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Bloomberg
Greece agreed to hand over a Russian citizen accused of cryptocurrency-related charges in several countries, a move that could bring him closer to facing trial in France or the US.
The Russian, Alexander Vinnik, will be extradited to France, the Russian embassy in Athens said in social media postings that sharply accused Athens of ignoring Moscow’s request for Vinnik’s return home.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and has since been held by authorities there, prompting an extradition battle among France, Russia and the US, each of which has brought charges against him. Vinnik and his legal team in Greece have said they feared that France would hand him over to the US, where he’s accused of supervising a digital-currency exchange that helped criminals launder billions of dollars.
A person familiar with his case said Vinnik would be extradited for trials in France and then the US. The timing wasn’t clear. In a 2017 indictment, US prosecutors in San Francisco accused Vinnik of supervising an exchange, BTC-e, that allowed cybercriminals to move illicit proceeds between cash and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin anonymously and without vetting. France also accuses him of cybercrimes against its citizens.
Vinnik was among a group of Russians arrested in Europe in recent years and sought by the US. Several of them now face hacking and cyberfraud charges in San Francisco, Connecticut and New York.