podcasts | The Cryptocurrency Cold War: Who is Alexander Vinnik?
At the end of July 2017, Alexander Vinnik was arrested while on vacation in Greece at the request of the United States. Vinnik is believed to be a co-owner of a rogue cryptocurrency exchange called BTC-e. But in reality this exchange would be a criminal organization with the aim of laundering cryptocurrencies, according to the Americans. Research by Elliptic, among others, shows that the infamous Russian hacker group Fancy Bear has been doing business with BTC-e. The US suspects Vinnik of running a money laundering scheme worth at least $4 billion.
Read here what exactly the Americans accuse him of
Podcast creator Eline Ronner investigated what happened to the stolen bitcoins from MtGox. In the summer of 2022, she came face to face with Alexander Vinnik and had a long talk with her lawyer Frederic Belot. Her research shows that Vinnik was a major player in the Webmoney system before getting involved with cryptocurrencies. Webmoney is a Russian electronic payment system. The service would not only be monitored by the secret services, but would be the brainchild of Sergey Michaijlov. This man is the former head of the Digital Security Center of the FSB, the Russian security service.
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However, Mikhaylov was arrested in Russia in December 2016 for high treason. He reportedly provided the U.S. Secret Service with Fancy Bear’s data. This allowed the hacker group to be linked to Russia’s efforts to influence the US presidential election. “It’s not direct proof that Alexander Vinnik and Sergey Mikhaylov knew each other, but it’s a very special coincidence,” notes Ronner.
The possible connection between Vinnik and the head of the FSB adds to other rumors that Vinnik has ties to the Russian secret service. The Russian business newspaper Kommersant, among others, suggests that Vinnik has links to the Russian secret services. It had also previously been suggested in other Western media that Vinnik may have ties to the Russian secret service.
Hear the whole story about possible connections between the Russian secret service and the bitcoins stolen by MtGox on The Cold Crypto War podcast.
This article was made possible with support from the Special Fund for Journalistic Projects