The United States Attorney's Office has initiated a civil forfeiture case to recover about $23 million in cryptocurrency. This amount is claimed to be the proceeds of wire fraud and conspiracy involving Gotbit Consulting LLC (Gotbit) and pertains to stablecoins USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle).
The authorities seized these cryptocurrencies from wallets controlled by Gotbit, a firm recognized as a "market maker" in the cryptocurrency industry. On March 21, 2025, Gotbit and its founder, Aleksei Andriunin, entered guilty pleas in federal court in Boston regarding fraudulent activities in manipulating cryptocurrency trading volumes for their clients. As part of the plea agreement, Gotbit acknowledged that the cryptocurrency in question was subject to civil forfeiture and agreed to the forfeiture process.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, the Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Boston Division, announced the actions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol Head, Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit, is managing the forfeiture case. The prosecution team for the related criminal case includes Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Markham and David M. Holcomb from the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit.
The details outlined in the civil forfeiture complaint remain allegations.
