according toUS Department of JusticeAlexander Vinnik, in his early 40s, is accused of running a cryptocurrency exchange called BTC-e, which allegedly did business with ransomware gangs, drug dealers and identity thieves, it said. He faces charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money services business in the United States in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Vinnik’s extradition is a major victory for U.S. law enforcement officials who fought a high-stakes extradition fight with Russia to secure Vinnik’s custody.
Vinnik’s lawyer in France, Frédéric Bélot, told CNN Thursday afternoon that his client was on a flight from Athens, Greece, to the United States and was expected to make his first court appearance in the Northern District of California. Vinnik maintains his innocence, Bélot said.
Vinnik’s extradition shows how U.S. prosecutors continue to pursue high-profile Russian cybercrime suspects at a time when any faint hope of cooperation with Moscow on the issue has faded.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and later extradited to France, where he was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020 for money laundering. But since 2017, Vinnik has also been indicted in the United States, where the United States and Russia have made confrontational extradition requests from Greece.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, BTC-e, which shut down in 2017, received more than $4 billion worth of bitcoin during its operation.
The U.S. Treasury Department fined the cryptocurrency exchange $110 million in 2017 for “willful violations of U.S. anti-money laundering laws” and fined Vinnik $12 million.
