On October 8, Russian citizen Alexei Andryunin was detained in Portugal.
He is the CEO of cryptocurrency market maker Gotbit.
The arrest took place at the request of the United States. Andryunin is currently awaiting extradition, the US Department of Justice reports.
The Russian was suspected of several crimes at once.
He is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit market manipulation, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the US Department of Justice, Gotbit provided market manipulation services to several cryptocurrency companies from 2018 to 2024.
The company conducted fictitious multi-million dollar trades to artificially inflate the volume of cryptocurrency trading.
Gotbit received millions of dollars for its services. In 2019, Andryunin said that he had managed to develop a code for market manipulation.
He tracked market manipulation by comparing inflated trading volumes with real ones.
Two Russians have also been arrested on fraud charges: Gotbit's marketing director and the company's sales director.
They educated clients on fake trading tactics and provided services to multiple cryptocurrencies.
