BTC-E Founder Is Not Extradited Yet Despite $4BLN Laundering

The BTC-E founder Alexander Vinnik, the Russian national who was accused of laundering billions of dollars through the exchange, will not be extradited from Greece yet. In the letter obtained by the RIA Novosti, it seems that the US will be the final destination although he was initially supposed to be sent to France as per the previous crypto news.

As per the reports, the BTC-E founder is only one of the few founders of the exchange that operated from 2011 until 2017 when the FBI tried to shut it down. The US authorities claim that the exchange laundered billions of dollars during its operation including funds from the Mt.Gox exchange hack. Vinnik was later arrested in Greece while he was on a vacation with his family. The Greek Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras allegedly sent a letter to the director of the prison where Vinnik is held, ordering him to ‘’ensure the transfer to the US authorities and then to Russia.’’ The operation was supposed to happen before the end of the month according to the RIA sources.

Vinnik declared a hunger strike as a response to the extradition and his legal defender even claimed that sending him to the US would mean a ‘’ death sentence.’’ This was supposed to persuade the Greek authorities in hearing the appeal. Greece usually rejects about 20 percent of all the extradition requests based on the concept of dual criminality which means that if the charges constitute a crime in both countries, this principle can be used. The Russian nationality of Vinnik is a major complicating factor as Russia requested multiple times for him to be extradited to his home country instead.

The initial indictment alleged that Vinnik committed a few felony counts as the IRS Chief Criminal Investigator Don Fort claimed that ‘’Mr. Vinnik is alleged to have committed and facilitated a wide range of crimes that go far beyond the lack of regulation of the bitcoin exchange he operated.  Through his actions, it is alleged that he stole identities, facilitated drug trafficking, and helped to launder criminal proceeds from syndicates around the world.”

The many associates that Vinnik had, tried to reopen the BTC-E exchange under the name WEX but the new exchange also got shut down in 2018 for insolvency.