Cryptocurrency firm founder extradited from Portugal to face US fraud charges

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By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) – The founder of a cryptocurrency financial services firm has been extradited from Portugal to face U.S. charges that he participated in a wide-ranging scheme to manipulate the market for digital tokens on behalf of client companies.

Aleksei Andriunin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency “market maker” Gotbit, was ordered detained following an appearance in Boston federal court on Wednesday, one day after his extradition, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The 26-year-old Russian national during the court hearing pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. His lawyer, Roger Burlingame at the law firm Dechert, declined to comment.

Andriunin and his company were among 15 individuals and three firms charged in October following a novel investigation into the crypto sector dubbed “Operation Token Mirrors,” in which the FBI for the first time directed the creation of its own digital token to help catch fraudsters in the market.

Prosecutors said that from 2018 to 2024, Gotbit engaged in “wash trading,” a form of sham trading, and market manipulation on behalf of several cryptocurrency clients to help artificially inflate trading volume for their tokens.

The indictment cited a 2019 interview published online in which Andriunin described developing a code to wash trade cryptocurrencies to artificially inflate trading volume so they could get listed and trade on larger cryptocurrency exchanges.

Prosecutors said Gotbit made wash trades worth millions of dollars and received tens of millions of dollars in proceeds for its services for cryptocurrencies including Saitama and Robo Inu. Individuals associated with those cryptocurrencies have also been charged.

Andriunin was arrested in Portugal where he was residing in October when the charges against him and the others were first announced.

Gotbit and two of its employees in Russia are also facing charges, though they have not appeared in court to face them.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sonali Paul)