Two Estonian nationals who co-founded the cryptocurrency mining service HashFlare are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday after pleading responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as a part of a plea cope with prosecutors.
In a Monday submitting, US prosecutors pushed again in opposition to lots of the claims made by attorneys for HashFlare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin of their sentencing suggestion.
The 2 males requested time served, whereas attorneys representing the US authorities have requested the choose to condemn them to 10 years in jail, arguing “the hurt HashFlare’s victims suffered couldn’t be extra actual.”
“[…] Defendants argue HashFlare’s victims suffered no loss based mostly partially on [an expert opinion] and partially on meager makes an attempt to discredit their victims’ statements,” stated prosecutors. “Nonetheless […] the skilled opinion relies considerably on supposed HashFlare investor earnings – information that Defendants admitted of their plea agreements was fabricated – whereas Defendants’ personal figures considerably assist the victims’ narratives they search to discredit.”
The HashFlare co-founders claimed in earlier court docket filings that customers had not suffered any vital losses after they returned $400 million in crypto to customers and agreed to forfeit pursuits in property frozen by the US authorities in 2022. Prosecutors stated of their Monday submitting that these arguments had been “incorrect” and that HashFlare basically operated as a “fraud, a Ponzi Scheme.”
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Indicted in October 2022, Potapenko and Turogin had been arrested and held in Estonia earlier than their extradition to the US in Could 2024. Each have been free on bail since July 2024 and pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in February.
Orders to “self-deport” earlier than sentencing?
Throughout court docket proceedings, the HashFlare co-founders received letters from the US Division of Homeland Safety directing them to “go away the US” as a part of the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations. It’s unclear whether or not the choose will take into account their immigration standing at sentencing.
Cointelegraph reached out to Potapenko’s counsel for touch upon the sentencing listening to however had not acquired a response on the time of publication.
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