Officials in Poland have recently approved the extradition of Dmitry Vasiliev, the former chief executive of Wex, once Russia’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to the United States. Vasiliev was arrested in Warsaw at the end of 2024 at the request of the U.S. authorities, who have charged him with fraud and money laundering.
Vasiliev’s lawyer, Alexander Surzhin, confirmed the news, stating that his client will be transferred to U.S. custody to face charges in connection with a criminal case involving Alexander Vinnik, the co-founder of the infamous BTC-e exchange that was succeeded by Wex. Surzhin revealed that the Polish Minister of Justice has signed the permission for Vasiliev’s extradition, and he is expected to face a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
This development marks another chapter in Vasiliev’s legal odyssey, which has seen him detained in various countries over the years. He was previously arrested in Italy and Croatia, as well as Kazakhstan, where he faced accusations of fraud related to the crypto exchange he was operating. The case in Kazakhstan was eventually closed in 2024 after the court determined that the investors accusing Vasiliev were unable to handle crypto wallets.
The Wex exchange, which launched in 2017 following the shutdown of BTC-e, was managed by Vasiliev until its collapse in 2018. The exchange faced controversy when almost $500 million went missing from accounts hosted on the platform, including funds belonging to European investors. Vasiliev’s arrest is part of the ongoing saga involving BTC-e and its operators, including Vinnik, who was extradited to France in 2020 and later to the U.S. in 2022 for money laundering charges.
In a surprising turn of events, Vinnik was eventually exchanged for an American schoolteacher in a prisoner swap with Moscow under the Trump administration. Meanwhile, another suspected BTC-e operator, Belarusian national Aliaksandr Klimenka, has recently sought to dismiss the case against him in the U.S. due to the unavailability of Vinnik as a witness following his return to Russia.
As the crypto industry continues to face regulatory scrutiny and legal challenges, the extradition of Vasiliev to the United States underscores the international cooperation in combating financial crimes in the digital asset space. Stay tuned for more updates on this evolving story.