The Supreme Court of Greece granted the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and decided to extradite the accused of machinations with bitcoins Alexander Vinnik to Russia. Officially, the court decision will be published on September 14.
Alexander Vinnik was detained in Greece last July at the request of the United States. The U.S. Justice Ministry accuses him of money laundering and fraudulent transactions with a cryptocurrency of more than $4 billion. France has also declared its claims to Vinnik, where he is suspected of counterfeiting and extortion.
Vinnik himself said that he would prefer to be extradited to Russia. The court of Thessaloniki in October and December 2017 satisfied both: the U.S. request for the issue of Vinnik and the request of Russia. After the request of Paris on July 13, the court also decided to extradite Vinnik to France on an expedited basis.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- According to the San Francisco jury, Vinnik used the bitcoin-exchange BTC-e for money laundering.
- According to the prosecution, he laundered the money that was received after the hacker attack on the Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Then, in 2014, 850,000 bitcoins (about $500 million as of the time of the kidnapping) were abducted from it, of which 306,000 were withdrawn to the BTC-e-related electronic wallets.