Who Is Alexander Vinnik? Trump Swaps Russian Crypto Kingpin for US Teacher #CriptoNews

Moscow released the American detainee Marc Fogel in an exchange involving a Russian computer expert who had been arrested in the U.S. on suspicion of laundering billions through the digital currency Bitcoin, it has been reported.

Following the release of Fogel, there was speculation that the detained Russian the Kremlin said he had been swapped for was Alexander Vinnik, who had pleaded guilty in a San Francisco federal court in 2024 on 21 counts of money laundering.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that the U.S. would release Vinnik in “exchange” for Fogel, according to an unnamed U.S. official with knowledge of the matter. Newsweek is not able to verify this report but the Kremlin has said a Russian would be returned to the country in the coming days, and speculation the figure involved is Vinnik has been mounting.

Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Kremlin for comment.

Why It Matters

Russia has used detained Americans as bargaining chips to secure the release of high-profile Russian nationals detained abroad.

U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said the exchange of Fogel was a “show of good faith” from Moscow and was a sign that ties between the U.S. and Russia were heading in a direction which could usher in negotiations over the war in Ukraine.

What To Know

Before the New York Times report, independent Russian outlet The Insider and Politico were among those that had speculated Vinnik would feature in the exchange.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not name Vinnik but said Fogel would be exchanged for a Russian who will soon be returned to Russia in the coming days.

Between 2011 and 2017, Vinnik, 44, from Russia’s Kurgan region, worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange which the U.S. Justice Department described as one of the main ways cybercriminals transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said he was arrested on July 25, 2017, at the request of the U.S. in front of his children, who are now 11 and 14 years old and have not seen him since, while vacationing on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula.

Vinnik was detained on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through Bitcoin and he became the subject of extradition requests by the U.S., France and Russia.

In 2018, he went on a three-month hunger strike in protest at his detention in Greece and finally appeared in a federal court in San Francisco on August 5, 2022, facing a 21-count superseding indictment from January 2017.

RIA Novosti reported that Vinnik’s wife died in 2020, and he was not allowed to attend the funeral.

In May 2024, Vinnik admitted conspiracy to commit money laundering. His lawyer, Arkady Bukh, said he pleaded guilty on a restricted number of charges which indicated a plea bargain to reduce his jail term to less than 10 years, amid the prospect that it could have been several times longer.

Last month, his mother, Vera Vinnik, said she hoped the new Trump administration could see her son released, telling RIA that the U.S. president “has a classic, normal family, he is adequate in this regard, he said that only two genders are recognized, male and female.”

Moscow and Washington were tight-lipped about the terms of the release of Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence for allegedly carrying medically prescribed marijuana in 2021.

What People Are Saying

U.S. Justice Department statement from January 30, 2025: “Alexander Vinnik, 44, was one of the operators of BTC-e, which was one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges…

“BTC-e was one of the primary ways by which cybercriminals around the world transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities.”

What Happens Next

The U.S. is touting the latest swap as showing that the countries can strike a deal, which could be encouraging with regard to Ukraine, but other prisoners languish in Russian jails.

Glenda Garcia, the mother of another American in a Russian jail, Michael “Travis” Leake, said the exchange was the second in which her son “has been left behind by the government he proudly served in uniform.”

In a statement to Newsweekshe appealed to the Trump administration to get her son released as well, saying that “as a mother, I can’t help but wonder when, or if, my son Travis gets to walk into the White House and meet his President along with the other wrongfully detained Americans who remain in Russia.”