Alexander Vinnik, a Russian IT and cryptography expert sentenced to five years in France, now faces possible return to Greece and extradition to the United States. The French Grand Chamber of Appeals recently dismissed a defense appeal against the transfer.
U.S. extradition continues to plague BTC-e’s Alexander Vinnik
Alexander Vinnik, the alleged operator of the infamousBTC-eexchange, Alexander Vinnik, is once again under threat of extradition to the United States. While the Russian’s international lawyers are still trying to secure his release, French judicial authorities appear inclined to send him back to Greece, where he was arrested.
In December 2020, Vinnik was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering in France, where he was extradited by Greece.In the summer of 2017, Vinnik was arrested in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, where he arrived on vacation with his family Vinnik is a Russian citizen.
A Russian citizen, he served his entire sentence in France, taking into account the rules of pretrial detention and parole. Formally, he is now allowed to go to Russia, where authorities are also seeking his extradition on other charges. He has expressed in the past his willingness to return to his home country.
{However, France now intends to extradite him to Greece after a defense appeal consisting of Russian, French and Greek legal experts was rejected last month. Frederic Bellot, the French lawyer in charge of Vinik’s defense, told the Russian economic newspaper Kommersant that.
On Tuesday, June 28, without any motive or justification, the Grand Chamber of Appeals rendered its decision to dismiss the appeal. This was an unexpected and shocking decision.
Alexander Vinik had already granted the U.S. extradition request before the Greek authorities could send him to France, making it more likely that he would be returned to Greece and then transferred to the United States. His lawyers managed to stop the immediate transfer with another appeal, and have also asked the European Court of Human Rights for help.
U.S. prosecutors believe Vinnik laundered at least $4 billion through the now-defunct crypto exchange BTC-e. U.S. investigators also allege that some of the digital money that passed through the crypto trading platform may have been used to finance Russian security forces and suspect that Vinnik is working with Russian intelligence agencies.
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