U.S. authorities still want to try Vinnik, but his lawyer said they carried out a legal maneuver to keep him in prison longer and eventually get him to the U.S.Read MoreFeedzy
The request to extradite BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik from France to the U.S. was called off on July 15, Vinnik’s French lawyer Frederic Belot confirmed to CoinDesk. The Russian news agency TASS first reported on the news on Thursday.
According to Belot, however, the move will allow U.S. authoritiesto keep Vinnik in prison longer and later extradite him to Greece, where he was first arrested in 2017, and, ultimately, to the U.S. Vinnik was indicted there in 2020 by a California court on allegations of “computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials and narcotics distribution rings.”
Belot declined to explain the legal mechanism being used by U.S. authoritieswhen asked by CoinDesk, only responding that “by withdrawing their request, the U.S. reactivate the Greece request.”
Vinnik himself has always denied that he was ran BTC-e, claiming he only worked at the exchange.
BTC-e, in turn, was shut down by U.S. authorities in 2017, its servers confiscated and Vinnik arrested in Greece where he was on a beach with his family. Since then, three countries have been competing to extradite Vinnik – the U.S., France and Russia – with all three presenting a different set of allegations.
BTC-e’s offspring, named WEX, was launched just a few months after the BTC-e website went offline. WEX had access to BTC-e’s user base and offered to gradually refund what BTC-e users lost after it was shut down.
However, WEX also stopped functioning in the summer of 2019. Its CEO, Dmitri Vasiliev, has been arrested several times in different countries since then, including Italy, Poland and most recently in Croatia on May 30.
DISCLOSURE
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.
One bitcoin is worth $100,000 — a milestone that has <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/12/05/bitcoin-at-100-k-industry-reaction" target="_blank">crypto OGs in…
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) You know how it feels when…
Bitcoin experienced extreme volatility yesterday after reaching a new all-time high of $104,088 on Wednesday.…
As Bitcoin finally soars above the long-awaited $100,000 milestone, Ethereum (ETH) attempts to break out…
Net inflows into U.S. spot ether (<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/ethereum/ " target="_blank">ETH</a>) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have picked…
Bitcoin has set a new all-time high (ATH) beyond the $104,000 mark during the past…