The Appeals Court of Thessaloniki decided to extradite to the USA a 38-year-old Russian national Alexander Vinnik suspected to have been involved in money laundering through a platform for bitcoin exchange.
Next to US also Russia had requested the extradition of Alexander Vinnik.
Police arrested Vinnik in a hotel in Halkidiki, Northern Greece, on July 26th. He was spending summer vacations together with his wife and their two children.
US authorities accuse the 38-year-old of laundering 4 billion USD through the BTC-e platform. The money from criminal activities was allegedly legitimized through bitcoins. The Russian national faces charges of money laundering, tax evasion, cyber attacks by hackers seeking ransom.
According to US authorities, Vinnik, “stole identities, facilitated drug trafficking, and helped to launder criminal proceeds from syndicates around the world.”
In addition, BTC-e “was noted for its role in numerous ransomware and other cyber-criminal activity,” receiving more than $4 billion worth of bitcoin over the course of its operation.
The Russian national is also wanted by Moscow on separate fraud charges totalling 9,500 euros.
The suspect has denied all charges and appealed to judges to do not extradite him to the US.
Media reports in September claimed that Vinnik would not contest Moscow’s request for extradition.
The Greek judges decided also to hand over to US authorities the personal computers, the tablets, the mobile phones and everything else that police seized during his arrest.
Alexander Vinnik has the right to appeal against the judges decision, while he is remaining in custody.
