“Sergiy Potapenko and Ivan Turigin, the founders of the Hashflare cloud mining service, appealed to the court to take into account 16 months of imprisonment. Instead, US prosecutors insist on 10 years in prison due to the organization of the Ponka scheme for $ 577 million, Cointelegraph reports. On August 6, investigators submitted to the Federal Court Seattle a Memorandum, which called the actions of the founders of Hashflare “a terrible crime” that […]”, – WRITE: Businessua.com.ua
Sergiy Potapenko and Ivan Turigin, the founders of the Hashflare cloud mining service, appealed to the court to take into account 16 months of imprisonment. In return US prosecutors insist on 10 years in prison due to the organization of the ponca for $ 577 million, Cointelegraph reports.
On August 6, investigators submitted a Memorandum to the Federal Court of Seattle, which called the actions of the founders of Hashflare “a horrible crime,” which caused losses of $ 300 million. In their opinion, a 10-year term is a fair sentence.
However, the lawyers of Potapenko and Turigin insist on softening. They claim that investors have not suffered losses: from $ 487 million, derived from 390,000 people, $ 2.3 billion was later withdrawn due to the growth of cryptocurrency.
Defense also recalled 16 months of imprisonment in Estonia, which both of the persons involved in arrest in 2022.
Potapenko and Turigin founded Hashflare in 2015. The service offered a cloud mining of cryptocurrency and promised profits from leasing computing capacities.
According to the prosecution, it was the “classic pattern of Ponzi”. In four years, the site raised $ 577 million from 440 thousand clients, of which 50 thousand were US citizens.
The investigation believes that there was no mining – the company simply paid the old depositors of new money. The total victim losses are estimated at $ 300 million, of which about $ 400 million allegedly went to luxury items, including real estate and car.
In 2018, Hashflare suddenly stopped working, referring to unfavorable conditions and low profitability. Customers lost access to funds, which were immediately interested in US law enforcement.
American prosecutors have achieved extraditions of Potapenko and Turigin, rejecting the consideration of the case in Estonia. After the guilt, both agreed to transfer assets of $ 400 million for compensation. In July 2024, the court released them on bail with a ban on King County (Washington).
We will remind, the jury recognized the developer Tornado Cash Roman Storm is guilty of conspiracy in order to carry out unlicensed activities with cash transfers.
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