Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin extradited to the U.S.

Aleksei Andriunin, founder and chief executive officer of Crypto Platform Gotbit, was extradited to the United States.

The American lawyer’s office for the Massachusetts district announcement On February 26, that the Russian national, arrested in October 2024 in Portugal, will face accusations of market manipulation and wire fraud.

The Ministry of Justice alleys that Andriunin has embarked on the washing trade, inflating by cryptocurrency negotiation volumes on behalf of several companies. The other companies involved in market handling allegations in 2024 include ZM AT, CLS Global and Mytrade.

Indictment and extradition

Federal prosecutors charged Andriunin at the end of October 2024.

According to the DOJ press release, the 26-year-old was extradited to the United States on February 25, 2025. He will remain in detention pending a hearing, said the American prosecutor’s office.

A federal jury charged Andriunin on October 31, 2024, with accusations also deposited against the administrators of Gotbit Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili.

Prosecutors allege that Gotbit has been offered market manipulation For several cryptographic entities between 2018 and 2024, creating artificial negotiation volumes for cryptocurrency companies, some of which are based in the United States.

Andriunin would have described a washing trading code he developed during an interview of 2019. The code allowed Gotbit to artificially inflate the volume of trading, helping tokens to win visibility on CoinmarketCap and the main exchanges.

The MJ alleys that Gotbit has received millions of dollars from these fraudulent activities, Andriunin transferring part of the product to a personal binance account.

If it is convicted, Andriunin risks up to 20 years in prison for fraud by wire and up to five years for conspiracy to commit market manipulation and wire fraud. It also faces a fine of up to $ 250,000 or twice the raw gains in fraudulent activities.