BOSTON (Reuters) - Four cryptocurrency companies and 14 individuals have been charged in what U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said was the first criminal prosecution of financial services firms for market manipulation and sham trading in the crypto sector.

   Federal prosecutors in Boston charged the firms Gotbit, ZM Quant, CLS Global and MyTrade and their leaders and employees in a takedown that also involved arrests overseas. Five people have already agreed to plead guilty or have done so.