Estonian court nixes extradition of accused crypto scammers to US
Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko, co-founders of Bitcoin cloud miner HashFlare, have effectively appealed their extradition from Estonia to the United States, where the two face 18 counts of fraud and cash laundering. The Tallinn Circuit Court overturned a lower courts order on Nov. 29, according to a local press report.According to the United States Justice Department, HashFlare, which operated from 2015 to 2019, was a Ponzi scheme with hundreds of thousands of victims paying in a total of $575 million. The company declared to lease hashing power for crypto mining. It also motivated investment in a phony bank. , if founded guilty in the United States, Turogin and Potapenko each face up to 20 years in jail.. Related: Atomic Wallet asks to toss fit over $100M hack, stating it has no US ties Turogin and Potapenko were detained in Estonia, where they are citizens, after a U.S. grand jury returned an indictment in November 2022. The Estonian federal government authorized their extradition in September. According to the BBC, the examination of the men was brought out in Estonia with the help of 15 Americans and was among the greatest fraud cases in the countrys history.The FBIs Seattle Division is looking for information from possible victims of 2 fraudulent schemes introduced by Ivan Turõgin and Sergei Potapenko through their business HashCoins, https://t.co/nkvQ93QCgz, and Polybius.– Hacker News (@Hacker__News) January 6, 2023
The entrepreneurss defense offered “evidence concerning the conditions of detention in the United States” that the federal government had actually not considered and declared there were procedural abnormalities in providing the extradition orders. Source: HashFlareThe court ordered Turogin, Potapenko and their households to receive over 100,000 euros ($ 110,000) in reimbursement. Estonia passed boosted Anti-Money Laundering laws, consisting of the intro of the Financial Action Task Force Travel Rule, that led to the closure of nearly 400 virtual property service companies in May.Magazine: E For Estonia: How Digital Natives are Creating the Blueprint for a Blockchain Nation