HashFlare founder petitions US court for sentence reduction, seeks credit for time already served

ChainCatcher reports that, according to Cointelegraph, Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, co-founders of the now-defunct cryptocurrency mining service HashFlare, have requested exemption from further imprisonment from a US court after admitting to telecommunications fraud.The two are accused of orchestrating a $577 million Ponzi scheme, resulting in losses of approximately $300 million.

Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison sentence for each, stating that their crimes constitute one of the largest fraud cases ever tried by the court. Potapenko and Turõgin argue that they have cooperated with the investigation and already served 16 months in prison in Estonia, so their sentences should not be excessively long.

The two were arrested in Estonia in November 2022, extradited to the United States in May 2024, and are currently out on bail. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 14.