The operator of the exchange BTC-e asks to extradite him to Russia

Alexander Vinnik

The alleged BTC-e cryptographic operator, Alexander Vinnik, accused of laundering billions of dollars, is officially seeking extradition to Russia. As the Greek edition of e-Kathimerini writes, a 39-year-old Russian citizen appealed to the Piraeus City Court 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 accusations made 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 on a request from the USA, 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 charges of fraud. The Greek courts granted the requests of all three countries. This means that the Minister of Justice must intervene to determine the fate of Winnick.
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Alexander Vinnik claims that he is innocent on all charges, he just did his job and supported the functionality of the exchange, and you can’t blame him for laundering money earned by her dishonest means. (The history of Vinnik is most fully described in the RBC investigation ).

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

BTC-e is one of the first online exchanges where you could exchange bitcoins for fiat. Opened in 2011 and was focused on the Russian-speaking audience. As of March 2014, ranked third in the world in terms of trading volume for a pair of Bitcoin / dollar and first place for a pair of Bitcoin / ruble. The real owners remain unknown. Now the domain btc-e.com confiscated by the FBI, and the exchange works at WEX.nz.

During the move to a new address, some of the traders' funds were “lost”, and in July 2018, the WEX administration “for technical reasons” blocked the cryptocurrency withdrawal function. The ban is valid to this day.

After the so-called exit-scam (withdrawal of funds from the traders' wallets by the owners), according to the monitoring data, in February 2019 there were approximately $ 48.5 million worth of cryptocurrency on cold WEX wallets, while in July 2018, when the possibility of withdrawing , “cold” wallets had more than $ 318 million. In addition to cold wallets, there are still hot wallets and accounts with fiat, the balance of which is unknown.

In the Russian-language chat Telegram registered 1340 participants. There is another channel Club BTC-E / WEX News (409 participants), 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 the identity of the owners of the exchange.

Deceived traders are fighting for a refund, coordinating activity through the Telegram chat and wex-scam.com website. One of the members of the initiative group, who lost $ 250,000 on the stock exchange, said that at present more than 50 applications have been filed with the Russian police and three criminal cases have been initiated. About 500 users sent their data to participate in legal activities.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the operator of the WEX exchange is registered in Singapore. It is known that a trial has already taken place there and the claim of the injured party was satisfied. “However, since the company in Singapore is empty, people have a warrant for collecting funds, but the fraudsters are still very far from obtaining actual compensation or punishment for fraudsters,” says the administrator of the Telegram channel, where traders who have lost money on the exchange communicate.

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

An administrator named Ruslan said that at the current stage the initiative group focuses 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. ” There is a search for a lawyer who will help “move the process in the most negative way for scammers”. In addition, open letters are sent to politicians and famous figures.