US Indicts 2 People Stealing $17M in Bitcoin and Ether From Binance, Poloniex, Gemini Users

Two people have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly using “a sophisticated market manipulation scheme” to defraud and steal $17 million in bitcoin and ether from users of three cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide. The U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that two Russian nationals have been charged with crimes in connection with “an alleged conspiracy to defraud three cryptocurrency exchanges and their customers of cryptocurrency valued … at a minimum of $16.8 million in cryptocurrency.”.

Danil Potekhin (aka cronuswar) and Dmitrii Karasavidi (aka Dmitriy Karasvidi) allegedly stole at least $16,876,000 in fiat and cryptocurrency from users of crypto exchanges Poloniex, Binance, and Gemini. Besides stealing victims’ cryptocurrencies, Potekhin and Karasavidi engaged in price manipulation of the GAS cryptocurrency in what the indictment document describes as “a sophisticated market manipulation scheme that began in July 2017 using the stolen customer credentials.”.

Timeline of Gas