Daily fraud update: 24th December

BTC-e operator to be extradited from Greece

A man who was responsible for a notorious cryptocurrency exchange has been told he will face extradition from Greece to France.

Alexander Vinnik, who has been in custody since 2017, will be sent to France before he is later extradited to the US – and then, eventually, Russia, which is his home.

Vinnik, who formerly ran a platform called BTC-e, is facing a number of charges related to financial fraud.

They range from money laundering and facilitation of hacking to tax refund fraud and identity theft.

More broadly, he is also accused of drug trafficking and public corruption.

He was first arrested in the north of Greece in July of 2017. Since then, the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece said that Vinnik should in fact be sent to Russia.

Vinnik has requested several times that he is sent back to Russia – but there are many stages in between now and that happening.

In a statement released by the Russian Embassy to Greece, diplomatic staff said that they had managed to find out the information by looking at some of the output of the Greek Minister of Justice.

“We got acquainted with the decision of the Greek Minister of Justice, which determines the order of execution of decisions issued earlier by Greek courts on the extradition of the Russian citizen Vinnik to Russia, France and the USA,” it said.

“At the first stage, Vinnik will be extradited to France. We were informed about this by Moscow. We are sorry that the Prosecutor General’s reasonable request Russia ignored Vinnik’s priority extradition to his country of citizenship,” it added.

Fraud concerns over Chinese e-coin

A proposed cryptocurrency expected to be launched by the Chinese government has provoked a mixed response among those who are concerned about crypto fraud.

The “e-yuan”, as it is expected to be known, is believed to be under development in the country.

And according to press reports in recent days, two major payments platforms, Ant Financial and Tencent, are expected to be involved in the release and distribution of the coin.

The same reports in the crypto press argued that the e-yuan is in some ways expected to reduce the incidence of fraud.

It is expected that it would be able to tackle the common Chinese problem of borrowers using the same assets as security against lots of different loans, as this sort of duplication could not get past a distributed ledger.

But with recent high-profile alleged fraud cases in China, such as the one against crypto-based fitness app Qubu, it is not quite accepted that the right regulation is in place ahead of any spike in crypto usage that the e-yuan’s release might bring.

The e-yuan could end up being more “cryptic than crypto”, one recent comment piece in Reuters argued.

Denise Jacksone

Share

Tweet

Safest Forex Brokers 2024

	Broker	Info	Best In	Customer Satisfaction Score
#1	Your capital is at risk Founded: 2014	Global Forex Broker	BEST SPREADS Visit broker	4.8
#2	Your capital is at risk Founded: 2006	Globally regulated broker	BEST CUSTOMER SUPPORT Visit broker	4.9
#3	* 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money Founded: 2008	Global CFD Provider	Best Trading App Visit broker	5
#4	Between 74-89 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs Founded: 2010	Global Forex Broker	Low minimum deposit Visit broker	4.9
#5	76% of CFD traders lose money Founded: 2007	Global CFD & FX Broker	ALL-INCLUSIVE TRADING PLATFORM Visit broker	4.9
#6	Your capital is at risk Founded: 2009, 2015 and 2017	Global Forex Broker	Low minimum deposit Visit broker	5
#7	Your capital is at risk Founded: 2006	CFD and Cryptocurrency Broker	CFD and Cryptocurrency Visit broker	5

Forex Fraud Certified Brokers

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.