Mr Bitcoin, US-Russia prisoner swap talks, and hackers’ go-to lawyer

When news of a potential US-Russia prisoner swap broke last week, a familiar name appeared on the list of possible exchange candidates. Alexander Vinnik, known as "Mr Bitcoin," was arrested while on vacation in Greece in July 2017 on a US warrant for laundering over $4 billion through his crypto exchange, BTC-e. After spending two years in a French prison, he was extradited by Greece to the US in 2022. Vinnik pleaded guilty to money laundering in May 2024.

Although he was initially reported by the RIA news agency as missing from the US federal inmates' database, when the list of Russians exchanged by the US became public, Vinnik was not included.

"As a matter of pattern, they don't send back people who [were] not sentenced," Vinnik's lawyer, Arkady Bukh, told Kathimerini, confirming that efforts were made to include him in the US-Russia prisoner swap. "So [Vinnik] was...