanges.

FBI 特工的宣誓书详细介绍了 2019 年 8 月 YouTube 的一次采访，其中 Gotbit 创始人/首席执行官 Aleksei Andriunin 表示，他开发了代码来人为夸大代币交易量，以使这些代币逐渐在更大的交易所进行交易。

Later, Gotbit performed similar pumps for the Saitama token on the Lbank and XT.com exchanges, helping to boost Saitama’s overall market cap to around $7.5 billion.

随后，Gotbit 在 Lbank 和 XT.com 交易所对埼玉代币进行了类似的拉高，帮助将埼玉的整体市值提升至 75 亿美元左右。

Saitama drama

埼玉剧

The Saitama indictment contains Telegram messages from July 2021 in which Saitama manager Russell Armand discusses plans to “create an illusion of massive buys and new holders as [Telegram] gets flooded” that will “incite ppl to buy more.”

埼玉县起诉书包含 2021 年 7 月的 Telegram 信息，其中埼玉县经理 Russell Armand 讨论了“随着 [Telegram] 泛滥而制造大量购买和新持有者的假象”的计划，这将“煽动人们购买更多产品”。

Armand instructed other Saitama executives involved in this deception to buy “2-

阿曼德指示其他参与这次欺骗的埼玉高管购买“2-