The co-founders of Hashflare, a program by Ponzi Minier Crypto which stole $ 577 million with hundreds of thousands of investors around the world, both pleaded guilty on Wednesday for a conspiracy in order to commit a wired fraud.
Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, both 40 years old, were arrested in their native Estonia in November 2022 and extradited to the United States on an 18-year indictment. Yesterday, the two men pleaded guilty to a chief of accusation of conspiracy in order to commit fraud by thread, which causes a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Between 2015 and 2019, Potapenko and Turõgin convinced Hashflare investors to rent a percentage of crypto extraction operations in the diet in exchange for a percentage of the cryptocurrency produced. But, according to court documents, Hashflare had only a tiny fraction of the mining equipment that she claimed to have – less than 1% of the potapeno and Turõgine calculation power had sold. When investors tried to claim their product, prosecutors say that the two men resisted paying payments by apologizing or paying them with the crypto bought on the free market.
Read more: two Estonians responsible for directing a series of crypto arcs totaling $ 575 million
The lawyers of Potapenko and Turõgin say that none of the Hashflare investors have undergone financial damage, saying to Coindesk that the only crime of men was lying on the size of the Hashflare mining operation.
“Ivan and Sergei have managed prosperous companies, providing real services, employing nearly 100 Estonians and carrying out charitable work in Estonia. As Ivan admitted it [Wednesday]One of his companies in Sergei promised to exploit the crypto and actually looked at the crypto, but not as much as it had promised it; Instead, he sometimes reimbursed customers with Crypto he had bought on the free market, “said Andrey Spektor, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP and Turrogin Advisor.
“”Above all, however, as we will show during the conviction, no customer has been harmful. Ivan and Sergei are looking forward to going back to Estonia and resuming their lives. »»
According to court documents, the men used their victim’s money to make dozens of real estate investments and buy luxury cars. As part of the advocacy agreement, Potapenko and Turõgin have agreed to lose assets worth more than $ 400 million, which will be used to reimburse investors.
Potapenko and Turõgin will be sentenced to a Seattle court on May 8.
