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The Trump administration has released Alexander Vinnik, a cybercriminal who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, to Russia, as part of an exchange that freed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday.
Vinnik, who arrived in Moscow on a flight from Turkey on Tuesday after having been released from custody in California, is accused of owning and operating one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, BTC-e, which prosecutors allege facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars in transactions for criminals worldwide.
In May 2024, Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder billions of dollars through BTC-e. He was first arrested in Greece in 2017 at the request of the United States after he was charged by a US jury in a 21-count indictment.
The charges against him included money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money service business and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions, among others.
Vinnik was first extradited to France from Greece, where he received a five-year prison sentence for money laundering. He was then sent back to Greece and extradited to the United States in 2022 to face US charges.
The justice department described BTC-e, which was active from around 2011 to 2017, as a “significant cybercrime and online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade in bitcoin with high levels of anonymity and developed a customer base heavily reliant on criminal activity”.
Prosecutors say that BTC-e processed over $9 bn worth of transactions and served over 1 million users globally, including numerous customers in the US.
US prosecutors said that the exchange was one of the “primary ways by which cyber criminals around the world transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities” and accused Vinnik of operating the company with the intent to “promote” unlawful activities. Prosecutors said that he was responsible for more than $120m in losses.
It was reported in 2023 that Vinnik’s lawyers were trying to include him in any potential US-Russia prisoner swap involving detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Vinnik, who is a nonviolent offender, is forfeiting tens of millions of dollars in assets in the exchange, according to the New York Times.
His sentencing was scheduled to take place in June.
Vinnik’s release comes two days after Russian authorities released Pennsylvania school teacher Marc Fogel.
Fogel had been held in Russia since 2021. He was sentenced to 14 years behind bars on drug-trafficking charges after Russian officials discovered less than an ounce of marijuana in his luggage at a Moscow airport.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the release of Fogel could be an “important part” of ending the Ukraine war and that the US gave up “not much” to secure Fogel’s release.
He told reporters: “We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually. I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said in a statement on Tuesday that the US and Russia “negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”.
