The Russian nationwide who’s dealing with crypto-related fees within the Northern District Courtroom of California is reportedly being extradited from Greece to the US.
Alexander Vinnik is called the operator of BTC-e, a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency alternate with alleged ties to felony organizations.
Vinnik is accused of laundering funds from the notorious hack of the now-defunct digital asset alternate Mt. Gox by numerous exchanges, together with BTC-e.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and extradited to France, the place he was sentenced to 5 years in jail for cash laundering. The US and Russia each filed extradition requests from Greece, however the US is getting custody of Vinnik based mostly on current developments.
Citing Frédéric Bélot, Vinnik’s lawyer in France, CNN studies that the accused is already onboard a airplane from Athens, Greece to the US as of Thursday afternoon and could have an preliminary court docket look within the Northern District of California.
Vinnik additionally co-founded BTC-e’s successor Wex, which reportedly handed $450 million price of traders’ crypto property to Russia’s intelligence company, the Federal Safety Service (FSB).
Says then chief of Inner Income Service’s Felony Investigation (CI) Division Don Fort when Vinnik and BTC-e had been indicted in 2017,
“Mr. Vinnik is alleged to have dedicated and facilitated a variety of crimes that go far past the shortage of regulation of the Bitcoin alternate he operated. By means of his actions, it’s alleged that he stole identities, facilitated drug trafficking, and helped to launder felony proceeds from syndicates all over the world.”
Exchanges like this are usually not solely unlawful, however they’re a breeding floor for stolen identification refund fraud schemes and different sorts of tax fraud. When there isn’t a regulation and criminals are left unchecked, this situation is all too widespread. The takedown of this huge digital forex alternate ought to ship a robust message to cyber-criminals and different unregulated exchanges throughout the globe.”
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