Solana Labs and Jito Labs Face RICO Charges in $1.5B Pump.Fun Fraud Case
- Keyword Financial
- Jul 23
- 3 min read
Introduction
Solana Labs and Jito Labs have been named as co-defendants in an amended federal lawsuit alleging their involvement in a $1.5 billion fraud connected to the Solana-based memecoin launchpad, Pump.Fun. The lawsuit, filed by Burwick Law in the Southern District of New York, claims that these firms were not just infrastructure providers but active participants in a scheme that included illegal gambling, wire fraud, and unlicensed money transmission. The complaint also alleges that Pump.Fun’s platform enabled illicit activities such as money laundering, citing an example where North Korea-linked Lazarus Group allegedly used the platform to launder funds from the Bybit exchange hack through a memecoin called “QinShihuang”.
The lawsuit invokes the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a U.S. law designed to combat organized crime, to argue that Solana Labs, Jito Labs, and Pump.Fun operated as a coordinated enterprise. According to the filing, Solana Labs and its foundation allegedly structured their activities to avoid U.S. regulatory oversight while benefiting from U.S.-based trading, and Jito Labs is accused of providing validator and MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) tooling that allowed the system to scale and profit from user activity. The suit claims that all parties extracted revenue from high-frequency, pseudonymous trading while evading financial regulations and consumer protections.
In addition to the RICO charges, the lawsuit accuses the defendants of fraud, deceptive marketing, and unjust enrichment, arguing they actively benefited from an ecosystem built on speculative hype and regulatory evasion. The complaint notes a sharp decline in Pump.Fun’s usage and market share, with competitor Bonk Fun reportedly overtaking it in daily trading volume. While the unregistered securities claims remain specific to Pump.Fun, the expanded lawsuit signals a broader legal challenge to the infrastructure and business practices of major players in the Solana ecosystem.
