Alexander Vinnik, a 45-year old Russian man accused of running a money laundering operation using bitcoin, has been identified by The New York Times as the man released by the United States which enabled the return of American school teacher Marc Fogel, who had spent over three years in Russian prison.
"Vinnik operated BTC-e, once one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. He was arrested in 2017 and detained at Washington's request on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through the exchange," Reuters has detailed.
He faced 20 years in US federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering back in May. He was first arrested in Greece and 2017 and was subsequently extradited to the United States.
The 2024 San Francisco federal court case included 21 counts of money laundering. The Kremlin did not initially confirm the identity of the freed Russian who was part of the Fogel exchange.
Trump's National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Tuesday characterized the exchange of Fogel was a "show of good faith" by Moscow, and the deal is widely being seen as signaling positive momentum toward starting US-sponsored Ukraine peace talks.
According to a backgrounder on Vinnik:
Between 2011 and 2017, Vinnik, 44, from Russia's Kurgan region, worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange which the U.S. Justice Department described as one of the main ways cyber criminals transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said he was arrested on July 25, 2017 at the request of the U.S. in front of his children, now aged 11 and 14 who have not seen him since, while vacationing on Greece's Halkidiki peninsula.
In total he's suspected of having laundered a whopping $4 billion in illicit funds through the Bitcoin exchange he operated. France had also been involved in the investigation and manhunt, and Russia too had requested his extradition.
The fact that Moscow would want him back enough to conduct a high level prisoner swap suggests his money laundering may have been done in connection with the Russian state actors, intelligence, or top officials.
Interestingly, his mother Vera Vinnick had told RIA last month that Trump is the president who could help get her son out of US custody. She explained of Trump, he "has a classic, normal family, he is adequate in this regard, he said that only two genders are recognized, male and female."
President Trump endured harsh weather to welcome American Marc Fogel home as he arrived by plane in D.C. Tuesday...
Marc Fogel of Pennsylvania had languished in Russian prison since he was detained in August 2021 at a Russian airport for Marijuana, which he said was for medical use.
Fogel's family had long complained that his case was forgotten by the Biden administration who secured Griner's release (in Dec. 2022) in exchange for arms trafficker Viktor Bout earlier in the war, a controversial trade to say the least.
The Biden administration had long come under fire for focusing on WNBC star Griner's case, for reasons of "fame" and media focus, while Fogel and others in Russian prison were largely passed over for forgotten by the Democratic administration...
Vinnik's release is certainly going to be less controversial, given his crimes are non-violent in nature, vs. Bout who was a notorious arms dealer supplying various sides of conflicts from Africa to Asia and throughout the globe.