Alexander Vinnik’s lawyer says he could be extradited to the United States.

A French court ruled in the case of Russian national Alexander Vinnik, potentially enabling his extradition to Greece, and thereafter to the United States.

According to «Ъ», lawyer Frédéric Belo said the court rejected the cassation petition challenging the five-year sentence:

«As a result, Alexander Vinnik, who has already served his prison term, will be transferred to Greece, and then to the United States, since Greece has already granted the extradition request to the United States».

The transfer was due to take place on Thursday, 30 June. However, the defence filed an urgent appeal to suspend Vinnik’s expulsion from France, and also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

In 2017, the Russian national was detained in Greece on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange. At the same time, U.S. authorities confiscated the BTC-e domain.

The court granted the extradition request for Vinnik at the request of three countries — the United States, Russia and France.

In 2019, Greek authorities decided to extradite him to France. The Russian national was extradited to France in January 2020.

In December, the Russian was found guilty of laundering funds through BTC-e, sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of €100 000.

If extradited further to the United States, Vinnik could face more than 50 years in prison.

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