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Enforcement Agencies Take Action Against Market Manipulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have charged Gotbit and four other crypto firms with widespread market manipulation, along with several individuals who worked for the offending organizations.

The charges also targeted several individuals who worked for the offending organizations.

Market Makers Accused of Running Wash Trading Scheme

According to a statement issued by the SEC on October 9, Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global, and MyTrade MM used bots to inflate trading volumes on centralized exchanges (CEXs) through wash trading.

A parallel statement from the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office included popular meme coin projects Saitama and Robo Inu among those with complaints issued against them.

Pump and Dump Schemes: A Securities Scam

The SEC claims that the named companies engaged in “pump and dump” schemes, where they misrepresented the value of certain tokens, prompting new investors to buy in only to cash out at inflated prices.

Saitama Employees Named in Complaint

Prominent names fingered in the investigations include Russell Armand, Maxwell Hernandez, and Manpreet Kohli. They and fellow Saitama employees Nam Tran and Vy Pham are accused of using Gotbit and ZM Quant to provide market manipulation services, including generating fake trading volumes for assorted cryptocurrencies.

Fines and Seizures

In total, law enforcement officials seized $25 million in cryptocurrency. Furthermore, they deactivated bots responsible for millions of fraudulent transactions across 60 different crypto assets.

Consequences for the Accused