Federal grand juries have indicted ten executives and employees tied to four cryptocurrency firms for running coordinated pump-and-dump schemes that manipulated token prices and volumes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California confirmed the charges Monday, marking one of the broadest enforcement actions against crypto market manipulation to date.
Three defendants, two of them chief executive officers, were arrested in Singapore and extradited to the United States. They made their initial court appearances in federal court in Oakland following the extraditions.
Four Firms, Three Indictments, One Pattern
The firms named across three separate indictments are Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian. All four operated as so-called market makers within the crypto space. The indictments allege they did not simply provide liquidity; they rigged it.
The scheme, according to prosecutors, followed a consistent structure. Defendants acted as both buyers and sellers in the same transactions, a practice called wash trading, to create the illusion of organic market activity. Investors, seeing inflated volume and rising prices, bought in. The defendants then sold their holdings at those elevated prices.
More than $1 million in cryptocurrency has been seized so far. Two defendants have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s international affairs unit noted that the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation jointly ran an undercover operation targeting exactly this type of illicit activity. As part of that operation, the FBI created several cryptocurrency tokens specifically to draw out the schemes.
Defendants and Arrests Across Three Countries
Gotbit employees Antoine Tsao of Taiwan, Ian Sofronov of Russia, and Nemanja Popov of Serbia were indicted in March 2025. Tsao was arrested at JFK International Airport and later pleaded guilty. Popov pleaded guilty in February 2026 and was sentenced by Judge Martínez-Olguín.
Vortex’s CEO Gleb Gora, 24, CFO Sergei Ryzhkov, and business development manager Michael Vogel were indicted the following August. Gora was arrested in Singapore in October 2025 and extradited to stand trial in Oakland.
The Contrarian indictment, filed September 2025, named CEO Manu Singh, 34, CFO Kushagra Srivastava, associate Vasu Sharma, 26, and Sabby Singh of partner firm Antier Solutions. Singh and Sharma were also arrested in Singapore in October 2025 and extradited alongside Gora.
Singapore Cooperation Secured the Arrests
The U.S. Department of Justice worked with the Singapore Police Force and the Attorney General’s Chambers in Singapore to secure all three extraditions. The FBI’s Law Enforcement Attaché’s Office in Singapore coordinated the logistics.
According to the DOJ press release, United States Attorney Craig H. Missakian, FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo, and IRS-CI Oakland Field Office Special Agent in Charge Linda Nguyen announced the charges jointly.
“Ten foreign nationals have been charged by the US Justice Department for manipulating the crypto market,” according to @AshCrypto on X, who described the mechanics plainly: the accused firms pumped prices with fabricated volume, trapped retail buyers at higher levels, then exited their positions.
The @USDOJ_Intl account on X confirmed the charges, noting that three of the ten defendants, including two CEOs, were arrested in Singapore and brought to the United States to face prosecution.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 per violation. Sentencing, where applicable, would follow U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. All defendants remain presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin K. Kleinman, Daniel M. Pastor, and Molly K. Priedeman, with IRS-CI providing investigative support alongside the FBI.
Key Takeaways:
- Ten foreign nationals indicted across Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian for crypto fraud.
- Three defendants, including two CEOs, were arrested and extradited from Singapore to the US.
- Over $1 million in cryptocurrency seized; convicts face up to 20 years in federal prison.
