What does the return of Alexander Vinnik, detained in America, to his homeland mean.
The US authorities have confirmed the release of Russian Alexander Vinnik. Proceedings in the case, which had been going on for almost nine years, has been terminated. Washington said that Vinnik will be handed over to Russia. White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt called him a “non-violent crypto criminal.” Details of the case cannot be disclosed under the US court order. The U.S. specified that this was part of the deal, which resulted in the return of a teacher from Pennsylvania, Mark Vogel, to his home country. In addition, another American citizen and two journalists were released in Belarus. The Kremlin did not officially name Vinnik as a participant in the exchange agreement.
At the political level, there could be other Russians whose extradition Moscow is seeking, Arkady Bukh, Alexander Vinnik’s American lawyer, told Kommersant FM: “The Russian government has defined this not as an exchange, but as a goodwill step. About Mr. Vinnik, what we were just doing for many months, and why we were moving the sentence beyond 2024, to get the Trump team and the appointed prosecutors from that team in power. It was important to us strategically because of the team’s more libertarian worldviews.
Political lobbying doesn’t just include prisoner exchanges, it includes amnesties, presidential pardon, as we call it. It would probably be wrong to call it an exchange, because exchanges are bridge swaps, as they were in Ankara, as they were in Dubai. Mr. Vogel has been in the United States for a long time. I have a mass of Russians who are awaiting sentencing, who have already been sentenced, and we are actively working to send them home, not only through legal and judicial processes, but also lobbying at the political level.”
Another lawyer for Vinnik, who represented him in France, said that all conditions for extradition had been met, with the U.S. Justice Department seeking a court hearing before sending him to Russia. Vinnik was detained in Greece in 2017. In the US, he was accused of laundering between $4 and $9 billion through a now-defunct crypto exchange.
Details of the case – in the reference “Kommersant FM”:
Alexander Vinnik was born in 1979 in Kurgan, after graduating from school he moved to Moscow. He was an engineer servicing transactions between various electronic payment systems.
In 2011, the online trading platform for fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies BTC-e was founded, where Vinnik worked as a consultant. In 2016, the site was added to the list of banned in Russia.
Later, France also brought charges of extortion and fraud. The Russian himself did not admit guilt and claimed that he was only a consultant for the platform. Vinnik was eventually extradited to US authorities.
If the U.S. court had agreed with the charges, the Russian could have faced more than 50 years in prison. The court refused to release him on bail. In May 2024, the Russian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money through the trading platform. He was charged with losses of at least $121 million.
The media included data that he allegedly controls a cryptocurrency wallet with stolen 80 thousand bitcoins. Russia has been conducting its own investigation into the BTC-e case all these years. In September, another administrator of the exchange, Alexei Bilyuchenko, received a 4.5-year general regime colony and a fine of 1 million rubles.
In 2011, BTC-e, an online trading platform for fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies, was founded, where Vinnik worked as a consultant. In 2016, the site was banned in Russia.
Later, France also brought charges of extortion and fraud. The Russian himself did not admit guilt and claimed that he was only a consultant for the platform. Vinnik was eventually extradited to US authorities.
If the U.S. court had agreed with the charges, the Russian could have faced more than 50 years in prison. The court refused to release him on bail. In May 2024, the Russian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money through the trading platform. He was charged with losses of at least $121 million.
The media included data that he allegedly controls a cryptocurrency wallet with stolen 80 thousand bitcoins. Russia has been conducting its own investigation into the BTC-e case all these years. In September, another administrator of the exchange, Alexei Bilyuchenko, received a 4.5-year general regime colony and a fine of 1 million rubles
In case of refusing a pre-trial agreement and pleading guilty, the Russian faced almost 200 years in prison. To do so, he had to be found guilty on all counts. The case cited transfers and possession of proceeds from hacking, corruption and drug trafficking. Alexander Vinnik may be a carrier of valuable information about money laundering, admits crypto investor and founder of Asgard Mining Solutions Roman Malyshev: “The BTC-e exchange is a fairly large exchange, it was assigned and laundering of proceeds of crime of the Mt. Gox exchange, whose funds were stolen, including passed through this exchange. It was anonymous, no KYC procedures were required to be carried out. It is likely that the funds did go through this exchange.
It is not necessarily connected with the malicious intent of Alexander Vinnik. Nevertheless, the states had an interest in this person. I think that first of all these money flows, which were connected with money laundering, means that such sums of money laundered through it. In Soviet times, when hostages were exchanged, the hostages were sometimes not even better off in the territory they were returned to. People who are involved, perhaps, in the organization of this exchange, are interested in what Alexander told the U.S. authorities.”
In early February, an indictment in the BTC-e case was filed in the United States. In addition to Vinnik, Belarusian Alexander Klimenko was named as the second participant in the scheme of laundering on the crypto exchange.
Source: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7498784