A crypto wallet belonging to the shutdown crypto exchange BTC-e has just moved 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC), currently worth over $165 million, to various exchanges, personal wallets, and other sources on Nov. 23. A Nov. 23 Chainalysis report suggested while this withdrawal is the largest made by BTC-e since April 2018, BTC-e and WEX — an exchange which is thought to be BTC-e’s successor — both sent small amounts of BTC to Russian electronic payments service Webmoney on Oct. 26 before making a test payment on Nov. 11, then transferring out a further 100 BTC on Nov. 21. Of the total …

A court of appeals in Paris has upheld the five-year prison term in the case against BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik. The court upheld a December 2020 verdict and prison sentence, finding that Vinnik/BTC-e had committed money laundering as part of an organized criminal group, and provided false information about the origin of the proceeds. The Parisian court dismissed several requests from Vinnik's defense team, including asking to examine copies of the evidence provided by the FBI. The court also exempted Vinnik from a fine of 100,000 Euros which originally accompanied the December sentence. Vinnik was originally charged with defrauding nearly …

The defense team of Alexander Vinnik, an alleged Bitcoin launderer who was sentenced to a five-year prison term, disagrees with the court’s decision. According to a Dec. 18 report by Russian news agency Kommersant, Vinnik’s attorney Frederic Belot has appealed the French court’s judgement, arguing that the defendant was not involved in any money laundering operations. Citing a Dec. 6 judgement charging Vinnik for “money laundering as part of an organized criminal group,” Belot emphasized that no “criminal group” consists of one person. “The court did not name a single name even supposedly belonging to this group,” Belot reportedly said. …

After years of extradition debates, Bitcoin (BTC) launderer Alexander Vinnik has finally been sentenced by a French court. According to a report on Monday by Novaya Gazeta, Vinnik has been sentenced to five years in prison for "money laundering as part of an organized criminal group and providing false information about the origin of the proceeds" in addition to a fine of 100,000 euro ($121,000). According to the BBC, the court partially dropped charges related to the ransomware known as Locky. As of publishing time, online reports do not specify whether Vinnik’s sentence is related to his alleged senior role …

The trial of the alleged launderer of $4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC), Alexander Vinnik, got underway in Paris on Monday. However, despite reported links to the 300,000 BTC hack of Mt. Gox in 2014, prosecutors are focusing on a 135-million-euro ($159 million) ransomware fraud targeting French businesses and organizations between 2016 and 2018. According to The Associated Press, Russian national Vinnik is being charged with extortion, money laundering and criminal association after 20 victims of the "Locky" malware paid the ransom in Bitcoin through BTC-e. Vinnik is alleged to be one of the creators of the malware and the …

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin's first official commercial purchase. On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz completed the first documented commercial Bitcoin purchase, paying 10,000 for two Papa John's pizzas. Valued at $41 at the time, current market pricing today gives the purchase a $92.5 million price tag. One might logically wonder what happened to the 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) used for the purchase of two pizzas. "Over the years the funds have moved across many addresses," Grant Blaisdell, co-founder and CMO of blockchain analytics company Coinfirm, told Cointelegraph in an email. Some BTC went to a now-defunct exchange, …

After spending 30 months in detention, Greek authorities have finally extradited the Russian national and alleged Bitcoin (BTC) money launderer Alexander Vinnik to France. Prosecutors in France are charging Vinnik, operator of the defunct BTC-e crypto exchange, with multiple counts of money laundering, extortion and conspiracy. Vinnik also has pending extradition requests from both Russia and the United States. The alleged Bitcoin criminal has previously stated his preference for extradition to his native homeland, which Greek officials have turned down. Thus, after the conclusion of his trial in France, Vinnik will return to Greece to face another extradition to the …

$450 million worth of lost cryptocurrency from the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange WEX may have been transferred to a fund belonging to Russian intelligence agency the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), according to an investigation by the BBC’s Russian Service published on Nov. 15. The BBC’s recent investigation into the BTC-e crypto exchange case, in which co-founder Alexander Vinnik stands accused of fraud and laundering as much as $4 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) over the course of six years, has revealed new details which allegedly connect lost customer funds to the FSB. Demands to hand over crypto assets to the FSB The …

Former CEO of now-defunct crypto exchange WEX, a spin-off of controversial BTC-e exchange, was arrested in Italy. No official statement to date Dmitri Vasilyev, who reopened BTC-e exchange as WEX.nz in September 2017, was detained by Italian prosecutors. While no official statement has been disclosed to date, BBC Russia reported the arrest on July 19. In the report, the publication cited an unnamed friend of Vasilev and two anonymous WEX investors. The reason for detention remains unclear. In April 2019, Vasilyev became the subject of a criminal investigation by the police department in Kazakh city Almaty, as the alleged suspect …

Big Four consulting and auditing company PwC has linked Iranian nationals behind Bitcoin (BTC) ransomware scheme SamSam to the crypto exchange WEX in a recent report published in February. The report is based on information that was previously disclosed by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ). As per the DOJ, two Iranians — Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri — were responsible for creating SamSam. SamSam is a ransomware demanding Bitcoin that reportedly damaged multiple U.S. companies, government agencies, universities, and hospitals. Within 34 months the hackers managed to extort over $6 million in Bitcoin and cause …

The lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, the alleged former operator of defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, has said that a district court in Cyprus has withdrawn their lawsuit on charges “of fraud, money laundering and other crimes.” This development was reported by state-operated Russian news agency RIA Novosti Nov. 27. Timofey Musatov, the head of the lawyers’ group representing Vinnik, has said that the district court of Limassol city has formally granted the plaintiffs’ petition to recall their lawsuit against Vinnik and even ruled “to compensate the defendant for all legal costs incurred by him.” Musatov added: “The case against Alexander collapsed …

The lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, the alleged former operator of defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, said his defendant will go on a hunger strike this Monday, Russian state-owned news outlet TASS reported Nov. 23. According to Timofey Musatov, the head of the lawyers representing Vinnik, the reason given for the hunger strike is that “he [Vinnik] was stripped of the right for defense in France and, consequently, in Greece.” The lawyer also noted that “it became clear that the [French-issued] European arrest warrant expired.” In 2017, Greece’s supreme court ruled to extradite Vinnik to the U.S., where he faces charges of …