BTC-e exchange operator asks to be extradited to Russia

Alexander Vinnik

Alleged BTC-e crypto exchange operator Alexander Vinnik, accused of laundering billions of dollars, is officially seeking extradition to Russia. According to the Greek publication e-Kathimerini, a 39-year-old Russian citizen appealed to the city court of Piraeus for release or extradition to his country for humanitarian reasons.

Alexander has been on a hunger strike for 90 days, and he was taken to court by ambulance. Lawyers say the client’s life is in danger and argue that the charges against him are unfounded. They also criticized the Greek judicial system for keeping a Russian citizen in custody for more than 18 months allowed for pre-trial detention.

Known as Mr Bitcoin, the alleged BTC-e operator was arrested in July 2017 at a request from the United States, where he is accused of laundering billions of dollars on the BTC-e platform, which has been operating since 2011. Subsequently, France and Russia petitioned for his extradition on less serious fraud charges. Greek courts granted the requests of all three countries. This means that the Minister of Justice must intervene to determine the fate of Vinnik.

Alexander Vinnik claims that he is innocent on all counts, he just did his job and supported the functionality of the exchange, and you can not blame him for someone washing money earned by him dishonestly on it. (The story of Vinnik is most fully described in the investigation of RBC ).

The US Department of Justice in July 2017 imposed a fine on BTC-e in the amount of $ 110 million and a fine of $ 12 million personally to Vinnik. If he is convicted in the United States, he faces up to 55 years in prison.

BTC-e is one of the first exchanges on the Internet where it was possible to exchange bitcoins for fiat. It was opened in 2011 and was focused on a Russian-speaking audience. As of March 2014, it occupied the third place in the world in terms of trading volume on the Bitcoin / dollar pair and the first place on the Bitcoin / ruble pair. Real owners remain unknown. Now the btc-e.com domain is confiscated by the FBI, and the exchange operates at WEX.nz.

During the move to a new address, part of the traders ’funds was“ lost ”, and in July 2018, the WEX administration“ for technical reasons ”blocked the function of withdrawing cryptocurrencies. The ban is valid to this day.

After the so-called exit scam (owners withdraw funds from the wallets of traders), according to monitoring data, in February 2019, about $ 48.5 million remained cryptocurrencies on WEX cold wallets, while in July 2018, when the withdrawal option was disabled , there were more than $ 318 million on “cold” wallets. In addition to cold wallets, there are also hot wallets and fiat accounts, the balance of which is unknown.

In the Russian-language chat Telegram registered 1340 participants. There is another Club BTC-E / WEX News channel (409 members), as well as a thread on Reddit . Affected traders write appeals to the police of the Russian Federation and try to calculate the contact details and identities of the owners of the exchange.

Deceived traders fight for a refund by coordinating activity through Telegram chat and wex-scam.com . One member of the initiative group, who lost $ 250,000 on the exchange, said that more than 50 applications had been filed with the Russian police and three criminal cases had been filed. About 500 users sent their data to participate in legal actions.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the WEX exchange operator is registered in Singapore. It is known that a trial has already taken place there and the lawsuit of the injured party was satisfied. “However, since the company in Singapore is empty, people have a warrant on collecting funds in their hands, but it’s still a long way to get actual compensation or punishment of fraudsters,” says the administrator of the Telegram channel, where traders who lost money on the exchange communicate.

The question of Vinnik’s extradition to the Russian Federation was raised by Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister in December 2018, a representative of the Foreign Ministry said this in a letter to Vinnik’s mother.

An administrator named Ruslan said that at the current stage, the initiative group is focusing on criminal prosecution in various jurisdictions: “This is more expensive and painful for the defendant. The total amount of claims is already about $ 10 million. ” A lawyer is being sought to help “move the process as negative as possible for fraudsters.” In addition, open letters are sent to politicians and prominent figures.