The Supreme Court of Greece has approved the extradition of Alexander Vinnik, an alleged bitcoin money launderer, to Russia. The approval came after the Vinnik told the judges that he wanted to be extradited to Russia. The news was reported by Russian media TASS.
Vinnik, a Russian national, was arrested in Greece on the charges of laundering billions of dollars in bitcoin through BTC-e. He has rejected the charges imposed by US and France on him.
Ilias Spirliadis, Defense Attorney of Vinnik informed the media that the ruling of the court will be made public officially on September 14. However, as per the orders of the judge during the hearing, the extradition request of Vinnik to Russia has been approved.
Notably, there are four court rulings on Vinnik as of now which include extradition to France, U.S. and two on his extradition to Russia.
US prosecutors accused Vinnik on the charges of supporting illegal money transactions using bitcoin. His charges include the transfers linked to a Russian military hacking unit, Fancy Bear. Notably, there was a plot to murder Vinnik earlier in May which was not made public by the Greek police so as to support the investigators.
Vinnik was quoted TASS saying that all these charges are ‘fake charges’. He said, “Things won’t be sorted out by France and the US as there is no justice there while things would be sorted out by Russia. Russia will only be able to decide whether I am guilty or not.”
While talking about the prison conditions, he said that there is no problem with my health and I don’t have any complaints.
The extradition to France was allowed by the Supreme Court of Greece in July itself. This was approved on the charges of extortion, money laundering and involvement in a criminal organization.
According to the French police, Vinnik has laundered 133 million euros worth $155 million using 20,643 bitcoins.
