US releasing Russian crypto kingpin who sent $140m in criminal profits to NZ

Alexander Vinnik is escorted by police officers as he arrived at a Greek courthouse in 2017. He was extradited to the US on charges ranging from identity theft and facilitating drug trafficking to money laundering through the Bitcoin exchange he operated. Photo / Getty Images

The United States is releasing Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik as part of an exchange deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel a day earlier, a White House official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, replied “yes” when asked if US authorities had released or would be releasing Vinnik in exchange for Fogel.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin confirmed the two sides had agreed to the “release of Fogel and one Russian citizen, who is held in detention in the United States”, but did not identify him.

Vinnik pled guilty in May 2024 to “conspiracy to commit money laundering related to his role in operating the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e from 2011 to 2017”, according to the US Justice Department.

In March 2023, a High Court judge ruled that $140 million sent to New Zealand by the Russian “computer genius” was global money laundering of criminal profits. The sum was subject to the largest police restraint of funds in this country.

US President Donald Trump’s government has hailed the prisoner exchange as a positive sign for diplomacy between the two countries and for possible negotiations over an end to the Ukraine war.

“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisers negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” US national security adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement.

On Wednesday, US Middle East envoy Witkoff hailed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) “instrumental” role in securing Fogel’s release.

“He has a very strong friendship with President Trump,” he said of the 39-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. “Behind the scenes he was encouraging and pushing and looking for the right result.”

On the Russian side, Witkoff said a man he named only as Kirill also played an “important” role.

“There’s a gentleman from Russia, his name is Kirill, and he had a lot to do with this. He was important, he was an important interlocutor bridging the two sides,” said the US envoy, offering no further details on the man’s identity.

Vinnik was extradited to the United States from Greece in August 2022, hours after he had been released from a French jail.

He was the operator of BTC-e, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges that processed more than $9 billion in transactions, according to US court documents.

US authorities say the exchange was “one of the primary ways by which cyber criminals around the world transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities”.

-Agence France-Presse with Herald staff