The alleged operator of the illicit cryptocurrency alternate BTC-e was extradited yesterday from Greece to the United States to face expenses within the Northern District of California.
“After more than five years of litigation, Russian national Alexander Vinnik was extradited to the United States yesterday to be held accountable for operating BTC-e, a criminal cryptocurrency exchange, which laundered more than $4 billion of criminal proceeds,” mentioned Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This extradition demonstrates the Department’s commitment to investigating and dismantling illicit cyber activity and would not have been possible without the relentless work of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. The Justice Department thanks the Government of Greece, particularly the Ministry of Justice, for all their efforts in securing the defendant’s transfer to the United States.”
Alexander Vinnik, 42, a Russian citizen, was charged in a 21-count superseding indictment in January 2017. Vinnik was taken into custody in Greece in July 2017 on the request of the United States. He made his preliminary look earlier as we speak in federal courtroom in San Francisco earlier than U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.
According to the indictment, Vinnik and his co-conspirators allegedly owned, operated, and administrated BTC-e, a big cybercrime and on-line cash laundering entity that allowed its customers to commerce in bitcoin with excessive ranges of anonymity and developed a buyer base closely reliant on legal exercise.
The indictment alleges BTC-e facilitated transactions for cybercriminals worldwide and obtained legal proceeds from quite a few laptop intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identification theft schemes, corrupt public officers, and narcotics distribution rings, and was used to facilitate crimes starting from laptop hacking, to fraud, identification theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking. The investigation has revealed that BTC-e obtained greater than $4 billion price of bitcoin over the course of its operation.
Despite doing substantial enterprise within the United States, the indictment alleges that BTC-e was not registered as a cash companies enterprise with the U.S. Department of Treasury, had no anti-money laundering course of, no system for applicable “know your customer” or “KYC” verification, and no anti-money laundering program as required by federal legislation.
In 2017, FinCEN assessed a civil cash penalty in opposition to BTC-e for willfully violating U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) legal guidelines and in opposition to Vinnik for his position within the violations. A civil matter to implement civil financial penalties, within the quantity of $88,596,314 as to BTC-e and $12 million as to Vinnik, is pending within the Northern District of California.
The indictment expenses BTC-e and Vinnik with one depend of operation of an unlicensed cash service enterprise, and one depend of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. In addition, the indictment expenses Vinnik with 17 counts of cash laundering and two counts of participating in illegal financial transactions.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation (Oakland Field Office and Cyber Crime Unit, Washington, D.C.), Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Secret Service Criminal Investigative Division are investigating the case.
Trial Attorney C. Alden Pelker of the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Claudia Quiroz of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California are prosecuting the case.
The Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team offered substantial help. The extradition request was dealt with by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
The Justice Department thanks the Greek Ministry of Justice for its cooperation in securing the defendant’s switch to the United States.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed harmless till confirmed responsible past an affordable doubt in a courtroom of legislation.
