French court sentenced Alexander Vinnik to 5 years in prison

A French court sentenced Alexander Vinnik as the former operator of the BTC e-exchange to 5 years in prison, so read more today in our latest crypto news.

The French court upheld the 2020 ruling and the prison sentence found Vinnik and his exchange guilty of laundering money as part of an organized crime and providing incorrect information about the origin of the numbers. The Paris court denied requests from Vinnik’s defense team, adding that it is reviewing copies of the evidence compiled by the FBI. The court also waived Vinnik’s fine of € 100,000 associated with the December penalty.

Vinnik was accused of cheating on more than 200 people with ransomware, but the court acquitted him of all malware attack charges in December. Prosecutors asked for a smaller fine and expressed doubts that he could play a victim of his crimes under the law, according to news reports. The defense team plans to file an appeal in cassation within five days as required by law. The Russian computer expert was originally arrested in 2017 while on vacation in Greece at the request of the United States. He was also accused by the United States of laundering over $ 4 billion while still running the BTC e-exchange at the time.

In January 2020, Vinnik was extradited to France and sentenced to five years in prison, and Vinnik’s lawyer Frederic Belot feared at the time that the Greek authorities might reclaim him to Greece. Russia has also submitted an extradition request on humanitarian grounds. Vinnik went on hunger strike in 2018, and Russian human rights inspector Tatiana Moskalkova asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for assistance to investigate Vinnik’s return to Russia. She highlighted Vinnik’s deteriorating health and that his wife was also diagnosed with brain cancer.

It is reported that Russia’s extradition request is being motivated by preventing sensitive data related to the country’s intelligence activities from falling into the hands of foreign enemies. Analysts suggest that Russian intelligence agencies may have used BTC-e to buy BTC for secret operations. If extradited, Vinnik could face charges of computer information fraud in Russia.

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