Russian Alexander Vinik, who was arrested in the US, made a deal with the US Attorney's Office and pleaded guilty in the Northern District Court of California to a money laundering case, his lawyer Arkady Bukh told TASS, adding that his client will spend less than 10 years in prison.
„The culmination of the negotiations was the deal with the prosecution; we expect the prison term to be up to 10 years,” said Buch. “He pleaded guilty to a limited number of charges”.
Buch noted that at the sentencing hearing, the defense will try to further reduce the prison term, citing the fact that Vinik has been in custody since 2017. The next week for the date of the hearing for the sentence of the Russian to become known.
Vinnik's lawyer clarified that the prosecutor's office charged Vinnik with crimes for which he could have received life in prison, but the deal with the state prosecution allowed the prison term to be reduced to “single digits”. years.
Vinik was detained in Greece on July 25, 2017 at the request of the United States, where he was accused of laundering between $4 billion and $9 billion through the now-defunct online cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e. He was extradited to the United States on August 4, 2022