According to Deep Tide TechFlow news reported by Decrypt, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on November 1 that it has filed a lawsuit against Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit, accusing him of committing telecommunications fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the market. It is reported that Andriunin artificially inflated the trading volume of cryptocurrencies through 'fake trades' from 2018 to 2024 to assist projects in listing on CoinMarketCap and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Prosecutors pointed out that Andriunin provided fake trading services for meme coins including Robo Inu and Saitama, and the illegal proceeds had been transferred to his personal Binance account. Previously, the Department of Justice had filed a lawsuit against Gotbit and three other cryptocurrency companies on October 9, seizing over $25 million in cryptocurrency. If Andriunin is found guilty of telecommunications fraud, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. Other conspiracy charges could lead to a maximum sentence of 5 years.
Earlier news confirmed that the cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit's CEO Alex Andryunin has been arrested in Portugal on the social platform X.