Vinnik’s Defense Engages in Plea Negotiations in the US

The defense team for Russian national Alexander Vinnik, accused by US authorities of laundering at least $4 billion through the bitcoin exchange BTC-e, is in plea negotiations. This was stated by lawyer Arkady Bukh in a comment to RIA Novosti.

According to him, the defense hopes to secure the best possible deal for their client from the US government.

“I hope the negotiations do not fall through, and we manage to reach an agreement with the prosecution to avoid a jury trial,” Bukh is quoted by TASS.

The next hearing in Vinnik’s case is scheduled for May 3 in San Francisco.

The substantive hearing will take place on September 30.

Earlier, Bukh suggested that his client might plead guilty if there is a “strong evidence base against him.”

Back in the summer of 2017, Alexander Vinnik was arrested in Greece. In 2020, he was extradited to France, where he was later sentenced to five years in prison and fined €100,000 for money laundering. Charges of extortion and creating the Locky malware were dropped.

In August 2022, Vinnik was transferred to the US, where he faces 55 years in prison. The court denied his release on bail.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the verdict in the case of WEX’s “red admin” Alexey Bilyuchenko (Ivanov) has come into force. 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.