Alexander Vinnik accused the judicial system of Greece in insolvency

Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, who was detained in Greece two years ago on charges of laundering billions of dollars through the BTC-e exchange, spoke about the pressure exerted on him by the authorities of the country.

Recall that Vinnik is held in a Greek prison from the time of his arrest in Thessaloniki. The Greek police detained him in July 2017 on a warrant issued in the United States, where Winnick was charged with money laundering, and also charged with more than 20 other crimes. Prosecutors believe that Vinnik and his accomplices laundered from 4 to 9 billion dollars through the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e.

Vinnik’s lawyer, Timofey Musatov, published a big speech on his Facebook page on behalf of his client, in which Vinnik accuses the judicial system of Greece of insolvency.

“The image of a Russian hacker, a Christian who stole 9 billion, rooted in your mind, as they were not ashamed to say. I was not able to speak even in court. I participated in 20 trials, and only two of them I managed to speak, and even then I said from the power of 5-10 minutes. Why? Maybe they were afraid to hear the truth? ”Vinnik writes.

Last November, Musatov told Russian journalists that the defendant was protesting against the conditions of his detention and violation of his rights. Then, according to the lawyer, Vinnik informed the Russian consul in Greece about his decision to go on a hunger strike.

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“In the struggle for my truth, I did not pay attention to troubles, such as the absence of a mattress, which I could not provide in Athens. In court, I had to deal with the rude behavior of the President, the indifference of the judges and disregard of the Prosecutor. They tried to silence my lawyer, even threatened a translator, and they subjected me to a humiliating procedure, depriving me of hope for fair treatment. In an attempt to draw the attention of the press and the Greek government to the torture with which I was subjected, I began a hunger strike, ”said the former operator of the BTC-e exchange.

Vinnik reiterated his innocence and stressed that they simply want to make him a scapegoat:

“Everyone wants to put the responsibility on me, claiming that I allegedly single-handedly created this platform and that I own it. I was only, say, its administrator. However, the PTS is an electronic platform, it is not an exchange, and therefore it operates without a license. This is just a website, it works as a social network, in which there are exchanges in cryptocurrency. ”

Winnick compared the accusations made to him as if a bank clerk was accused of handling dirty money, although his competence does not include verifying the purity of the origin of the funds he uses in his work. He claims that another employee of the exchange was responsible for checking the purity of funds:

“Sergey Mayzus, an employee of Russian origin (who left Russia), was in charge of checking the purity of the origin of funds. He is the owner of Money Polo, which has a license to conduct this type of activity, in which it provides money transfer services to its customers. I expect a reasonable question from you: “Why, then, was the order issued in my name and not in the name of Mayzus?” Yes, because Mayzus cooperates with the US authorities as a witness and provided them with information transferring responsibility to another person so that he himself could escape responsibility. ”

Earlier it was reported that Alexander Vinnik is trying to achieve extradition to Russia, but so far this has not happened. At the conclusion of his speech, Vinnik stated:

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“On the one hand, I am embraced by a feeling of gratitude to you for listening to me, but on the other, it seems to me that we are dealing with a farce in the form of a prepared in advance solution, although you will not announce it today. Therefore, I want to say that I am continuing the hunger strike, because I know your decision and I no longer believe in justice. ”