Basketball star for crypto launderer? Alexander Vinnik's lawyers consider prisoner exchange: report

Although political tensions may be high between the United States and Russia, authorities still brokered a Trevor prisoner exchange Reed against drug dealer Konstantin Yaroshenko in April.

The legal team for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national recently extradited to the United States for his alleged role in former crypto exchange BTC-e, has reportedly urged officials to consider a prisoner swap.

According to a Reuters report on Monday, a lawyer representing Vinnik called on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to negotiate with US officials to bring the accused Bitcoin (BTC) launderer back to his home country. Russian authorities are currently holding several US citizens on questionable charges, including basketball star Brittney Griner, educator Marc Hilliard Fogel and Paul Whelan, a former Marine detained for allegedly committing espionage.

“The only thing that can save Alexander is for the Russian Federation to enter into negotiations with the American authorities in the context of the exchange of prisoners between the mentioned countries,” a letter from the lawyer reportedly noted. of Vinnik, Frederic Belot.

Vinnik allegedly helped launder approximately $4 billion worth of Bitcoin through his role at BTC-e, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world at the time, with some of the funds possibly coming from the hack of Japan-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox. Greek authorities arrested Vinnik in July 2017, when the French, Russian and US governments fought to secure his extradition.

The US Department of Justice reported that Vinnik had