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- According to a BBC story, Dmitri Vasilev, the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange WEX, was detained in Warsaw this past August after being jailed in Italy two years ago
- The exchange was originally known as BTC-e, but due to legal issues in 2017, its name was changed to WEX
- Vasiliev is believed to have been held by Polish officials on August 11, but the news was only discovered on September 17 by the Polish daily Wyborcza
According to a BBC story, Dmitri Vasilev, the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange WEX, was detained in Warsaw this past August after being jailed in Italy two years ago. Vasilev was released after his original detention in Italy owing to procedural mistakes, and he returned to Russia, according to the article. The Polish prosecutor’s office is now contemplating extraditing Vasiliev to Kazakhstan, which has been investigating Vasilev since WEX users submitted police reports in the autumn of 2018 complaining about not being able to receive their crypto and fiat payments back. Vasilev founded WEX in 2017 as a replacement to the now-defunct BTC-e exchange, which was related to the infamous Mt. Gox exchange.
The exchange was originally known as BTC-e, but due to legal issues in 2017, its name was changed to WEX. Dmitry Vasiliev, the former CEO of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex, has been detained in Warsaw, Poland, according to BBC Russia. In the early days of the cryptocurrency business, Wex, formerly known as BTC-e, was a well-known dark exchange. It’s been accused of laundering cash for a number of high-profile cryptocurrency thefts, including the infamous Mt. Gox event. Although Vasiliev is presumed innocent in Poland, other nations, such as Kazakhstan, have an active fraud case against him and are allegedly discussing the prospect of extradition.
Vasiliev is believed to have been held by Polish officials on August 11, but the news was only discovered on September 17 by the Polish daily Wyborcza. Up to BTC-collapse e’s in the summer of 2017, Vasiliev reportedly brokered trades for Chinese investors as a BTC-e employee. Alexander Vinnik, the purported CEO of BTC-e, has been accused of laundering more than $4 billion in Bitcoin over the course of six years. He was later apprehended in Greece and the target of an FBI investigation by US officials. Vasiliev took over as director of the renamed exchange, Wex, a few months after Vinnik’s imprisonment. Wex went on to secure its place in the Top-10 exchanges by the end of the calendar year, with a daily trading volume of $80 million.
Binance, however, blacklisted Wex for suspected money laundering operations a little over a year later, a decision that would finally lead to the exchange’s downfall. Vasiliev was detained by Italian officials in 2019 but was quickly freed after it was discovered that the extradition request had been filled out incorrectly. The Bank of Russia recently begun working with local banks to halt payments to crypto exchanges, claiming the need to safeguard customers from emotional purchases as the basis for the forced involvement.
Tags: Binance, Vasiliev, Russian, WEX, cryptocurrency.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
