Extradition of Russian bitcoin suspect to France delayed

[ATHENS] The extradition to France of a Russian suspected of money laundering on the bitcoin exchange BTC-e has been postponed, his lawyer said on Monday.

Alexander Vinnik, 40, has been in Greek custody since his arrest in July 2017 in the tourist resort of Halkidiki.

He started a hunger strike on December 20, when Greece's justice ministry decided to extradite him to France.

His French arrest warrant says Vinnik defrauded more than 100 people in six French cities between 2016 and 2018.

His lawyer Zoe Constantopoulou said Greek authorities "issued a temporary postponement of the extradition of Alexander Vinnik to France, the United States and Russia, recognising the danger that could represent."

Sought also by the US and Russia, Vinnik wanted to be extradited to Russia, where he is wanted on lesser fraud charges.

His wife and two children live there, and his lawyers claim that his life would be in danger if he were extradited to France or the US.

Separate Greek court decisions had previously approved the extradition requests of all three countries.

The final decision was up to the Greek justice ministry.

BTC-e, founded in 2011, became one of the world's largest and most widely used digital currency exchanges.

According to the US indictment, BTC-e is also suspected of having played a role in online extortion and other cyber-crimes.

Vinnik denies the charges.

AFP