WASHINGTON, Dec 16 Russian Alexander Vinnik, who is in preliminary imprisoned in the state of California, is frustrated by the drag on his trial and is asking the court to release him on bail, according to court documents released on Friday by the Russian defense.
“Generally speaking, these delays resulted in the loss of months of preparation for the trial while Mr. Vinnik was in custody. Understandably, he is very upset and believes that he should be released on bail or allowed to exercise his right to a speedy trial, since the government (USA) failed to fulfill its obligations, promising to provide evidence in this case,» follows from the documents published in the database of the court.
Vinnik was arrested on July 25, 2017 on the Halkidiki peninsula in Greece at the request of the United States. There, he was accused of violating American law and creating, without a license from the authorities of the country, the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange, through which, according to the United States, billions of dollars were laundered. In the United States, Vinnik was threatened with 55 years in prison, that is, in fact, a life sentence.
In January 2020, a Russian was extradited to France on 19 charges, but the court acquitted him of all charges brought by France and sentenced him to five years on one American charge. Moreover, the French court considered that Vinnik did not commit a criminal offense, but a misdemeanor. His term ended, but Vinnik remained in prison. He should have already been returned to Greece for extradition to the United States, but then the ECHR banned the extradition of the Russian to Greece.
In August of this year, Vinnik was extradited from Europe, where he was first transferred from France to Greece. From there he was flown the same day to Boston in a private jet and then flown on a company jet to San Francisco. The French lawyer of the Russian, Frederic Belo, wrote to the leadership of the Foreign Ministry with a request to pay attention to the Vinnik case during negotiations with the United States.