The former CEO of the large Russian cryptocurrency exchange WEX, Dmitry Vasiliev, was detained in Poland.
They plan to extradite Vasilyev to the United States. He faces up to 20 years in prison, writes Reuters.
20 years in prison
Polish law enforcement officers arrested Russian citizen Dmitry Vasiliev, who previously managed one of the largest Russian crypto exchanges, WEX. He was detained based on a request from the United States.
US authorities accuse the former CEO of WEX of cryptocurrency fraud, criminal money transfers and money laundering. There he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Currently, Polish authorities are engaged in the process of extraditing Vasilyev to the United States.
Not the first arrest
In the spring of 2019, Vasiliev was suspected of fraud in Kazakhstan. Then he was put on the interstate wanted list.
In the same year, the former CEO of WEX detained in Italy, where he spent several weeks in prison. In September 2021, the Warsaw prosecutor’s office confirmed Vasiliev’s arrest in Poland, but he was soon released. After this he returned to Russia.
At that time, the court did not make a final decision regarding extradition to Kazakhstan.
In May 2022 Vasilyeva detained at Zagreb airport while trying to enter Croatia. The extradition again failed.
In October 2024, the latest arrest of the ex-head of WEX in Warsaw reported Exved CEO Sergey Mendeleev. He noted that law enforcement agencies “passworded and seized” Vasiliev’s phone. This suggests that the investigation related to the activities of the crypto exchange does not stop.
What is known about the WEX crypto exchange
WEX – once the largest crypto exchange Russia. The platform was launched in September 2017 on the initiative of Dmitry Vasiliev, a major investor in a bankrupt BTC-e. WEX gained access to BTC-e clients’ registration information and their balances, which were partially converted into new WEX tokens. However, the new exchange also soon went bankrupt, prompting various authorities to initiate multiple investigations and bring numerous charges against its management.
In particular, WEX attracted the attention of US law enforcement when it became clear that dubious financial transactions, including money laundering, were carried out through the platform. One of the most high-profile cases was an accusation of fraud related to the withdrawal of large sums of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.
In Russia, authorities arrested Alexander Bilyuchenko (Ivanov), a former system administrator of the platform. He was accused of embezzling client money.
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Source: Cryptocurrency
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