Alexander Vinnik, an alleged operator of the now-defunct cryptocurrency alternate BTC-e, was sentenced to a five-year jail time period for cash laundering on Monday.
A courtroom in Paris discovered the Russian nationwide Vinnik responsible of cash laundering, although French prosecutors additionally charged Vinnik with “extortion, conspiracy and harming computerized data-processing methods.” They alleged that, specifically, he helped to develop the Locky malware. These different prices have been dropped by the courtroom at the moment.
Vinnik was extradited to France from Greece originally of 2020, the place he’d been since his 2017 arrest. Vinnink was arrested at a resort close to the town of Thessaloniki on the request of the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ named him as a mastermind behind one of many first cryptocurrency exchanges, BTC-e, and indicted him on allegations of “pc intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identification theft schemes, corrupt public officers and narcotics distribution rings.” The alternate was shut down on the time, with its area seized by the FBI. The alternate quickly reemerged beneath the title WEX, however went down only one 12 months later.
After Vinnik’s arrest, the U.S., Russia and France fought for his extradition, with France in the end successful. The U.S. continues to be looking for to get Vinnik, mentioned legal professional Frederic Belot, who represents Vinnik. He declined to clarify how this might be achieved.
Belot believes Vinnik had an opportunity for complete acquittal if he participated within the courtroom investigation throughout this 12 months. He selected not to take action on the recommendation of his different two legal professionals, Zoe Konstantopoulou and Ariane Zimra, who had been working with the defendant earlier than Belot joined the case, Belot mentioned.
Belot mentioned all of the proof of Vinnik’s felony habits was offered to the French prosecutor by the FBI. The authenticity of these paperwork may have been contested if Vinnik took a extra energetic position within the investigative course of.
“Alexander determined to maintain silent and to not ask something or reply to any questions of the decide. And the consequence we are able to see is that Alexander is sentenced responsible,” Belot mentioned.
Zimra advised CoinDesk that Vinnik, quite the opposite, “needed to cooperate very a lot and mentioned so,” however he didn’t have entry to his file in Russian, his native language, so he “couldn’t defend himself nor know what was held towards him.” Zimra didn’t make clear if Vinnik truly responded to questions from the courtroom or not.
In keeping with Zimra, Vinnik has two children in Russia and his spouse died of most cancers on Nov. 11. The youngsters, aged six and 9, now reside with their grandmother, Vinnik’s mom, Belot mentioned.
