Russian Alexander Vinnik, accused of laundering at least $4 billion through the BTC-e Bitcoin exchange, has petitioned a U.S. court for bail in connection with the delays in the proceedings. This was reported by «Известия» citing the defendant’s lawyers.
The defence said that Vinnik has been held for several months, but the court’s required documents have not yet been provided. Within 60 days they hope to obtain the case papers for review.
Thus, the court hearing has been postponed again.
“For obvious reasons [Vinnik] is very upset and believes that he should be released on bail or allowed to exercise his right to a speedy trial, because the US government has not fulfilled its obligations by promising to present evidence in this case,” the lawyers said.
In the United States, Vinnik faces up to 55 years in prison.
As a reminder, Alexander Vinnik was detained in Greece in the summer of 2017. In 2020 he was extradited to France, where he was later sentenced to five years in prison and fined €100,000 for money laundering. The charges of extortion and the creation of the ransomware malware Locky were dropped.
In early August 2022, the Russian was taken to the United States. The court refused to release him on bail.
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