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- Alexander Vinnik founded BTC-e, a cryptocurrency trading platform, in July 2011.
- The U.S. accuses him of laundering up to $9 billion through BTC-e
- Could Face extradition to the U.S.
A French court in Paris has upheld the five-year prison term given earlier by a French court in December 2020. The court rejected appeals by Alexander Vinnik and upheld the sentence passed by the lower court. Alexander Vinnik was charged with being part of an organized criminal group and provided false information about the origin of the proceeds.
Founded the BTC-e cryptocurrency trading platform
Alexander Vinnik and Aleksandr Bilyuchenko had founded BTC-e, a cryptocurrency trading platform, in July 2011. It facilitated trading between the U. S. dollar, Russian ruble, and euro currencies, and the bitcoin, litecoin, namecoin, novacoin, peercoin, dash, and ethereum cryptocurrencies. On26th of July 2017, Vinnik and BTC-e were charged for operating an international money laundering scheme.
The court exempted Vinnik from a fine of 100,000 Euros
Earlier, the court in Paris had rejected several requests from Vinnik’s defense team to examine the evidence provided by the FBI. However, the court exempted Vinnik from a fine of 100,000 Euros which the lower court slapped along with the five-year prison sentence.
Vinnik’s lawyer says the prosecution produced insufficient evidence
Vinnik’s legal team is already planning to appeal against the new decision. Vinnik’s lawyer Frédéric Bélot told a Russian news outlet Kommersant that the prosecution failed to produce enough evidence to prove that Vinnik was the recipient of transactions related to money laundering
Calling the decision as lazy, Vinnik’s lawyer said the Judge did not want to investigate the money laundering charges in the light of insufficient evidence provided by the prosecution.
Vinnik was arrested by Greek Police when he was vacationing with his family in the Greek city of Thessaloniki in 2017. He was arrested on an arrest warrant by the U.S. Government, who accused him of money laundering to $9 Billion through BTC-e.
Vinnik was originally arrested when he arrived for a vacation with his family. Upon arrival, he was detained based on an arrest warrant from the United States government accusing him of laundering up to $9 billion through BTC-e.
Vinnik was originally charged with duping over two hundred people using ransomware. However, the court in Paris acquitted him of the malware attack charges. However, the prosecution asked for a smaller fine citing that Vinnik will not be able to pay the victims of his crime.
The computer wiz tech from Russia who started the BTC-e was a cryptocurrency trading platform in July 2011 is accused by The FBI of the U.S. of running a money-laundering racket worth billions through the now-defunct crypto exchange BTC.
In January 2020, Vinnik was extradited to France and was sentenced to a five-year prison term by a court in December. His team appealed against the decision. However, the higher court upheld the conclusion of the lower court.
Vinnik’s legal team will have to file an appeal within the stipulated period. However, their priority is to prevent his return to Greece after the sentence to face extradition to the United States on similar charges.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
