Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national suspected of bitcoin fraud whose extradition is being sought by three countries, was admitted to a specialist clinic Thursday for treatment after a three-month hunger strike, his lawyer Timofey Musatov said. Vinnik was arrested in July 2017 on a request from the United States in connection with a 4-billion-dollar bitcoin fraud case. France then sought his extradition on fraud and money-laundering charges, followed by Russia, which would like to pin some more minor fraud charges on him as well. Greece’s Supreme Court ruled in 2017 to extradite Vinnik to the United States. However, the court later revised its decision and ruled that he must be extradited to Russia at the request of the Russian prosecutor’s office. He would then have to go to France on a European arrest warrant, which was issued in Paris. It is worth reminding that according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Vinnik’s Russian defense lawyer Timofey Musatov maintains BTC-e is; “Just a website that allows people to use new technology and digital currency, which only recently became exchangeable for fiat [physical] money… It’s not a financial exchange similar to stock or currency exchanges. It’s simply a platform.” |
