HashFlare founders want no more jail time as US asks for 10 years

Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin asked a court for time served after admitting to wire fraud, but US prosecutors want them imprisoned for 10 years for their "classic Ponzi scheme.”

The co-founders of the defunct crypto mining service HashFlare asked a US judge to spare them additional prison time after admitting to wire fraud, but prosecutors said they deserve a decade in prison for orchestrating a $577 million Ponzi scheme.

In a sentencing memo submitted on Wednesday to Seattle Federal Court Judge Robert Lasnik, prosecutors argued Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin each deserve 10 years in prison for their “horrible crime” that caused about $300 million in victim losses.

Prosecutors argued that a decade-long sentence would be just, as HashFlare was the largest fraud the court had ever tried. Potapenko and Turõgin said in their sentencing memo filed the same day that the sentence would be excessive, citing their cooperation and time already served in Estonian custody.

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