Alexander Vinnik, a 38-year-old Russian man suspected of working a cash laundering operation utilizing bitcoin, is escorted by cops to a court docket in Athens, December 13, 2017. [Costas Baltas/Reuters]
Russian cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik was released from US custody as a part of a prisoner swap on Thursday and is predicted to reach in Russia inside hours, in accordance with an announcement from his lawyer, Arkady Bukh, despatched to Kathimerini English.
“We have now been knowledgeable that our shopper has arrived in Turkey and is at the moment on one other flight en path to Russia. We anticipate his arrival at Moscow airport inside the subsequent few hours,” the assertion learn.
White Home spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Wednesday that Vinnik was exchanged for American trainer Marc Fogel, who arrived in the US on Tuesday.
Vinnik had a closed-door listening to on Tuesday, and ever since, his whereabouts had remained unknown.
“We are able to additionally affirm {that a} current listening to came about in the US Federal Court docket regarding Mr Vinnik. Nonetheless, because of the choose’s ruling, the listening to supplies have been labeled, and we’re unable to remark on its proceedings or content material,” Bukh’s assertion learn.
Vinnik, often known as “Mr Bitcoin,” was arrested whereas vacationing in Greece in July 2017 on a US warrant for laundering over $4 billion via his crypto alternate, BTC-e. After spending two years in a French jail, he was extradited to the US in 2022. In Might 2024, he pleaded responsible to cash laundering.
Bukh had beforehand attempted to include Vinnik in a US-Russia prisoner exchange in August, with out success.
