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Alexander Vinnik, a Russian who operated Cryptocurrency BTC’s platform, will be released as part of the exchange that liberated US teacher Marc Fogel, one US official said.
Vinnik, who was arrested while on vacation in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the US, was accused of clearing Bitcoin worth billions of dollars through BTCs.
He is in custody in northern California and is waiting for transportation to Russia again. He must lose $ 100 million as a condition of his release.
“We see this as a fair exchange. This was not the death dealer for a basketball player, ”the official said in a noticeable reference to the Russian weapons trader Victor Bout, whom the US released in 2022 in exchange for WNBA Brittney Griner player.
The White House on Wednesday also said that an American was among three people issued by Belarus, one of whom worked for Radio Liberty funded by the US government, although press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide further details about with their identity or who can be released from the US in return.
Vinnik was charged in 2017 of the aid of money laundering for criminal unions worldwide, as well as theft of identity and facilitating drug trafficking, earning BTC more than $ 4 billion worth of Bitcoin. He pleaded guilty to the plot to make money laundering last year.
Prosecutors also claimed that BTC-E was involved in Ransomware attacks and other criminal activities online.
Fogel was released on Tuesday and received at the White House late that night by President Donald Trump, the head of the Republican Congress and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump refused to comment on whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for Fogel.
Witkoff flew to Moscow on his private plane on Tuesday to negotiate the deal to ensure Fogel’s return.
The White House described America’s release as a “good faith” show from Moscow that would help talks to end the war in Ukraine. It is “a sign that we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said Tuesday.
Fogel was arrested in 2021 for the possession of medical marijuana and was serving a 14 -year prison sentence in Russia.
When he arrived at the White House, he said he was “now in a dream world”.
