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The Trump administration traded Russian cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik for American teacher Marc Fogel, a senior administration official confirmed to The Washington Times.
Vinnik is in American custody and awaiting transportation back to Russia, a trip expected by the end of the week. As part of the deal to free him, he will leave behind $100 million worth of digital assets in the U.S., the official said.
At a White House ceremony Tuesday night welcoming Mr. Fogel, President Trump described the exchange as “very fair.”
Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece, then extradited to France and, later, to the U.S. to stand trial on charges of money laundering and fraud.
The charges arose from his time heading BTC-e, a cryptocurrency exchange that handled over $9 billion in transactions. Vinnik led the exchange from 2011-17.
Vinnik didn’t register BTC-e as a money service business despite having a large U.S. clientele. The Justice Department used his case as an example of the efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud across the globe.
Federal prosecutors said Vinnik “allegedly owned, operated and administered BTC-e, a significant cybercrime and online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade in bitcoin with high levels of anonymity and developed a customer base heavily reliant on criminal activity.”
In December 2020, Vinnik was convicted by a French court of money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison. He was extradited to the U.S. in 2022 and pleaded guilty last May to conspiracy to commit money laundering before a federal judge in San Francisco.
At the time, his lawyer said the guilty plea was part of a deal in which Vinnik would receive less than 10 years in prison. The maximum sentence for the U.S. charges against him was 55 years.
Mr. Fogel, who was convicted in Russia on marijuana charges, was released Tuesday in the exchange engineered by the Trump administration.
Details of the swap were kept under wraps until after Mr. Fogel was at home in the U.S.
Late Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio mistakenly said there was not a prisoner swap to win Mr. Fogel’s freedom.
“I think it’s also important to note [Mr. Vogel’s release] was not in return for anything,” he said during an appearance on NewsNation. “There wasn’t some deal here where we had to release, like, 10 spies.”
Hours later, news broke that Vinnik was returning to Russia.
In December 2022, the Biden administration offered Vinnik, arms dealer Viktor Bout and another alleged cybercriminal, Roman Seleznev, to Russia in exchange for WNBA player Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who were being held in captivity. Russia balked at the deal but ultimately agreed to swap Ms. Griner for Bout.
The Biden White House released eight Russians in August in exchange for 16 prisoners from Western countries who were in Russian jails. Mr. Whelan was included in that swap along with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Mr. Fogel, 63, was released Tuesday in the exchange engineered by the Trump administration. The teacher born in Butler, Pennsylvania, was arrested on charges of bringing medical marijuana into Russia in August 2021. He was convicted and began serving a 14-year sentence in June 2022. He was classified as wrongly detained by the Biden administration last year.
Mr. Fogel had been working as a history teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow. Russian officials arrested him at an airport there and was found carrying 17 grams of cannabis, which his family and lawyer said was approved by a doctor to treat “severe spinal pain.”
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s envoy who finalized the deal for Mr. Fogel’s release, said Wednesday, “No American gets left behind. That was a message of hope to every American who is being held in a foreign jail.”
Mr. Witkoff flew overseas to bring Mr. Fogel back to the U.S. on his private jet, noting that Russia still hadn’t agreed on the release when he landed there.
“There was still work to do,” Mr. Witkoff said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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