Founder of Australian listed Bitcoin company charged with fraud, faces up to 40 years in prison

The former executive chairman of a publicly traded Australian digital currency startup has been indicted by the U.S. government for his alleged involvement in a fraudulent text message scam.

Zhenya Tsvetnenko was one of three people indicted last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Tsvetnenko co-founded DigitalX, a bitcoin mining company formerly known as DigitalBTC that has since transformed into a payments company with a payment app called Air Pocket.

U.S. prosecutors have charged Tsvetnenko and two others in the scheme, according to an indictment that alleged hundreds of thousands of cellphone users signed up for the scheme and that participants made millions of dollars.

Tsvetnenko is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Tsvetnenko has denied the allegations and plans to move his family from Australia to the United States, according to Australian news reports.

Tsvetnenko has resigned from his position as chairman of DigitalX, according to a July 25 announcement, three days after U.S. prosecutors announced the charges. DigitalX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.