Ivan Turõgin
Estonian co-founder of HashFlare, a cloud-mining service the DOJ called a $577M Ponzi scheme. He pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy in 2025 and was sentenced to time served (16 months).
Also known as: Ivan Turogin, Ivan Turõgin
Bio
Ivan Turõgin co-founded HashFlare with Sergei Potapenko. The DOJ said the service sold over $577 million in mining contracts from 2015 to 2019 without the capacity to perform most of the promised mining, displaying fabricated profits to customers. [1][2]
Legal outcome
Turõgin was arrested in 2022, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in February 2025, and in August 2025 was sentenced to 16 months (time served) plus supervised release, a $25,000 fine, and community service, with large asset forfeitures earmarked for victims. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
- Two Estonian Nationals Plead Guilty in $577M Cryptocurrency Fraud Scheme — U.S. DOJ
- Estonian nationals sentenced in WA for $577M Ponzi scheme — The Spokesman-Review
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
Evolved Apes (NFT)ProjectsAn NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.