After serving sentence in France, Alexander Vinnik pleads guilty in the United States 

Alexander Vinnik, a 44-year-old cybercriminal, was extradited to the United States after serving a prison sentence in France. In mid-May 2024, he pled guilty in a US court. He admitted to using the BTC-e platform for money laundering operations. His attorney, Arkady Bukh, explains he “only pled guilty to a limited number of charges,” and hopes for a ten-year sentence at the most. 

The DOJ emphasized the role BTC-e played in world cybercrime between 2011 and 2017. Seized by US authorities in 2017, the cryptocurrency exchange enabled transactions amounting to 9 billion dollars (8.3 billion euros). Out of this amount, at least 121 million dollars (111 million euros) were laundered from criminal activities, including ransomware and the sale of narcotics. 

According to the DOJ, the main operator of the platform, Alexander Vinnik, had also “created a number of shell corporations and accounts throughout the world to allow BTC-e to operate.” Arrested in Greece in 2017 at the request of US authorities, the cybercriminal was first extradited to France. The justice system there suspected him of being involved in the Locky ransomware operation, in addition to his activities with BTC-e.

On December 7, 2020, a Paris criminal court sentenced Alexander Vinnik to five years in prison and a 100,000-euro fine for aggravated and organized money laundering. However, the French justice system acquitted him of the 13 charges concerning Locky, due to lack of material evidence. At the end of his sentence, France extradited him to the United States. The date of his trial in the US is not yet known.