Alexander Vinnik (russian: Александр Винник) is a Russian computer expert. From 2011 to 2017, he worked at

BTC-e BTC-e was a cryptocurrency trading platform primarily targeting Russian auditory with servers located in USA - until the U.S. government seized their website and all funds in 2017. It was founded in July 2011 by Alexander Vinnik and Aleksandr Bil ...

, a Russian

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

BTC-e

Vinnik is alleged to have directed and supervised the operations and finances of the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange from 2011 to 2017. In 2020 the London-based cryptocurrency analysis firm,

Elliptic In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

, believes that BTC-e may have been used by

Fancy Bear Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 (by Mandiant), Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group (by Kaspersky), Sednit, Tsar Team (by FireEye) and STRONTIUM (by Microsoft)) is a Russian cyber espionage group. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has said with a medium level ...

during the 2015–2016

Democratic National Committee cyber attacks The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks took place in 2015 and 2016, in which two groups of Russian computer hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network, leading to a data breach. Cybersecurity experts, as ...

Arrest

On July 25, 2017, Vinnik was arrested in Greece at the request of the U.S. on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through BTC-e. Vinnik has denied the charges. In late July 2017, the U.S. requested Vinnik's

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

from Greece. In early October 2017, his extradition was requested by the

Prosecutor General of Russia The Prosecutor General of Russia (also Attorney General of Russia, russian: Генеральный прокурор Российской Федерации, Generalʹnyy prokuror Rossiyskoy Federatsii) heads the system of official prosecution i ...

. In late June 2018, France requested his extradition, accusing him of

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. In early July 2018, Russia submitted a new extradition request, reportedly based on a confession to additional hacking offenses. In November 2018, Vinnik went on a three-month hunger strike in protest of his detainment in Greece. In January 2020, Vinnik was extradited to France. In June 2020,

New Zealand Police The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintai ...

announced the seizure of $90 million from WME Capital Management, a company in New Zealand registered to Vinnik. On August 5th, 2022 the United States Justice Department released a statement saying he made his first appearance that morning for the 21-count superseding indictment from January 2017. The federal court he appeared at was in San Francisco, CA

Sentencing

In December 2020, Vinnik was acquitted on involvement with the Locky ransomware charges, but was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering.

U.S. Extradition

On August 4, 2022, Vinnik was extradited from Greece to the United States to face charges of money laundering and operation of an unlicensed money service business in the US.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinnik, Alexander Living people People associated with Bitcoin People from Kurgan, Kurgan Oblast Russian businesspeople in information technology Year of birth missing (living people)