Alexander Vinnik Admits Part Of It, Hopes To Reduce Sentences

Alexander Vinnik, a suspect in Russia's cybercrime king who was arrested in Greece in 2017 (photo: x @apedinapes)

JAKARTA - Alexander Vinnik, a suspect in Russia's cybercrime king who was arrested in Greece in 2017, was found guilty of money laundering in France three years later. Now he is awaiting trial in California. Vinnik has pleaded partially guilty, as quoted by the TASS news agency from his lawyer on Saturday, May 4.

His lawyer, Arkady Bukh, said that as a result of the plea bargain deal, he now expects Vinnik to be sentenced to less than 10 years in prison.

Plea bargain is a legal process in which the defendant in a criminal case voluntarily agrees to admit his guilt for a certain criminal act as part of an agreement with the prosecutor. In the plea bargain, the defendant agreed to admit his guilt in the exchange for several benefits or relief from the prosecution or court.

"He pleaded guilty to a limited number of charges," said Bukh as reported by TASS, adding that Vinnik had previously faced life imprisonment. "The peak of the negotiations is an agreement with the prosecutor's office. We expect that the prison sentence will reach 10 years," said Bukh.

Vinnik, accused of washing more than $4 billion through bitcoin's digital currency, was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the United States, although Moscow has repeatedly demanded that it be returned to Russia.

He was extradited to France from Greece where he was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering before being sent back to Greece and then to the United States in 2022.

The US Department of Justice has said that Vinnik "is suspected of possessing, operating, and managing BTC-e, a significant cybercrime entity and online money laundering that allows users to trade bitcoins with a high level of anonymity and develop customer bases that rely heavily on criminal activity."

The maximum sentence for US charges against Vinnik is 55 years in prison, according to the US Department of Justice website.