Alexander Vinnik (Russian: Александр Винник) is a Russian computer expert. From to , he worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange "Russian Bitcoin Suspect Charged in France After Greek Extradition". Bloomberg.
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Six years earlier he and business partner Alexander Vinnik, an electronic cash transfer specialist, had met online and made a life-changing decision to get involved in cryptocurrency trading.
Described by friends as shy men who preferred computers to people, Alexander Vinnik and Alexei Bilyuchenko set up an exchange called BTC-e which was to become notorious. Like similar exchanges around the world, BTC-e offered investors the chance to use real money to buy virtual currencies. Unlike other exchanges in Europe and the US, BTC-e did not ask customers for their ID, meaning that as well as appealing to legitimate investors, it also offered a potential way for organised criminals to launder money.
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Customers flocked to invest in BTC-e and, according to Global Witness, by it had become the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. In July they went on holiday to Greece, unaware US federal agents investigating international money laundering were on their trail.
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Cybercrime experts also thought it was being used by the mysterious Russian hacking group Fancy Bears. A warrant was issued for Alexander Vinnik's arrest and Greek police detained him on the beach, in front of his wife and children. His mother called Alexei Bilyuchenko, who was in a different resort. In a panic, he smashed his laptop, threw it into the sea and jumped on the next flight to Moscow.
Russia: Greek ruling on Russian bitcoin fraud suspect is illegal
Back home in Novosibirsk, Mr Bilyuchenko decided to try to recoup his losses by setting up another exchange called Wex World Exchange Services. At this stage, according to the version of events he later told police, and which has been shared with the BBC, Alexei Bilyuchenko decided he needed a backer to offer some protection.
He says he was introduced to Konstantin Malofeyev, a Moscow-based billionaire, with strong ties to both the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. Mr Malofeyev, who made his fortune in investment banking, is currently under US and EU sanctions for alleged links to rebel fighters in Eastern Ukraine.
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In his police statements Alexei Bilyuchenko says he was invited to Moscow several times to meet Mr Malofeyev in his offices in a high-end shopping plaza. The topic of how much money Wex was generating allegedly figured large in their conversations, as did the question of what might have happened to the funds held by BTC-e until the FBI swooped. By summer , trading on Wex was slowing down, and at the end of the year it stopped altogether.
Angry clients began demanding their money back and one filed a complaint with police in Russia's Chuvashiya region.
Russian Bitcoin Suspect Charged in France After Greek Extradition - BNN Bloomberg
He said he had actually lost control of Wex in the spring of , several months before it officially collapsed. He said that at a meeting in Konstantin Malofeyev's Moscow office he had been introduced to some men he understood were agents from the security service, the FSB. They asked him about Wex and then took him to the luxury Lotte hotel near the Russian foreign ministry where he says he remained under guard all night.
According to Mr Bilyuchenko, the next morning he was taken back to Mr Malofeyev's office, where it was strongly suggested he should move the funds held by Wex into "an FSB fund", which he agreed to, and, according to him, on his next visit to Moscow he transferred everything as requested.
Back home in Novosibirsk, it began to dawn on him, he says. He had, he claims, been the victim of a scam and, rather than transferring the money into state coffers, he had actually been tricked into handing it over to Mr Malofeyev's associates. Since telling his story to the police Mr Bilyuchenko has gone into hiding.
Greece: Mother urges mercy for Russian bitcoin fraud suspect
Private security guards now protect his home and he has declined to speak to the BBC or anyone else about Wex. Alexander Terentiev, who heads a campaign group for defrauded investors, told the BBC he was not convinced. Alexander Vinnik made his final appearance at an Athens court Wednesday amid an ongoing legal battle between the U.
Greece's justice minister will ultimately decide on whether Vinnik will be sent to Russia or the U. The case was heard amid growing global interest in virtual currencies and their underlying blockchain technology, fuelled by the ongoing boom in the price of bitcoin. The year-old former bitcoin platform operator denies any wrongdoing but is not contesting the Russian request on less serious charges. He was arrested at a northern Greek holiday resort in July and a lower court has already approved his extradition to the U.
Ilias Spyrliadis, a lawyer for Vinnik's defense, said they would formally respond after Wednesday's decision is published, in about one week.