The Supreme Court of Greece has ruled in support of a decision to deliver the alleged former operator of now-defunct crypto exchange BTC-e Alexander Vinnik to France. A “correspondent at the scene” from major Russian state-owned news organization TASS reported the news Dec. 19.
As antecedently reported, 39-year old Russian national Vinnik, a.k.a “Mr. Bitcoin,” was first indicted by U. S. authorities and detained in Greece on July 25, 2017, on criminal charges of fraud and allegedly laundering up to $4 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) via BTC-e.
Russia and France have since each wanted the defendant’s surrender in reference to an extra series of fraud allegations. once a Thessaloniki court ruled in support of Vinnik’s surrender to France this summer, the suspect had appealed against the choice at the country’s highest judiciary.
TASS these days reports that the Supreme Court mentioned Vinnik’s surrender to France on November. 19, however had at first delayed the ruling to November. 29.
Since his detention back in 2017, Vinnik has been held in a Greek jail, and declared a hunger strike in late Nov in protest against the “arbitrariness” of the Greek judges. TASS today cites the suspect as claiming that:
"I have been fasting for twenty-four days already. Yesterday the last time i used to be weighed [in prison], I lost 8 kilogram in keeping with the documents. However they did not immediately begin weighing me, solely on the third day. Therefore I lost 9 kilogram precisely."
Vinnik has reportedly explicit he can solely stop his fast if he's extradited to Russia.
As previously reported, Vinnik’s legal representatives allegedly take into account that his surrender to France can end in his further extradition to the U.S. Following the closure of BTC-e in July 2017, the U.S. has been seeking a penalty of $110 million from BTC-e and another $12 million from Vinnik for his alleged role within the exchange’s Anti-Money laundering (AML) violations.
TASS these days states that a choice over the conflicting surrender requests can possible be settled by the Greek Ministry of Justice, or possibly even the country’s leadership.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a comment this July accusing the Greek authorities of “continu[ing] to complicate relations with Russia,” and requesting that Russia’s surrender request be given priority over that of France.
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