US prosecutors double down on 10-year sentence for HashFlare co-founders

The two men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in February and later received a letter directing them to “self-deport” from the United States.

Two Estonian nationals who co-founded the cryptocurrency mining service HashFlare are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

In a Monday filing, US prosecutors pushed back against many of the claims made by lawyers for HashFlare co-founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin in their sentencing recommendation.

The two men requested time served, while lawyers representing the US government have asked the judge to sentence them to 10 years in prison, arguing “the harm HashFlare’s victims suffered could not be more real.”

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