Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Alexander Vinnik, a Russian who operated cryptocurrency platform BTC-e, is to be released as part of the exchange that freed American teacher Marc Fogel, a US official said.
Vinnik, who was arrested while on holiday in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the US, was accused of laundering billions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin through BTC-e.
He is in custody in northern California and is awaiting transportation back to Russia. He must forfeit $100mn as a condition of his release.
“We view this as a fair exchange. This wasn’t the merchant of death for a basketball player,” the official said, in an apparent reference to Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who the US released in 2022 in exchange for WNBA player Brittney Griner.
The White House on Wednesday also said an American was among three people released from Belarus, one of whom worked for US government-funded Radio Liberty, though press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide further details about their identities or who might be released from the US in exchange.
Vinnik was accused in 2017 of helping launder money for criminal syndicates around the world, as well as identity theft and facilitating drug trafficking, earning BTC-e more than $4bn worth of bitcoin. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering last year.
Prosecutors also alleged BTC-e was involved in ransomware attacks and other cyber criminal activities.
Fogel was released on Tuesday and was received at the White House late that night by President Donald Trump, Republican congressional leadership and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump declined to comment on whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Fogel.
Witkoff flew to Moscow on his private jet on Tuesday to negotiate the deal to secure Fogel’s return.
The White House described the American’s release as a show of “good faith” from Moscow that would help talks to end the war in Ukraine. It is “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”, US national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Tuesday.
Fogel was detained in 2021 for possession of medical marijuana and was serving a 14-year prison sentence in Russia.
When he arrived at the White House, he said he was “now in a dream world”.
