{"id":12985,"date":"2025-02-13T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=12985"},"modified":"2025-02-13T19:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T19:47:09","slug":"hashflare-co-founders-plead-guilty-in-577m-crypto-mining-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=12985","title":{"rendered":"HashFlare Co-Founders Plead Guilty in $577M Crypto Mining Ponzi Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The co-founders of Hashflare, a crypto mining ponzi scheme that stole $577 million from hundreds of thousands of investors around the world, both pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Tur\u00f5gin, both 40, were arrested in their native Estonia in November 2022 and extradited to the U.S. on an 18-count indictment. Yesterday, both men pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Between 2015 and 2019, Potapenko and Tur\u00f5gin convinced Hashflare\u2019s investors to rent a percentage of the scheme\u2019s crypto mining operations in exchange for a percentage of the cryptocurrency Hashflare produced. But, according to court documents, Hashflare had only a tiny fraction of the mining equipment it purported to have \u2013\u00a0less than 1% of the computing power Potapeno and Tur\u00f5gin had sold. When investors tried to claim their proceeds, prosecutors say the two men either resisted making payments by making excuses or paid them back with crypto purchased on the open market.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/policy\/2022\/11\/21\/two-estonians-charged-with-running-a-series-of-crypto-scams-totalling-575m\" target=\"_blank\">Two Estonians Charged With Running a Series of Crypto Scams Totaling $575M<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Potapenko and Tur\u00f5gin\u2019s lawyers say that none of Hashflare\u2019s investors suffered financial harm, telling CoinDesk that the men\u2019s only crime was lying about the size of Hashflare\u2019s mining operation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIvan and Sergei ran successful businesses, providing real services, employing almost 100 Estonians, and doing charitable work in Estonia. As Ivan admitted [Wednesday], one of his and Sergei\u2019s businesses promised to mine crypto and did in fact mine crypto, but not as much as it had promised; instead, it sometimes repaid customers with crypto it had purchased on the open market,\u201d said Andrey Spektor, partner at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP and counsel to Turogin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImportantly, however, as we will show at sentencing, no customer has suffered any harm. Ivan and Sergei look forward to returning to Estonia and resuming their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, the men used their victim\u2019s money to make dozens of real estate investments and purchase luxury cars. As part of the plea agreement, Potapenko and Tur\u00f5gin agreed to forfeit assets valued over $400 million, which will be used to pay back investors.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Potapenko and Tur\u00f5gin will be sentenced in a Seattle court on May 8.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The co-founders of Hashflare, a crypto mining ponzi scheme that stole $577 million from hundreds of thousands of investors around the world, both pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Tur\u00f5gin, both 40, were arrested in their native Estonia in November 2022 and extradited to the U.S. on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-12985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}