US Justice Department Charges 10, Including Two CEOs, in Crypto Price-Pumping Scheme

On March 30, 2026, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California charged 10 foreign nationals — employees of four firms (Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian) — over a large-scale cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme, the Department of Justice reports.

Prosecutors allege the defendants artificially inflated trading volume and prices for cryptocurrencies, then sold their own holdings to unwitting investors at the inflated prices — a classic pump-and-dump scheme, closely related to the more familiar rug pull.

What a rug pull actually is: developers create a token, attract investor money into it, then abruptly withdraw all the liquidity from the pool — the token's price instantly collapses to zero, leaving investors holding worthless coins. If the liquidity isn't locked and remains fully controlled by developer wallets, it can be pulled out in a single transaction.

The investigation ran as an undercover FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation operation — agents even issued their own cryptocurrency tokens to catch the scheme from the inside. Three defendants, including two CEOs, were arrested and extradited from Singapore, and more than $1 million in crypto has been seized, CCN notes.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.