Russian national to be released by US named
Russian crypto businessman and computer programmer Aleksandr Vinnik is set to be released from US custody, his lawyer Frederic Belot told RT on Wednesday. The development has been corroborated by multiple media reports citing unnamed US officials.
The upcoming release comes as a part of an exchange between Moscow and Washington that saw Marc Fogel, a former US embassy employee convicted in Russia on drug smuggling charges, returned to the US. Belot did not give a precise time frame for when Vinnik is expected to be released.
“I am very happy [about] this release. I visited Alexander this summer in Santa Rita Jail. He was in very bad situation. I have met many people in the US to push for him to be included in the next exchange/swap. I have met Marc Fogel’s attorneys who were very helpful. It is a real relief for my client and his family,” the lawyer told RT.
The White House confirmed later in the day that Vinnik is the person to be released as part of the exchange.
Vinnik, a computer programmer who was involved with crypto, was arrested in Greece in 2017. Both Russia and the US, as well as France, had sought his extradition at the time on various charges, including hacking, fraud, and money laundering. In 2020, he was extradited to France, yet ultimately ended up in US custody two years later. He eventually pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit money laundering in May 2024.
In the US, Vinnik stood accused of laundering between $4 billion and $9 billion through the now-defunct BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange platform. In Russia, he had been facing similar charges – albeit involving way smaller sums of money – of illegally obtaining 750 million rubles (around $8 million) through “computer information fraud,” as well as stealing an additional 600,000 rubles (some $6,300). Vinnik has repeatedly expressed his readiness to face the charges at home rather than anywhere else, citing the desire to stay closer to his family.
The release of Fogel, who was detained at a Moscow airport in 2021 and sentenced to 14 years behind bars the following year for drug trafficking, was announced by the White House on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump praised the development as “very fair and reasonable deal” and that Moscow did not ask for “much” in return.
