The United States and Russia are at loggerheads over the extradition of a Russian cryptocurrency magnate arrested and detained in Greece. Apparently, according to rumors, the Kremlin spies used cryptocurrencies with the complicity of the company under investigation.
The tycoon in question is Aleksandr Vinnik, 39 years, which in the 2011 co-founded BTC-e, an international cryptocurrency trading platform. BTC-e allowed users to buy or sell various cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and litecoin, using Russian rubles, US dollars or European Union euros. Although headquartered in Russia, BTC-e's servers were located in Bulgaria, while its operations were conducted through its offshore components in Cyprus and the Seychelles.
In 2015, BTC-e was reportedly working on around 3% of the world's daily cryptocurrency trading volume. But, according to some sources, the company covered 70% of the world's criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies. Washington argues that the company was built essentially to hedge criminal activity, as it was able to conduct monetary transactions online without being monitored by governments.
In 2017, US authorities seized BTC-e's website, ending the company's operations. Washington also pushed authorities in Greece to arrest Vinnik while he was on vacation at a Greek resort with his family. The Russian co-founder of BTC-e is now in a Greek prison, awaiting a decision by the Greek authorities to extradite him to the United States. In that case, he will be tried for 21 cases of international money laundering and a number of other criminal charges.
Interestingly, however, shortly after Vinnik's arrest, the Russian government filed a court order to have him extradited from Greece to Russia, where he is said to be wanted on minor fraud-related charges. In addition, it was learned that the Greek government was directly contacted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to facilitate his extradition. France also tried to have Vinnik extradited instead of the United States.
Why so much interest? Many argue that American authorities have moved against BTC - and after realizing that Russian spies used the company to hide their tracks as they tried to intrude in the 2016 US presidential election.
A recent report from the State Department's RFE / RL news website states that a number of London-based observers from groups such as Global Witness and Elliptic Enterprises believe that there are strong links between Russian espionage agencies and BTC-e.
The US authorities were able to access information on the inner workings of the BTC-e website. They are likely seeing Vinnik as an intelligence asset, which can potentially shed light on the company's alleged role as a money laundering mechanism for Russian spies, and possibly others as well.