HashFlare founders ask US court to reduce prison time

PANews reported on August 7 that according to Cointelegraph, the co-founders of the defunct cryptocurrency mining service HashFlare asked a US judge to exempt them from additional imprisonment after admitting to wire fraud, but prosecutors said they planned a $577 million Ponzi scheme and deserved a 10-year prison sentence.

In a sentencing memorandum filed with Federal Court Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle, prosecutors argued that Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin each deserved a 10-year prison sentence for a "horrific crime" that cost victims approximately $300 million. Prosecutors argued that the 10-year sentence was appropriate given that HashFlare was the largest fraud case ever tried by the courts. However, Potapenko and Turõgin, in sentencing memoranda filed the same day, said the sentences were excessive given their cooperation and the prison sentences they had already served in Estonia.

The two were arrested in Estonia in November 2022 and, after serving 16 months in prison, were extradited to the United States in May 2024, where they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They are currently out on bail in the United States, and their sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 14.