The founder and CEO of cryptocurrency market-making firm Gotbit, Aleksei Andriunin pleaded guilty on Friday to U.S. charges of market manipulation and wire fraud.
Prosecutors accused Andriunin of orchestrating a scheme to artificially inflate trading volumes for digital tokens on behalf of client companies.
The Russian national and his company entered their guilty pleas in a federal court in Boston, just weeks after Andriunin, 26, was extradited from Portugal, where he had been living prior to his arrest in October. His prosecution is part of Operation Token Mirrors, a groundbreaking FBI investigation into cryptocurrency fraud that led to charges against 15 individuals and three firms.