Alexander Vinnik, a cybercrime mastermind now awaiting trial in California, has pleaded partially guilty, his lawyer informed
Alexander Vinnik, a Russian accused cybercrime kingpin who was detained in Greece in 2017, convicted of money laundering in France three years later, and is now awaiting trial in California, has pleaded partially guilty, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Arkady Bukh, Vinnik’s lawyer, stated that, as a result of the plea deal, he now expects Vinnik to be sentenced to less than ten years in prison.
“He pleaded guilty on a restricted number of charges,” Bukh told, adding that Vinnik faced life in jail.
“The deliberations culminated in an agreement with the prosecutor’s office. We expect the prison term to be up to ten years.”
Vinnik, suspected of laundering more than $4 billion using the digital currency bitcoin, was detained in Greece in 2017 at the request of the United States, despite Moscow’s repeated demands that he be extradited to Russia.
He was extradited to France from Greece, where he was sentenced to five years in prison for cybercrimes, including money laundering, before being returned to Greece and eventually to the United States in 2022.
Vinnik, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, “allegedly owned, operated, and administrated BTC-e, a significant cybercrime and online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade in bitcoin with high levels of anonymity and developed a customer base heavily reliant on criminal activity.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice website, Vinnik faces a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison for the accusations brought against him.
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