02/12/2025
Putin and international criminals 1, Trump 0.
This was a lousy deal. And that’s if he doesn’t throw in Ukraine as a side dish.
If I’m ever locked up in the Gulag, please leave me there until there’s a trade worth making.
“Mr. Vinnik was charged in 2017 with overseeing a black market Bitcoin exchange, known as BTC-E, that laundered money. Federal prosecutors said the exchange facilitated ransomware attacks, identity theft and other crimes.
“Mr. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in July 2017, and the indictment against him said he had directed the operations of the exchange.
“At the time of the arrest, the Justice Department said the Bitcoin exchange had laundered more than $4 billion and was used by more than 700,000 people.”
The release is part of a swap with the Kremlin that freed an American schoolteacher being held in a Russian prison.