A bitcoin money launderer, who prosecutors connected to the 2016 Russian interference in the U.S. election, has been released by Donald Trump in exchange for American school teacher Marc Fogel.
Alexander Vinnik, 42, a Russian citizen, was charged in a 21-count superseding indictment in January 2017 and taken into custody in Greece. He was later extradited to the U.S.
He was accused of running digital currency exchange BTC-e and committing money laundering through the site.
Prosecutors previously alleged that Vinnik may also have laundered money for Russian nation-state hackers, including the group Fancy Bear – which was found to have interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Prosecutors said that Vinnik ran the exchange where funds were used to finance the break in of top Democrats. He was not charged with election interference.
Fancy Bear appeared to have laundered cryptocurrency through BTC-e, according to an investigation by digital forensics company Elliptic and the BBC.
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