Trump Swaps Alexander Vinnik for American Marc Fogel
Donald Trump has exchanged Alexander Vinnik for American teacher Marc Fogel, who was serving a sentence in a Russian prison. This was reported by the president’s administration to journalists at the NYPost.
Marc Fogel is a former employee of the US embassy, who was arrested in August 2021 at Sheremetyevo Airport (Moscow) for drug smuggling. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Vinnik was detained in the summer of 2017 in Greece on suspicion of connections with the BTC-e exchange and money laundering. In 2020, he was extradited to France, where he was later sentenced to five years in prison and fined €100,000. Charges of extortion and creating the Locky malware were dropped.
In August 2022, Vinnik was taken to the United States, where he faced 55 years in prison. The court refused to release him on bail.
In May 2024, the Russian pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money through a trading platform. He was held liable for losses amounting to at least $121 million. In his homeland, Vinnik was also accused of fraud.
In a comment to ForkLog, Exved CEO Sergey Mendeleev noted that the BTC-e case in the US is not yet closed: Alexander Klimenko is awaiting trial, and Alexander Werner is on the wanted list. According to the speaker, Vinnik was released after a personal decree from Trump, and it will not affect other figures in the case.
“[Vinnik] will, of course, not be imprisoned in Russia, despite the criminal case, the search, and the confession. But I wouldn’t be too optimistic, as too many people are convinced that he has a lot of money. […] So let’s see how events unfold. But I am glad that the children can finally hug their father, and the mother her son,” added Mendeleev.
Back in March, a verdict in the case of WEX’s ‘red admin’ Alexey Bilyuchenko (Ivanov) came into force in Russia. Alongside Vinnik, as well as Belarusian and Cypriot citizen Alexander Klimenko, he owned the BTC-e exchange from 2011 to July 2017, according to the US Department of Justice.
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