{"id":842217,"date":"2025-04-20T09:11:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/feds-mistakenly-order-estonian-hashflare-fraudsters-to-self-deport-ahead-of-sentencing\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T09:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:11:40","slug":"feds-mistakenly-order-estonian-hashflare-fraudsters-to-self-deport-ahead-of-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/feds-mistakenly-order-estonian-hashflare-fraudsters-to-self-deport-ahead-of-sentencing\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Mistakenly Order Estonian HashFlare Fraudsters to Self-Deport Ahead of Sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko ran a crypto mining Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors around the world of more than $575 million. <\/h2>\n

Updated Apr 19, 2025, 2:06\u202fp.m. <\/span>Published Apr 18, 2025, 7:42\u202fp.m. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just four months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the two Estonian founders of HashFlare were seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) \u2014\u00a0an instruction that directly contradicted a court order for the men to remain in Washington state until they are sentenced in August.<\/p>\n

In a joint letter<\/a> to the court last week, lawyers for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin told District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that both men had received \u201cdisturbing communications\u201d from DHS ordering them to leave the country immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is time for you to leave the United States,\u201d an email to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 read. \u201cDHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States – the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email, included with the letter filed last week, threatened both men with \u201ccriminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and any other lawful options available to the federal government\u201d if they stayed in the country. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants<\/a> and U.S. citizens<\/a> alike<\/a> have received over the past few days.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Potapenko and Turogin are not in the U.S. of their own volition \u2014\u00a0they were extradited from their native Estonia at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Though they initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, in February they both pleaded guilty<\/a> to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. They have both been in the Seattle area on bond since last July.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough there is nothing Ivan and Sergei would want more than to immediately go home, they understood that they are also under Court order to remain in King County,\u201d wrote Mark Bini, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote in the pair\u2019s joint letter to the court. <\/p>\n

In his letter, Bini said DHS\u2019s emails had caused both Potapenko and Turogin “significant anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe and our clients have all seen recent news. Immigration authorities make mistakes, and individuals who should not be in custody end up in custody, sometimes even deported to places where they should not be deported,\u201d Bini wrote.<\/p>\n

Reached for comment by CoinDesk, Bini added that Potapenko was “in a bind caught between two opposing instructions from the U.S. government.”<\/p>\n

“DHS told him in no uncertain terms to deport immediately or he would be committing a crime, but DOJ has told him that he must stay and can\u2019t leave the Seattle area,” Bini told CoinDesk. “Sentencing will show that there was no financial harm in this case, and we hope that at that time the Court will permit Sergei to return home to his family in Estonia immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six days after Bini\u2019s letter to the judge, the DOJ filed its own letter <\/a>with the court saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should provide ample time for the sentencing to take place,\u201d the prosecution\u2019s letter said.<\/p>\n

DHS did not respond to CoinDesk\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their lawyers have said that they will request to be sentenced to time served, meaning no additional time in prison, and to be sent home to Estonia \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cheyenne Ligon<\/a><\/h5>\n
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On the news team at CoinDesk, Cheyenne focuses on crypto regulation and crime. Cheyenne is originally from Houston, Texas. She studied political science at Tulane University in Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on business and economics reporting. She has no significant crypto holdings. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

X icon<\/title><\/svg><\/a><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Cheyenne<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Cheyenne Ligon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko ran a crypto mining Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors around the world of more than $575 million. Updated Apr 19, 2025, 2:06\u202fp.m. Published Apr 18, 2025, 7:42\u202fp.m. Just four months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the two Estonian founders of HashFlare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":842218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31402,2574],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-842217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mistakenly","8":"category-order"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}