Andryunin Aleksei

Biography

2024: Fraud and money laundering charges

On October 9, 2024, the US Department of Justice announced that in Portugal, at the request of the US authorities, Russian Alexei Andryunin, the founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit, was detained. He is charged with fraud and money laundering.

The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that between 2018 and 2024, Gotbit provided market manipulation and fictitious trading services to several cryptocurrency companies, including US firms. The Gotbit service allegedly engaged in illegal transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of customers and received tens of millions of dollars in proceeds for these illegal services.

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It is noted that 26-year-old Andryunin has developed a code for fictitious trading and artificial overestimation of the volume of cryptocurrency trading. It tracked Gotbit's market manipulation, including through spreadsheets that compared "created volume" from sham deals to natural "market volume." At the same time, other Gotbit employees told potential customers about fictitious trading tactics and ways to avoid detection.

Andrunin was arrested on October 8, 2024 and, as of this date, is awaiting extradition to the United States. He is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit market manipulation and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

This investigation, the first of its kind, identified numerous fraudsters in the cryptocurrency industry. Fictitious trading has long been banned in financial markets, and cryptocurrency is no exception. Our department will aggressively pursue fraud, including in the cryptocurrency industry, says acting US Attorney Joshua Levy[1]

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