A federal jury within the Southern District of Florida convicted a Pennsylvania man in the present day for manipulating the value of a safety and scheming to defraud traders in reference to the acquisition of Hydrogen Know-how’s cryptocurrency, HYDRO.
In keeping with courtroom paperwork and proof introduced at trial, Shane Hampton, 32, of Philadelphia, served as the pinnacle of monetary engineering at Hydrogen Know-how and orchestrated a months-long scheme to control the value of HYDRO. Hampton and his co-conspirators employed an outdoor agency, Moonwalkers Buying and selling Restricted of South Africa, to run an automatic buying and selling system or “bot” to control the value of HYDRO on a cryptocurrency change in the US by flooding the market with pretend and fraudulent orders from October 2018 to April 2019.
Hampton and his co-conspirators executed roughly $7 million in “wash trades” and positioned over $300 million in “spoof trades” for HYDRO via the bot. Collectively, these spoof and wash trades have been designed to, and did, fraudulently induce retail traders to buy HYDRO in order that Hampton and his co-conspirators may promote Hydrogen Know-how’s personal holdings of HYDRO for over $1.5 million over the course of a seven-month interval.
The jury convicted Hampton of conspiracy to commit securities value manipulation and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on April 29 and faces a most penalty of 5 years in jail for the conspiracy to commit securities value manipulation conviction and 20 years in jail for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud conviction. A federal district courtroom decide will decide any sentence after contemplating the U.S. Sentencing Pointers and different statutory components.
Hampton is the fourth defendant to be convicted as half of the case. Michael Kane, the CEO of Hydrogen Know-how, pleaded responsible to the identical expenses and is awaiting sentencing; Andrew Chorlian, an engineer at Hydrogen Know-how, additionally pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit securities value manipulation and wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing; and Tyler Ostern, the CEO of Moonwalkers Buying and selling Restricted, additionally pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit securities value manipulation and wire fraud and has been sentenced to 2 years in jail.
Appearing Assistant Lawyer Common Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Division’s Legal Division, U.S. Lawyer Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, and Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI’s Legal Investigative Division made the announcement.
The FBI Miami Discipline Office investigated the case. Former Assistant U.S. Lawyer Eric Morales for the Southern District of Florida assisted within the investigation of the case.
Trial Lawyer Andrew Jaco and Assistant Chief Scott Armstrong of the Legal Division’s Fraud Part are prosecuting the case.
