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According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), the chief engineer of the fintech platform Hydrogen Technology, Shane Hampton, was found guilty by a federal court in the Southern District of Florida of manipulating the price of HYDRO's cryptocurrency and fraud against investors.
According to the prosecution, Hampton, in collusion with other individuals, deliberately inflated the HYDRO rate on one of the US crypto exchanges for several months in order to sell his own currency reserves at a more favorable price. To implement the fraudulent scheme, Hampton and his accomplices hired a company from South Africa, which from October 2018 to April 2019 carried out fictitious transactions using trading bots.
Hampton is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29. He faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities price fraud and 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit electronic fraud.
In addition to Hampton, Hydrogen Technology CEO Michael Kane, who is awaiting sentencing, and another company engineer, Andrew Chorlian, also pleaded guilty. In addition, the founder of Moonwalkers Trading, Tyler Ostern, who was recognized as an accomplice to fraud, has already been sentenced to 2 years in prison.
The attackers conducted hundreds of fake transactions totaling more than $300 million, creating the appearance of hyped demand for HYDRO. They also carried out at least $7 million of fictitious transactions for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies that did not involve the transfer of ownership rights.
Thanks to these manipulations, Hampton's accomplices were able to sell their own HYDRO reserves for $1.5 million within 7 months, taking advantage of the inflated exchange rate.
Hydrogen Technology positions itself as a Hi-Tech company providing a platform for launching financial applications. However, experts do not rule out that the main source of income for the firm was precisely fraud with cryptocurrency.
Crimes involving digital assets have become widespread in recent years. In particular, in November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the largest FTX crypto exchange, was found guilty under 7 criminal articles, including fraud on a particularly large scale at the expense of customer funds. His case caused a wide public response.
And in September last year, the founder of a large-scale financial pyramid scheme in the field of cryptocurrencies AirBit Club, Pablo Rodriguez, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His company raised about $100 million from gullible investors.
Thus, there are precedents for bringing people to justice for illegal operations with cryptocurrencies, but the scale of the problem is still large. According to US officials, the number of complaints from investors affected by fraud in the field of crypto assets has almost doubled in 2022. This dictates the need to develop stricter legislation to regulate this area.
According to the prosecution, Hampton, in collusion with other individuals, deliberately inflated the HYDRO rate on one of the US crypto exchanges for several months in order to sell his own currency reserves at a more favorable price. To implement the fraudulent scheme, Hampton and his accomplices hired a company from South Africa, which from October 2018 to April 2019 carried out fictitious transactions using trading bots.
Hampton is scheduled to be sentenced on April 29. He faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison for conspiracy to commit securities price fraud and 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit electronic fraud.
In addition to Hampton, Hydrogen Technology CEO Michael Kane, who is awaiting sentencing, and another company engineer, Andrew Chorlian, also pleaded guilty. In addition, the founder of Moonwalkers Trading, Tyler Ostern, who was recognized as an accomplice to fraud, has already been sentenced to 2 years in prison.
The attackers conducted hundreds of fake transactions totaling more than $300 million, creating the appearance of hyped demand for HYDRO. They also carried out at least $7 million of fictitious transactions for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies that did not involve the transfer of ownership rights.
Thanks to these manipulations, Hampton's accomplices were able to sell their own HYDRO reserves for $1.5 million within 7 months, taking advantage of the inflated exchange rate.
Hydrogen Technology positions itself as a Hi-Tech company providing a platform for launching financial applications. However, experts do not rule out that the main source of income for the firm was precisely fraud with cryptocurrency.
Crimes involving digital assets have become widespread in recent years. In particular, in November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the largest FTX crypto exchange, was found guilty under 7 criminal articles, including fraud on a particularly large scale at the expense of customer funds. His case caused a wide public response.
And in September last year, the founder of a large-scale financial pyramid scheme in the field of cryptocurrencies AirBit Club, Pablo Rodriguez, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His company raised about $100 million from gullible investors.
Thus, there are precedents for bringing people to justice for illegal operations with cryptocurrencies, but the scale of the problem is still large. According to US officials, the number of complaints from investors affected by fraud in the field of crypto assets has almost doubled in 2022. This dictates the need to develop stricter legislation to regulate this area.
