Vinnik disappeared after being extradited to Greece. The family said he was already in the US

Russian Alexander Vinnik was extradited from France to Greece. After arriving in Athens, he disappeared, reportedhis lawyer is Zoe Constantopoulou. 

August 5, 2022 | 09:12 Update:

According to Vinnik's family, he was flown from Greece on a private plane to the USA — first to Boston, and then transported to San Francisco.

On August 4, the Investigative Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal invalidated the request to extradite Vinnik to the United States and ruled that he be transferred to Greece, TASS writes.

Earlier it was reported that until that moment he would continue to be in a French prison.

However, almost immediately Vinnik was sent toGreece, said lawyer Frederic Belo. The latter noted that the Russian could be extradited from there to the United States in accordance with an arrest warrant issued earlier by a San Francisco court.

Greek lawyer Zoe Konstantopoulou said that after arriving in Greece, Vinnik disappeared. According to her, it looks like a forced kidnapping:

«We are in the police departmentAthens airport. [Responsible law enforcement officers] said that they don’t know where Alexander Vinnik is, that he never passed here, that they don’t know his name, they don’t know where he is. That they know, in general, nothing.

She added that Vinnik may still be inside the police department, or may already be on his way to the US:

«If something like this happened, we are talking about one of the most egregious cases of violation of international law. We are talking about the kidnapping and forced disappearance of a person». 

Let us remind you that Vinnik was detained in Greece on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange. 

He was subsequently extradited to France, wherethe court sentenced the Russian to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros.  He was found guilty of money laundering, but charges of extortion and creating the Locky ransomware were dropped.

The defense tried to appeal the verdict, but the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first instance.

In July, US authorities withdrew a request to extradite Vinnik from France, but his lawyers called this a “fraudulent maneuver.”

If he is nevertheless extradited to the United States, Vinnik faces about 50 years in prison.

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