Two Estonians face up to 40 years in prison for creating financial pyramid

November 20, at the request of the United States, the Estonia and the FBI police arrested two Estonia citizens in Tallinn on suspicion of organizing a financial pyramid and illegal cryptocurrency extraction in the amount of $ 575 million

According to

According to the US Ministry of Justice, the Hashflare service was a financial pyramid. Potapenko and Turygin purposefully made it possible to withdraw the withdrawal of funds for customers, including the KYC requirements (know your client), according to which users should load identification documents before they can withdraw funds.

Potapenko and Turygin also collected investments to create a Polybius virtual currency bank – the accused collected more than $ 25 million, but never created a bank and did not pay dividends.

They are also accused of using fake companies and fake contracts for laundering of income, and in their case there were “at least 75 real estate objects, 6 luxurious cars, cryptocurrency wallets and thousands of computers for cryptocurrency mining”.

Potapenko and Turygin are accused of 17 accusations related to fraud using electronic means, and 1 point of accusation in conspiracy to launder money – each charge is punishable by deprivation of liberty for up to 20 years.

FBR created page for feedback and collecting additional information from victims of this fraud.