Two former executives of Hydrogen Technology have been sentenced for manipulating the price of the firm’s cryptocurrency and defrauding investors, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
The DOJ statement, citing court documents, suggested that Kane and Hampton hired an outside firm, Moonwalkers Trading Ltd. of South Africa, to manipulate the price of Hydro tokens on a cryptocurrency exchange in U.S. The group executed about $7 million in wash trades and placed over $300 million in spoof trades for the token through the bot.
Starting 2018, Hydrogen’s platform claimed to let users develop applications and businesses using Hydro protocols on the Ethereum blockchain. In February of this year, Hampton was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities price manipulation and wire fraud. Earlier, the firm was forced to pay $2.8 million in fines and damages after an enforcement action by the SEC.