Vinnik, alleged money launderer with ties to BTC-e: “Americans did not offer me any deals”

The Russian media outlet has managed to contact Alexander Vinnik who was detained in Greece after the local authorities received a request from the United States financial supervision bodies.

On 26 July 2017, the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange was offline for more than 24 hours, with users getting nervous and suggesting the scammers in charge of that organization fooled them. However, it quickly became known that the assets belonging to BTC-e, including the domain their website used at the time, were confiscated by the United States authorities. Almost simultaneously, a Russian citizen was arrested in Greece and was called the mastermind of the criminal group that orchestrated $4 billion money laundering with the use of BTC-e.

Since then, the exchange desperately tried to restore its reputation, found unspecified investors, renamed itself to WEX and regained a part of confiscated funds. Vinnik, however, did not manage to defend himself very good by far: he is still under arrest in Greece, awaiting the court decision on where he is going to be deported - Russia or America.

Mr. Vinnik claims in the interview published yesterday that he never avoided law enforcement, considers some action of Americans to be “provocative”, but he rejects the idea that the U.S. representatives informally offered him any kind of deal.

Meanwhile, the attorney of Mr. Vinnik insists that it is the United States authorities who violate the law and behave incorrectly. Overall, the line of Vinnik’s defense seems to be weak and based on counter-accusations.

The decision of the Greece court on the suspect’s extradition is delayed until the 6th of December.