Russian IT expert Alexander Vinnik, accused of owning and running the infamous crypto exchange BTC-e, has been handed over to the US. The case was a “judicial, diplomatic and humanitarian scandal.”
Vinnik appears in San Francisco Federal Court to face money laundering charges
The co-founder and operator of notorious crypto exchange BTC-e, Alexander Vinnik, was extradited from Greece to the United States on Thursday. The Russian national is facing charges in the Northern District of California and has already appeared in federal court in San Francisco, the US Justice Department announced Friday. Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., assistant attorney general for the department’s criminal division, was quoted as saying:
After more than five years of litigation, Russian national Alexander Vinnik was extradited to the United States yesterday after being held responsible for operating BTC-e, a criminal cryptocurrency exchange that has raised more than $4 billion in criminal cases. Income was stolen.
Vinnik, 42, was arrested on a US warrant while on vacation in the Greek city of Thessaloniki in the summer of 2017. In January of that year, US prosecutors charged him with a 21-count superseding indictment. Greece approved an extradition request filed by the United States but deported him to France for the first time in December 2019 under a European arrest warrant.
A French court sentenced a Russian crypto entrepreneur to five years in prison for money laundering, and he recently completed his term in view of his pre-trial detention. In France, he was also charged with identity theft and extortion. In July, US officials withdrew a request to receive the Russian directly from France in an apparent attempt to speed up his transfer through Greece, which had already approved his extradition to the United States.
According to the US indictment, the now-defunct BTC-e was a “significant cybercrime and online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade in bitcoin with a high degree of anonymity and developed a customer base that heavily focused on criminal activity.” was more dependent.” It alleges that the exchange facilitated global cybercrime transactions, receiving proceeds from a wide range of crimes, such as the Mt Gox hack, ransomware scams and even drug trade.
BTC-e and Vinnik were charged with one count of operating an unlicensed money service business in the US and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Russian also faces 17 counts of money laundering and two counts of involvement in illegal monetary transactions. The Justice Department noted that their platform had no system for verifying Know Your Customer and no anti-money-laundering programs required by federal law.
Russia, US extradition of lawyer Brand Vinnik ‘kidnapping’ and ‘violent disappearance’
Speaking to Russian news agency Tass, Vinnik’s French lawyer Frederic Bellot confirmed that his defendant had been handed over to US custody on his return from France on Thursday morning under a decision by the Investigation Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeals. “He was immediately transferred to another aircraft that had taken off for the United States. The plane landed in Boston and then took off for San Francisco,” explained Bellot.
“Alexander Vinnik, who must be freed by French justice on the basis of three decisions, was transferred yesterday as a prisoner to Greece and there he was literally ‘loaded’ on a private plane to the United States, without permission, as he requested and while seeking asylum, to have access to an interpreter, for me as his lawyer,” Zoe Konstantopoulou, who is representing him in Greece and France, told the Greek newspaper Ethnos said.
Konstantopoulou recently shared his fear that Russia would be held by the US as a “hostage” of the ongoing military conflict in NATO-backed Ukraine, where Moscow has been waging a full-scale war since late February, known as ” Special Military Operations”. “In defense of the Russian-speaking population. Western governments have chosen to ignore Russia’s own requests for Vinnik’s extradition.
The IT expert, who has denied the US allegations and maintained his innocence, has earlier expressed his desire to return to his homeland and appear before the court there. In Russia he has been charged with embezzlement of 600,000 rubles (close to $10,000) and “fraud in the field of computer information” for 750 million rubles ($12.3 million).
While the US Department of Justice thanked the Greek government and the Ministry of Justice “for all their efforts to secure the defendant’s transfer to the United States”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was “outraged by the unfriendly actions”. Greek authorities” and Washington of being a “genuine hunt for Russian citizens”, calling Vinnik’s hasty extradition a “kidnapping.” While not mentioned in the DOJ announcement, the owner of BTC-e was in agreement with Russian intelligence. Cooperation is also suspected.
In her remarks, Zoe Constantopoulou described the case as a multi-year “judicial, diplomatic, intergovernmental scandal”, while referring to her extradition as a “violent disappearance from Greek territory” that “mafia method and constitutes a criminal act … a serious violation of international law and Greek law,” committed with the participation of two foreign states. Vinnik seeks asylum in Greece and his defense team is trying to secure a humanitarian release. His wife died in 2020 and their two sons are now growing up without parents.
What are your hopes about the trial of Alexander Vinnik in the United States? Tell us in the comments section below.
image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation or recommendation or endorsement of an offer to buy or sell any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the Company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use or reliance on any materials, goods or services mentioned in this article.