Wed, September 18

Russian BTC-E Operator To Spend Five Years in Jail

Russian BTC-E Operator To Spend Five Years in Jail Bitcoin News

Alexander Vinnik is a Russian computer expert. From 2011 to 2017, he worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange. According to a report by TASS, the Court of Appeal of Paris upheld the five-year prison term for Russian Alexander Vinnik, convicted in France on money laundering charges.

At the command of the U.S., Vinnik was captured in Greece in 2017, provoking a three-route fight among France, Russia, and the U.S. for his extradition. Finally with France at last winning. While on vacation in Greece, the Russian computer expert was confined in July 2017 in line with the United States.

The U.S. blames him for laundering more than $4 billion while working the now-dead crypto trade BTC-e. Vinnik was extradited to France in January 2020, where he was condemned to five years in jail in December.

However, his attorney, Frédéric Bélot, is afraid that Greek may need him back to Greece after the sentence to confront extradition to the United States on comparative charges.

Furthermore, Russia has likewise filed an extradition demand referring to humanitarian grounds.  Nonetheless, it has been accounted for that Russia’s extradition demand might be persuaded by forestalling sensitive information.  Regarding its intelligence operations from coming under the reach of foreign enemies.

Evidently certain experts proposing Russian intelligence offices may have utilized BTC-e to secure Bitcoin for classified activities. Whenever extradited, Vinnik would confront the lighter charges of “fraud in the field of computer information” in Russia.

Efforts by the Defense Team

Russian basic freedoms ombudswoman, Tatiana Moskalkova, looked for the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She vouched for him to be brought back as Vinnik went on a hunger strike in Greece in November 2018.

Hence at that point, she underscored the weakening soundness of both Vinnik and his better half, who had been determined to have brain cancer.

The defense team intends to record a cassation claim within five days as needed by French law. Several requests from Vinnik’s defense team were dismissed by the Parisian court, including requesting to go through copies of the evidence given by the FBI.

However, Vinnik was exempted from a fine of 100,000 Euros which initially went with the December sentence. He was initially accused of duping almost 200 individuals utilizing ransomware, yet the court found him not guilty in December.

The prosecution had requested a more modest fine. Communicating concerns that he would have the option to pay out the casualties of his violations, as per Russian state media source TAAS.

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