Ten executives and employees of crypto firms from around the world have been indicted over the last year, amid allegations they illegally inflated the value of certain cryptocurrencies in so-called pump-and-dump schemes, federal prosecutors announced this week.
The growing list of people indicted include at least two CEOs, along with executives from several crypto firms, including Gotbit, Vortex, Antier and Contrarian, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A couple of the indicted crypto employees have already pleaded guilty to federal charges, while others — including three people recently extradited from Singapore — made their first appearances in an Oakland federal courtroom on Monday.
All of the people indicted so far hail from countries outside the United States, including Taiwan, Russia, Serbia and India.
In announcing the indictments, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California claimed the men “not only conspired to inflate the trading volume and price of cryptocurrencies, but also profited through the sale of the cryptocurrencies at inflated prices to unwitting investors.” Investors both in the United States and abroad lost money in the schemes, and federal investigators have so far seized more than $1 million.
An undercover investigation — one that involved the FBI creating several cryptocurrencies — proved key to securing the indictments, the Justice Department said.
Federal prosecutors say the indicted crypto executives and staffers used a practice called “wash trading” — meaning traders allegedly acted as both buyer and seller in the same transaction — to artificially inflate both the trading volume and price of cryptocurrencies. The alleged goal: Lull investigators into purchasing the cryptocurrencies at even-higher prices.
The first round of indictments came in late March 2025, when federal grand juries indicted three crypto executives from Taiwan, Russia and Serbia on a host of wire fraud charges. Two of them — Antoine Tsao, a business development manager for Gotbit, as well as Nemanja Popov, an account manager for the company — have since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, court records show. One of Gotbit’s sales managers, Ian Sofronov, also was indicted, but his case remains unresolved.
In August and September, federal prosecutors secured indictments against seven more crypto executives, whose cases remain ongoing. They include the upper echelon of Vortex’s leadership — among them its CEO, Gleb Gora; its chief financial officer, Sergei Ryzhkov; and a business development manager, Michael Vogel.
Also indicted were the leaders of Contrarian, including its CEO, Manu Singh; its chief financial officer, Kushagra Srivastava; and a business development associate, Vasu Sharma. In addition, one of Contrarian’s partner firms — Antier Solutions Private Limited — saw a business development manager, Sabby Singh, indicted in the alleged scheme.
All of them face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors say.
