Alexander Vinnik, Cryptocurrency King and Mr. Bitcoin, is coming back to Russia
Alexander Vinnik, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, is returning to Russia after years in an American prison. His release became possible after an exchange between Moscow and Washington, during which American teacher Marc Fogel, who had been serving a 14-year sentence for attempting to smuggle medical cannabis and hashish oil, was sent in the opposite direction. Vinnik, nicknamed “Mr. Bitcoin” and “the cryptocurrency king” by the Western press, was accused of laundering billions of dollars.
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Airplane
The release of the Russian was kept secret from everyone.
First reports about Vinnik being the second person involved in the exchange between the two countries began circulating when Fogel was already drinking beer during a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
After his arrest in Greece, Vinnik didn’t expect to return to Russia after nearly eight years.
Vinnik’s mother also couldn’t initially shed light on the story of his release. In a conversation with journalists, she admitted that on February 11, she spoke with her son on the phone, but the conversation was limited to discussing the weather and his children’s school performance. She said they did not discuss his return to Russia.
On the evening of February 12, Moscow time, and during the day in the US, another of Vinnik’s lawyers, Frederick Bello, told TASS that the case was closed, and Vinnik was already free and would soon head to Russia. This was confirmed by sources from the Kommersant, who reported that Vinnik was brought to New York, from where he was scheduled to fly to Moscow.
It was reported on February 13 that Alexander Vinnik landed in Turkey and then boarded another plane to fly to Russia.
Vinnik was accused of managing BTC-e
Vinnik’s name was not widely known until July 25, 2017, when the 37-year-old Russian was arrested at the request of the United States in a small village in northern Greece, where he had gone on vacation with his family. The US had issued a warrant in January of that year.
The charges included 21 counts, most of which were related to the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, which Vinnik was allegedly managing since 2011. The platform was considered quite successful: by 2015, it accounted for up to 3% of global cryptocurrency exchanges. According to the US authorities, a significant portion of this volume came from transactions related to cybercrime.
As much as 4 billion dollars were allegedly laundered through BTC-e, US prosecutors claimed.
“Vinnik facilitated numerous crimes. He helped steal personal data, provoked drug trafficking, and laundered the proceeds of cybercriminal groups from all over the world,” Don Fort, the head of the US IRS Criminal Investigation Division in 2017 said.
Even after several months in a Greek prison, Vinnik insisted that he did not understand what charges could have been brought against him by the authorities.
“Since I have not read the indictment, I cannot say what I am being accused of and what relation I have to it,” Vinnik told RBC through his lawyer, adding that he was well aware of another criminal case that had been opened against him in Russia.
It was speculated in the Russian-speaking darknet in 2017 that Vinnik was one of the administrators of RAMP, a large drug marketplace. Supposedly, his moniker was Orange. This version is still widely accepted, although it is no longer possible to verify the detailed reasoning of the community members – most of the forums and platforms where they shared their conclusions no longer exist.
Details
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or colloquially, crypto, is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger or blockchain, which is a computerized database that uses a consensus mechanism to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership. The two most common consensus mechanisms are proof of work and proof of stake. Despite the name, which has come to describe many of the fungible blockchain tokens that have been created, cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense, and varying legal treatments have been applied to them in various jurisdicitons, including classification as commodities, securities, and currencies. Cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice.
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