Bitcoin News and Finance
Ex-Head оf Wex Crypto Exchange Reportedly Arrested in Poland, Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan Skip to main content

Ex-Head оf Wex Crypto Exchange Reportedly Arrested in Poland, Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan

Ex-Head оf Wex Crypto Exchange Reportedly Arrested in Poland, Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan

Dmitry Vasiliev, former chief executive of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex, has been detained in Warsaw, the Polish press reported. Vasiliev is wanted in Kazakhstan where he is accused of fraud related to the now defunct trading platform, successor of the infamous BTC-e exchange.

Former Wex Executive in Polish Custody as Prosecutor’s Office Reviews Extradition Request

Ex-owner and CEO of Wex Dmitry Vasiliev was detained at the Warsaw airport on Aug. 11, the leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza revealed this week. According to sources quoted by the publication, the 34-year-old native of Belarus has been placed under arrest for 40 days.

Ex-Head оf Wex Crypto Exchange Reportedly Arrested in Poland, Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan

Poland’s National Public Prosecutor’s Office is now considering his extradition to Kazakhstan. Authorities in the Central Asian country have been looking for Vasiliev through Interpol for several years as part of ongoing investigation on fraud charges.

In its report on the case, the BBC Russian Service said Polish police had declined to comment on the information about the case. However, rumors of Vasiliev’s detention have been circulating among Wex’s clients since August and a close acquaintance of his has confirmed to the BBC that he was indeed in Polish custody.

This isn’t Dmitry Vasiliev’s first arrest in Europe. Two years ago, he was detained in Italy but managed to eventually return to the Russian Federation where he resided permanently in the city of Saint Petersburg. Italian authorities released him after several weeks in detention, citing faults in his extradition request.

Dmitry Vasiliev’s BTC-e Connection

Wex, once the largest crypto trading platform in the Russian-speaking world, was launched in the fall of 2017 as a successor of BTC-e. The infamous exchange closed down earlier that year following the arrest of one of its alleged operators, Alexander Vinnik, in Greece. Vinnik is accused by the U.S. of laundering up to $9 billion through BTC-e. He was sentenced to five years in prison by a French court in December.

According to the Russian business news portal RBC, Wex had reached a daily turnover of $80 million before it went offline. In 2018, its operator, the Singapore-based entity World Exchange Services, was sold to Dmitry Havchenko, an entrepreneur from Kyiv turned separatist fighter in Eastern Ukraine. While Dmitry Vasiliev was the company’s official owner, BBC claims Wex actually belonged to Aleksey Bilyuchenko, Vinnik’s partner at BTC-e.

After being in and out of service for months, during which it also changed its web address several times, Wex halted withdrawals in the summer of 2018 and later went bankrupt. According to estimates by a group of Wex users quoted by Forklog, total losses exceed $400 million with Vasiliev himself suspected of withdrawing $200 million. He is wanted in Kazakhstan after a trader from Almaty turned to local law enforcement accusing the Belarusian of stealing $20,000 worth of funds through Wex.

According to the report, 100 ETH have been recently withdrawn from a wallet belonging to Wex that has a remaining balance of over 9,900 ETH. The digital currency was transferred to Binance, the first such transaction in the past three years. In 2018, the world’s leading crypto exchange blocked an account that had received 93,000 ETH from wallets associated with Wex.

Do you expect Poland to extradite former Wex executive Dmitry Vasiliev to Kazakhstan? Tell us in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory