Two Estonian nationals pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $577 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday. Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, both 40, defrauded hundreds of thousands of victims by promoting fake investment opportunities through their fraudulent crypto-mining service, HashFlare. Between 2015 and 2019, HashFlare collected over $577 million from investors. According to prosecutors, the defendants misappropriated the funds instead of using them for legitimate investments, funneling the stolen money through shell companies and luxury purchases such as high-end real estate. To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io