The United States will release a Russian citizen as part of the exchanging prisoners, which brought home American teacher Mark Fogel.
Alexander Vinic was arrested in 2017 on charges of billions of dollars with the help of virtual currency bitcoin. A large US jury has accused Vinic of 21 charges related to laundry of stolen funds, BBS reported, before which the White House confirmed Vinic’s identity and the upcoming release.
President Donald Trump also said earlier that another detainee would be released in Fogel’s exchange after he was released from prison in Russia and returned to the United States on Tuesday night.
Vinic was running the BTC-E cryptocurrency exchange. He was arrested in Greece at the request of US authorities, who thought he was responsible for laundering about $ 4 billion through the stock exchange.
He pleaded guilty to the allegations last May and was awarded a 20 -year prison prison.
According to the US Department of Justice, BTC-E has been used by cybercriminals around the world to transfer, wash and preserve revenue from illegal crimes, including hacker incidents, ransomware attacks, identity schemes, corrupt government officials and drug sales.
Apart from Wednesday, the White House announced that Belarus had released three detainees after a US representative traveled to Minsk to negotiate their release.
The US hostage envoy Adam Boler said in an interview with CNN that an American was among the three detainees. He said Belarus released another detained last week, which is now in Texas.
He pointed only the first names of several of the released, one of which is a “famous journalist”.
Boler said the United States had provided a “deal”, but Belarus received nothing in return. He added that Trump was “deeply engaged” in the negotiations.
Boler told reporters that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has agreed to the release, “to make fun of Trump. He also called on Venezuela, Iran and Gaza leaders to release the Americans who, according to him, are captured.
Belarus is a strong ally of Russia, but it remains unclear whether the deal is related to the exchange of prisoners between the US and Russia.
Journalist Andrei Kuznechik, a father of two, is among the released, his employer Radio Freedom reported in a statement.
Radio freedom, also known as Radio Free Europe, is an organization funded by the US government, which broadcasts news in areas of the world where the free press can be restricted or not yet established.
“This is a joyful day for Andrei, his wife Alesi and their two young children. After more than three years of division, this family is again together thanks to President Trump,” said company president Stephen Kapus in a statement.
Kuznechik was arrested in November 2021 on charges of hooliganism and sentenced to 10 days, according to radio freedom. Before he was released, he was accused of creating an extremist group and sentenced to six years.
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