INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Alexander Vinnik, a Russian citizen accused of supervising a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly helped criminals launder billions of
dollars, has been extradited to the United States following a years-long extradition battle between Russia, the United States and France.He
now faces up to 50 years in American prison.Vinnik was in December 2020 sentenced to five years in French prison for money laundering, but
was cleared of an original charge that he had defrauded nearly 200 individuals using ransomware through the cryptocurrency exchange known as
expected to make an initial court appearance in the United States Northern District of California, according to CNN.A United States
indictment accuses Vinnik of 21 charges ranging from identity theft and facilitating drug trafficking to money laundering and operating an
unlicensed money service in the United States United States investigators suspect Vinnik of being the mastermind of what they say has
become one of the main ways cybercriminals launder their illegal gains.He allegedly operated the BTC-e bitcoin exchange until his arrest in
the northern Greek tourist resort of Halkidiki
The United States Justice Department alleges that BTC-e had received more than $4 billion in bitcoins before it shut down in 2017.The
United States Treasury Department had in 2017 evaluated a $12 million fine against Vinnik and a $110 million civil penalty against BTC-e
for alleged money laundering.Vinnik tried unsuccessfully to be extradited to Russia, where he is wanted on lesser fraud charges involving
