According to Cointelegraph, the co-founder of HashFlare, a defunct cryptocurrency mining service, has requested a US judge to exempt them from additional imprisonment after admitting to telecom fraud. However, prosecutors have stated that they planned a $577 million Ponzi scheme and should be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In a sentencing memorandum submitted to Seattle Federal Court Judge Robert Lasnik, prosecutors argued that Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõ Because of this incident, Gin; A terrible crime; And each should be sentenced to 10 years in prison, which caused approximately $300 million in losses to the victims. The prosecutor argued that given that HashFlare is the largest fraud case ever tried by the court, the sentence of ten years in prison is reasonable. But Potapenko and Turõ In the sentencing memorandum submitted on the same day, Gin stated that due to their cooperation and having already served their sentence in Estonia, the sentence was too long.
The two were arrested in Estonia in November 2022, served 16 months in prison, and were extradited to the United States in May 2024, where they admitted to conspiring to commit telecommunications fraud. At present, they have been released on bail in the United States, and the sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 14th.
