Supreme Court Of Greece Rules To Extradite Alleged BTC-e Owner Alexander Vinnik To Russia
The Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece has ruled to remove affirmed BTC-e proprietor Alexander Vinnik to Russia to face a few cyber fraud charges, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports Tuesday, September 4. The formal choice on removal to Russia will be issued September 14, becoming effective that same day.
During the real hearing, the Supreme Court will also consider France’s request on the alleged BTC-e proprietor’s removal.
As per RIA, Vinnik concurred with his removal to Russia. “[This case] is now up to politicians and their will,” his lawyer Timofey Musatov expressed.
The U.S., France, and Russia are presently contending about the location of Vinnik’s removal. A few Greek courts have previously decided for each of the three nations, with an official conclusion taken by Greek Minister of Justice.
Vinnik was arrested by Greek police back in July 2017 as the U.S. Bureau of Justice sentenced for extortion and money laundering around $4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC).
France later accused Vinnik of “defraud[ing] over 100 people in six French cities between 2016 and 2018”.
Around that time, the Russian government also interceded for the situation, requesting to remove the Russian national to his home origin. The amount of extortion Vinnik is accused of in Russia is equivalent to 667,000 rubles (around $9,800), RIA had revealed a year ago.
Days before the last hearing in the Supreme Court, Vinnik’s lawyer Makarov accused French prosecutors of attempting to address Vinnik without Greek official’ authorization, Cointelegraph revealed a week ago.
