HashFlare co-founder pleads guilty to fraud totaling over $550 million

On February 13th, according to Cointelegraph, Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin, co founders of HashFlare cryptocurrency mining service, pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to commit telecom fraud. As part of the plea agreement, they agreed to abandon all digital assets frozen by the US. HashFlare, operated by two individuals, defrauded users of over $550 million between 2015 and 2019, and raised $25 million from investors in 2017 through a fictitious digital bank called Polybius. The two were arrested in Estonia in 2022 and extradited to the United States in May 2024. They originally faced 18 charges and eventually pleaded guilty to one. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8th, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.