Aleksei Andriunin, founder and chief executive of Gotbit and a Russian citizen, has been extradited to the US for allegedly "manipulating the cryptocurrency market on behalf of client cryptocurrency companies". The Massachusetts attorney's office said Mr. Andriunin appeared in court on Wednesday and was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of "telegraphic transfer fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the market and telegraphic transfer fraud". Andriunin was arrested in Portugal in October last year. Prosecutors accused him of creating the appearance of active trading and driving up the price of specific tokens by creating a cryptocurrency company, falsely promoting tokens and conducting trading. In addition, companies such as ZM Quant, CLS Global and MyTrade were also implicated. Prosecutors said Andriunin admitted in a 2019 interview to developing code for "wash trading" to artificially increase trading volume, allowing tokens to be listed on CoinMarketCap and traded on major exchanges. If convicted of telegraphic transfer fraud, Andriunin is "punishable by up to 20 years in prison, up to three years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the total proceeds or losses of the crime, and restitution and forfeiture."