Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin’s plea agreement would require him to forfeit around $23 million in stablecoins. If approved, he could avoid prison time and additional fines.
Andruinin and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts have reached a plea agreement that would have him forfeit $23 million in cryptocurrency assets.
According to official court documents, Andruinin has pleaded guilty to one count of market manipulation and two counts of wire fraud. For his indictments, he originally faced 20 years in prison or more. However, if his plea deal gets approved, the founder of market maker firm Gotbit would only be incarcerated for up to 24 months, followed by 36 months of supervised release.
During the three years of supervised release, Andruinin will not be permitted to participate in any crypto activities, according to the document.
In addition, he would not be required to pay any additional fines as he agrees to forfeit all the crypto assets derived from and directly traceable to the offenses he is charged with, namely market manipulation and wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors have estimated the charges could result to fines of $500,000 or twice the amount gained or lost from the offenses. Andruinin would also be subject to restitution and asset forfeiture penalties, including up to five years of probation.
“Defendant agrees to assist fully in the forfeiture of the above assets. Defendant agrees to promptly take all steps necessary to pass clear title to the above assets to the United States,” stated Lead B. Foley from the U.S. Attorney office within the document.
As part of the deal, Andruinin agrees to forfeit USDT (USDT) with a value of nearly $14 million stored in two different crypto wallet addresses . Moreover, the Gotbit founder will also be giving up around $9 million in USDC (USDC), kept in two crypto wallets. In total, Andruinin will hand over around $23 million worth of stablecoins from four separate wallets.
In the document, it is stated that while these assets are listed as property of Gotbit Consulting LLC, the wallets are solely controlled by Andruinin on Gotbit’s behalf.
“Therefore, in lieu of criminal forfeiture, Gotbit consents to civil forfeiture of the above assets,” wrote Foley.
In November last year, Andriunin was accused of taking part in a long-running “wash trading” scheme, which consisted of artificially boosting trading volumes and making fake trades on the market. These activities allegedly occurred between 2018 and 2024 when he was serving as Gotbit’s CEO.
Gotbit is one of four companies charged by U.S. prosecutors in the first criminal prosecution targeting market manipulation and sham trading in the crypto industry. The other three companies are ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade.
