vinnik

ChainCatcher news, according to TASS, the lawyer of former BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik, Arkady Bukh, confirmed that after his release last week, the U.S. has "dropped" the case against Vinnik, and the Northern District Court of California has confirmed that it will dismiss all charges against Vinnik.Previous news, according to The New York Times, as part of a swap with Russia, the U.S. will release Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik in exchange for the release of American citizen Marc Fogel. Vinnik previously operated BTC-e, which was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.He was arrested in 2017 and detained at the request of Washington for allegedly laundering $4 billion through the platform. In May of this year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces 20 years in prison.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, U.S. President Trump has reached a prisoner exchange agreement with Russia, swapping BTC-e exchange's former operator Alexander Vinnik for American teacher Marc Fogel, who was arrested in Russia.Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in May 2024 in a federal court in San Francisco. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, BTC-e assisted in laundering over $4 billion in criminal proceeds during its operation and was involved in the laundering of funds stolen from Mt. Gox. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017, sentenced to 5 years in prison by a French court in 2020, and extradited to the U.S. in 2022.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Reuters, as disclosed by The New York Times on Wednesday, the United States will release Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik as part of a swap for the release of American citizen Marc Fogel.Vinnik operated BTC-e, which was once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. He was arrested in 2017 and detained at the request of Washington for allegedly laundering $4 billion through the platform. In May of this year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces 20 years in prison.

ChainCatcher news, according to Protos, Russia is using Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for some Russians held by the U.S. and its allies, including Alexander Vinnik, the founder of the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange.Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were taken to a location outside of Russia yesterday. According to Business Insider citing TASS, Vinnik and others will be sent in another direction, and their names have been removed from the FBI's electronic database.It is reported that in May of this year, Vinnik pleaded guilty during his time at BTC-e, admitting to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is responsible for approximately $121 million in losses and encouraged criminals to use the platform to launder and store illegal proceeds. Gershkovich and Whelan were arrested in March 2023 and December 2020, respectively, on espionage charges, but the U.S. denies these allegations.

ChainCatcher News: The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators behind BTC-e, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice stated that Vinnik was an operator of BTC-e from 2011 to 2017, during which the exchange processed over 1 million users and transactions exceeding $9 billion.BTC-e was linked to the hack of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which was involved in laundering 300,000 bitcoins. BTC-e was shut down in July 2017, at which time Vinnik was arrested for the first time.The Department of Justice added that BTC-e was not registered as a money services business in the U.S., did not implement any KYC or anti-money laundering rules, and did not collect any customer data. Additionally, Vinnik used shell companies to handle BTC-e's fiat currency exchanges.The press release stated that the exchange did indeed obtain funds from criminal activities, including ransomware attacks, hacks, and other schemes, with Vinnik being directly responsible for approximately $121 million in losses.