U.S. prosecutors appeal "too lenient" sentence in HashFlare cryptocurrency scam case
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to overturn the "time served" sentence given to two citizens #Estonia , Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, who pleaded guilty in the HashFlare cryptocurrency scam worth $577 million. This sentence has been deemed "too lenient" by some legal experts considering the scale of the case.
Reasons for the sentence and appeal
Judge Robert S. Lasnik rejected the prosecution's request for a 10-year prison sentence and sentenced the two defendants to only 3 years of supervised release and a fine of $25,000 each. His main reason was concern over how foreign defendants would be treated. He argued that if they were not transferred to Estonia to serve their sentence, they would face much longer prison terms compared to U.S. economic offenders with similar sentences, and could potentially be held indefinitely.
Legal analysis
However, legal experts believe that overturning this sentence presents a significant challenge. Ishita Sharma, an attorney specializing in #blockchain , stated that the likelihood of the sentence being upheld is high, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals typically respects the decisions of lower court judges unless there is clear evidence that the sentence is outside reasonable limits. Nevertheless, some opinions also suggest that this leniency could raise serious concerns about consistency and deterrence regarding economic crimes.
The two defendants pleaded guilty to defrauding 440,000 victims worldwide and were required to pay approximately $400 million in restitution to the victims. #anh_ba_cong
