Vinnik Alexander

Vinnik Alexander

Biography

2017: Arrest in Greece

In October 2023, a podcast with investigative journalist Andrei Zakharov, specializing in the investigation of cryptomaphia, was published in the Ukrainian edition of Peduza. In particular, he spoke about the BTC'e crypto exchange created by Alexander Vinnik and Alexander Bilyuchenko. In July 2017, they were vacationing together in Greece and Vinnik's wife went in with his SIM card on Instagram.

Vinnik was arrested at the request of the United States. He was suspected of creating a BTC-e crypto exchange and laundering $4 billion through it. In addition to the United States and France, the extradition of the Russian was sought at home (in 2018 he confessed to embezzlement of 750 million rubles). Vinnik said he wanted "voluntary" extradition to Russia.

Bilyuchenko managed to break the laptop on the rocks and escape to Russia.

The money of the exchange's users disappeared (its daily turnover was tens of millions of dollars).

2020:5 years in prison and a fine for extortion and money laundering through the crypto exchange BTC-e

On December 7, 2020, the Paris court sentenced Alexander Vinnik to five years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand euros for extortion and money laundering through the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange he founded. Prosecutors demanded 10 years in prison and payment of 750 thousand euros. The Russian himself pleaded not guilty.

According to the investigation, Vinnik was the "brain" and "conductor" of a criminal scheme for identity theft and extortion of money. It is assumed that he managed to get part of the funds after a hacker attack on the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox in 2014. Of the 850 thousand bitcoins stolen then, about 306 thousand were withdrawn to electronic wallets related to BTC-e. According to Washington, the BTC-e exchange changed bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for dollars, euros and rubles.

The United States also claims that Vinnik stole personal data of exchange users and allowed criminals to launder money through it.

Vinnik's defense, in turn, stated that he was a simple operator on the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange and was not the beneficiary of the malware scheme.

The court dismissed Vinnik's charge of creating the Locky malware, which was used to encrypt user data, for unlocking which fraudsters required a ransom. From 2016 to 2018, 200 companies and individuals in France suffered from the program.

According to Vinnik's lawyer Frederik Belo, the Russian took the court's decision hard. His wife died and left two young children, the lawyer said.

Based on papers that were handed over to the French by the FBI. Moreover, these are only copies of evidence, neither we nor the French justice have originals, - said Belo.

The Russian spent 30 months in pre-trial detention. In response to the decision of the Greek Minister of Justice to extradite Vinnik to France, the Russian went on a hunger strike.^[1]

2022: Disappearance in Greece and deportation to the US

Bitcoin enthusiast Alexander Vinnik, who was previously sent from France to Greece, disappeared after arriving in Athens, RIA Novosti reported, citing Vinnik's Greek lawyer Zoe Konstantopula.

"We are in the police department of the Athens airport.<...> Responsible police officers for two and a half hours tried to prevent me from entering the department by using force. I ended up going through another entrance. They said they did not know where Alexander Vinnik was, "the lawyer said. She suggested that he could be put on a plane and sent to the United States. In this case, "we are talking about one of the most egregious cases of violation of international legality": at the end of July, the Russian asked for asylum.

Vinnik was eventually deported to the United States. He is accused of complicity in laundering at least $4 billion through BTC-e.

2023: Discussing the possibility of exchanging for US spy Gershkovich

Co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e Alexander Vinnik can allegedly be exchanged for a spy and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, WSJ reported in May 2023.

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