The Estonian government has once again approved the extradition of the two alleged masterminds behind the Hashflare crypto mining Ponzi scheme to the United States. According to a local news report, the government has met the conditions for the men’s extradition set by the Tallinn Circuit Court.
The Estonian Ministry of Justice Has Collected Sufficient Evidence as Demanded by the Court
The Estonian government has approved the extradition of two founders of the crypto mining platform Hashflare, who are accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that fleeced $575 million from unsuspecting investors.
Ivan Turogin and Sergei Potapenko were arrested in Estonia’s capital Tallinn in November 2022, in a joint operation by the Estonian police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). They face 18 counts of fraud and money laundering charges.
According to a Post Timees report, Tallinn Circuit Court initially blocked the attempt to extradite the duo because the Estonian government had failed to probe the conditions of the place where Turogin and Potapenko were to be held, among other things. However, the Estonian government through the Ministry of Justice has said it has gathered enough evidence as per the court ruling.
The Estonian government now believes it has satisfied the conditions set by the court, and the men’s extradition to the U.S. would be above board. Described as one of Estonia’s high-profile fraud cases, Turogin and Potapenko’s Ponzi scheme reportedly took money from hundreds of thousands of Estonian and non-Estonian investors who were promised high returns on their investments.
After their arrest, a U.S. attorney suggested that Turogin and Potapenko had used the allure of cryptocurrency mining to dupe people into investing.
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