ATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Greece\u2019s Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed until December an extradition hearing for Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik, wanted in the United States on charges of laundering billions of dollars\u2019 worth of bitcoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vinnik is the subject of a judicial tug-of-war between the U.S. and Russia, which is also seeking his extradition on lesser charges. The U.S. is accusing Vinnik of laundering $4 billion worth of bitcoins through BTC-e, one of the world\u2019s largest digital currency exchanges, which he allegedly operated. Russia accuses him of a 667,000-ruble ($11,500) fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greek courts have approved both extradition requests. The 37-year-old, who denies all charges, is appealing against the decision to extradite him to the U.S. He is not contesting the Russian extradition request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Greece\u2019s Supreme Court upholds the lower court\u2019s order, a final decision will rest with Greece\u2019s justice minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court set a new hearing date for Dec. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe asked the court to postpone the hearing today of the U.S. request for the extradition of Vinnik, so that two essential witnesses can come who couldn\u2019t unfortunately come to Athens today,\u201d said Alexandros Lykourezos, one of Vinnik\u2019s lawyers. \u201cThese witnesses will be able to testify and help the court understand the essential issues that arise from this case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Justice Department says Vinnik has been indicted by a grand jury in the Northern District of California on charges including money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. The charges carry maximum sentences of up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vinnik was arrested in July on a U.S. request while he was on holiday with his family in the Halkidiki area of northern Greece, which is popular with Russian tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greece\u2019s Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed until December an extradition hearing for Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik, wanted in the United States on charges of laundering billions of dollars\u2019 worth of bitcoin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1328],"class_list":["post-12554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"XRHL5CLR2VAZHBJKNYIHNVX5IA","arc_canonical_url":"\/international\/2017\/11\/15\/extradition-hearing-for-russian-cybercrime-suspect-postponed\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n