Odaily News As part of a deal with U.S. authorities, HashFlare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin have agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The two Estonians were responsible for running HashFlare, which defrauded users of more than $550 million between 2015 and 2019 and raised $25 million from investors in 2017, claiming to build a digital bank called Polybius, which was never established.
Reed Smith partner and defense attorney Mark Bini said in an interview that the two defendants "agreed to waive the government's interest in the assets frozen in 2022" and provided assistance "to ensure that no financial harm is caused to anyone." According to the lawyer, Potapenko, Turogin and HashFlare returned $350 million in cryptocurrency to users between 2015 and 2022. (Cointelegraph)