Basketball star for a crypto launderer? Alexander Vinnik’s lawyers consider prisoner exchange: Reports

by · September 6, 2022

The legal team of Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national recently extradited to the United States for his alleged role at defunct crypto exchange BTC-e, has reportedly urged officials to consider a prisoner exchange.

According to a Monday report from Reuters, a lawyer representing Vinnik urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to conduct negotiations with US officials to bring the accused Bitcoin (BTC) launderer back to his home country. Russian authorities currently have several American citizens in custody on dubious charges, including basketball star Brittney Griner, teacher Marc Hilliard Fogel and Paul Whelan, a former Marine who is in custody for allegedly committing espionage.

“The only thing that can save Alexander is for the Russian Federation to enter into negotiations with the US authorities within the framework of the exchange of prisoners between the mentioned countries,” said a letter from Vinnik’s lawyer, Frederic Belot.

Vinnik allegedly helped launder roughly $4 billion worth of Bitcoin through his role in BTC-e, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges at the time, with some of the funds possibly from the hack of Japan-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Authorities in Greece arrested Vinnik in July 2017, as the governments of France, Russia and the United States fought for his extradition.

The US Department of Justice reported that Vinnik had been extradited on August 4 from Greece to the US to face charges related to operating an unlicensed money services business, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and engaging in illegal money transactions. According to authorities, BTC-e has “facilitated transactions for cybercriminals worldwide and received criminal proceeds from a variety of computer intrusions and hacking incidents,” including ransom attacks and drug trafficking.

If convicted of all charges, Vinnik, 43, could face up to 55 years in prison, making any sentence a life sentence. Griner has also been detained since her arrest in February, with many US officials suggesting the Russian government may use the basketball star as political leverage in response to sanctions following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Russia has reportedly engaged in “quiet diplomacy” with the United States after Griner was sentenced to nine years for allegedly possessing vape cartridges containing hashish oil at Sheremetyevo International Airport on August 4. However, reports suggested that the United States was considering trading “Lord” of War” arms dealer Viktor Bout – and not Vinnik – in exchange for Griner and Whelan. In the midst of the war in Ukraine, officials between the two countries were negotiating the exchange of former US Marine Trevor Reed with the Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been convicted of drug trafficking in 2011.