A 38-year-old Russian citizen, Alexander Vinnik, was arrested this week in Greece, charged with money laundering through Russian Exchange BTC-e. This would not be unusual, if Vinnik had allegedly not laundered four billion dollars. At the same time, there are convincing indications that he played a key role in the collapse of the Japanese stock exchange Mt.Gox.
Vinnik was the key man of the Russian Exchange BTC-e, which was established in 2011, through which almost 3% of all traffic with bitcoins goes. Market is popular for laundering illegally acquired bitcoins, because due to its location in Russia, it is beyond the reach of Western law enforcement agencies.
Vinnik lived in Greece and since 2011, according to the US Prosecutor's Office, he has laundered $4.billion into bitcoins through BTC-e. Therefore, negotiations are underway on the extradition to the United States. Even more surprising is the news that Vinnik is connected to the failed Japanese exchange Mt.Gox. From Mt.Gox disappeared more than 600,000 bitcoins, which today would be worth around 1.5 billion euros.
He is very well aware of the whole scheme and knows who is responsible.