DOJ Charges Gotbit Founder and Directors in Major Crypto Market Manipulation and Wire Fraud Case

DOJ Charges Gotbit Founder and Directors in Major Crypto Market Manipulation and Wire Fraud Case

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted Aleksei Andriunin, founder of crypto market-making firm Gotbit, on charges of wire fraud and market manipulation for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to inflate trading volumes on behalf of client companies. According to the DOJ, the Russian national led a broad conspiracy from 2018 to 2024 to create artificial market activity across multiple cryptocurrencies.

In addition to Andriunin, Gotbit’s directors, Fedor Kedrov and Qawi Jalili, were also charged. Andriunin reportedly documented Gotbit's wash trades, maintaining spreadsheets that contrasted artificially generated “Created Volume” with the genuine “Market Volume.” DOJ findings also revealed that Andriunin and his associates promoted wash trading services to prospective clients, using multiple accounts to evade detection on public blockchains. Gotbit’s clients allegedly included meme coins Saitama and Robo Inu, both implicated in a separate pump-and-dump scheme.

Prosecutors further allege that Andriunin transferred millions in ill-gotten gains to his personal Binance account. In October, federal authorities charged Gotbit along with ZM Quant, CLS Global, and 15 individuals in a comprehensive crackdown on crypto market manipulation, resulting in multiple arrests, five plea agreements, and the seizure of over $25 million in cryptocurrency.

Joshua Levy, Acting US Attorney, commented on the charges, emphasizing that deceptive tactics aimed at misleading investors constitute fraud, regardless of the digital or traditional nature of the market. If convicted of wire fraud, Andriunin faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, supervised release, and significant financial penalties, while market manipulation charges could lead to a five-year prison sentence.