Two Estonian citizens were arrested Sunday by the FBI and Estonian police for their alleged involvement in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme. Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turgin, both 37, have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 16 counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors claim the men convinced victims to enter into fraudulent equipment rental contracts with HashFlare, the defendants’ cryptocurrency mining service. They also duped victims into investing in Polybius Bank, a bogus virtual currency bank that never paid out dividends.
