Alexander Vinnik sentenced in France to five years in prison and a fine

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Александр Винник приговорен во Франции к пяти годам тюрьмы и штрафу

The court in Paris found Alexander Vinnik guilty of laundering money under aggravating circumstances. Vinnik was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of € 100 000.

According to TASS, 7 December Parisian court made decisions in the case of Alexander Vinnik, The hearing is Started
in October. Vinnik was accused of involvement in the creation of the Loki-Sipper virus (Locky), money laundering and extortion.

In France, According to local law enforcement agencies, 20 companies and municipal departments paid a ransom through the BTC-E exchange, the operator of which was Alexander Vinnik. According to Echo of Moscow, Initially, French prosecutors demanded to appoint Vinnik ten years in prison and a fine of € 750,000.

The court in Paris sentenced Alexander Vinnik to five years in prison and a fine of € 100,000 taking into account compensation to the injured parties. However, this does not mean, that the entire sentence of Vinnik will serve in France. According to RBC, A citizen of Russia can be extradited in the United States, where American prosecutors accuse him of laundering from $4 billion to $9 billion through the cryptocurrency exchange of high.

According to TASS, The court in Paris removed from Vinnik part of the charges of laundering and completely rejected the charges of violating the work of automated systems of a number of organizations and individuals. Besides, The accusations of the use of a malicious sipper of Loki for cybercus were removed from him..

During the hearing, Alexander Vinnik did not plead guilty and declared, that was only a consultant BTC-E, but did not control the platform. Vinnik's lawyer also noted, that the prosecutor's office has no evidence, confirming the guilt of his client. In October Figaro
reported, that according to Vinnik, he was a “freelance employee” of the cryptocurrency exchange and asked for extradition to Russia. Vinnik also stated, that I had no idea about the Loki virus, And for freelance work on BTC-E received € 10 000 per month.

Recall, what's in the beginning 2020 Years of Vinnika extradited from Greece to France. In August, the case of Alexander Vinnik was transferred to the correctional court of France.