Arkady Bukh noted that this is a “rare situation,” which he and his client perceive as a great victory
NEW YORK, February 15. /TASS/. The decision of the Northern District Court of California to close the case of Russian Alexander Vinnik officially drops the charges against him. This was reported by Vinnik’s Lawyer Bukh Arkady Bukh in a conversation with a TASS correspondent.
“The judge granted our request and the case was declassified,” he said. – We managed to reach an agreement with the prosecutor’s office, and at the hearing the prosecutor’s office agreed to drop the charges. Our client is clean in America, the charges have been dropped, this is a unique, rare situation. We perceive it as a great victory”.
The lawyer added that Vinnik could travel to Europe if he wished, with border authorities unable to refuse him on the grounds that he was a defendant in an American court and was in custody, as the dropping of charges effectively means that Vinnik gets a clean slate in the US criminal system.
“In America, it is considered that a person who has had charges dropped is legally entitled to say that he was never arrested. Because according to the law, he must be put in a state as if the arrest never happened,” Bukh explained.
Alexander Vinnik, who was detained in Greece at the request of the United States in 2017, returned to Russia on February 13 as a result of an agreement between the two countries. Washington accused the Russian of laundering between $4 billion and $9 billion through the now-defunct online cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e and secured his extradition in August 2022.
Shortly before Vinnik, American Mark Fogel, convicted in Russia for drug smuggling, returned home. The Kremlin called such an exchange a step toward increasing mutual trust with Washington.
Source: https://tass.ru/obschestvo/23149107