Two Estonians who are accused of crypto fraud of $ 575 million

Two Estonian citizens were arrested and accused of what the US prosecutors described as fraud and money laundering in the amount of $ 575 million in cryptocurrency.

Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin are accused of cheating hundreds of thousands of victims, according to the US Justice Ministry, which opened an indictment against them on Monday.

The defendants are said to have tempted victims to complete rental contracts for fraudulent devices with the crypto mining service for men. They are also accused of requesting investments in a virtual monetary bank called Polybius Bank, which according to the public prosecutor's office was neither a bank nor had promised dividends.

The arrest of the two men at the age of 37 is the latest indication that the law enforcement authorities are increasingly focusing on illegal crypto activities around the world. The arrests in Tallinn, Estonia, are also carried out in the middle of the FTX bankruptcy, a former cryptoplatt form that was controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried, which was considered one of the flag bearers of the crypto industry at his peak of his influence.

"New technologies have made it easier for bad actors to take advantage of innocent victims - both in the United States and abroad - with increasingly complex frauds," said the deputy attorney in General Kenneth Polite.

At the beginning of this month, the United States obtained the condemnation of James Zhong, who once value Bitcoin worth more than 3 billion

The indictment against Potapenko and Turõgin claims that both men have presented hashflare as a massive crypto mining operation. Between 2015 and 2019, Hashflare contracts with customers from all over the world worth more than $ 550 million were concluded. But these contracts were fraudulent, prosecutors said.

hashflare supposedly did not have the equipment for the boost virtual currencies that were supposed to have, and when they were confronted with investors who wanted to withdraw money, both Potapenko and Turõgin payments or investors with crypto from the open market instead of with crypto token, which was previously dismantled with the indictment of hash flare.

The indictment accuses both men of the conspiracy to commit transfer fraud, 16 cases of transfer fraud and an indictment of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The public prosecutors said that their money laundering conspiracy allegedly concerned at least 75 properties, luxury vehicles, crypto wallets and mining machines. In the event of a conviction, both men face a possible maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Nick Brown, US lawyer for the western district of Washington, where the case was brought up, said that the size and scope of the alleged scheme were "really outstanding" and added that the accused "have benefited from the attraction of the cryptocurrency as well as from the mysteries that they surround". Cryptocurrency mining to celebrate an enormous ponzi scheme ”.

The indictment was returned on October 27 by a Grand jury and disposed of on Monday.