Court Approves Alleged Bitcoin Fraudster Alexander Vinnik’s Extradition To France

The Greek Supreme Court has ordered alleged Bitcoin fraudster Alexander Vinnik extradited to France, after reports said the country lodged a European Arrest Warrant against the BTC-e exchange operator.

Vinnik was accused of running a money laundering scheme through the exchange that ranged from between $4 billion to $9 billion dollars,

according

to TASS.

Eyewitness News

reported

the warrant from French authorities asserted he defrauded at 100 people across six French cities between 2016 to 2018. He has been detained in Greece since his arrest in July 2017.

A Long Legal Battle

There has been a lot of legal wrangling about where Vinnik should be extradited to.

In 2017, Greece’s Supreme Court

ruled in favor

of his extradition to the United States, but later changed its mind and decided to have him sent to Russia.

Vinnik

told his legal representatives

in November how he would undergo a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary nature of Greek judges. He indicated he would only cease his strike if he were to be extradited to Moscow.

TASS said the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance also ruled to extradite Vinnik to France in conjunction with the Greek Supreme Court. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal of the verdict on Wednesday lodged by Vinnik’s defence team.

Lawyer Timofey Musatov said he would send out petitions to postpone the extradition decision due to the poor state of Vinnik’s health amid the hunger strike.

TASS said the ultimate decision about Vinnik’s extradition would have to be made by Greece’s Minister of Justice or potentially other top leadership due to the varying requests by different countries.

BTC-e Reborn And Under Controversy

CryptoGlobe

reported

in October about the woes faced by the World Exchange Services (WEX) exchange, a rebrand of BTC-e after it was shuttered by authorities. Some users started to file police reports due to the exchange holding funds for several months.

Others have complained about high prices for those who were looking to cash out – that are significantly different from more mainstream exchanges. Questions have also been lingering about the actual owner of the exchange amid rumors of a sale.

Photo courtesy of AFP