{"id":3875,"date":"2024-12-07T11:02:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T11:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2024-12-07T11:02:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T11:02:07","slug":"polish-authorities-arrest-russian-crypto-king-linked-to-wex-exchange-450-million-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=3875","title":{"rendered":"Polish Authorities Arrest Russian \u2018Crypto King\u2019 Linked To WEX Exchange $450 Million Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Polish police detained a Russian citizen linked to the now-collapsed WEX exchange for alleged fraud and money laundering. US authorities solicited his extradition for his crypto-related crimes and currently await the completion of the extradition process.<\/p>\n

WEX\u2019s \u2018Crypto King\u2019 Detained In Poland<\/h2>\n

On Friday, local media outlets reported<\/a> that Polish authorities had arrested a 37-year-old Russian citizen in Warsaw. Due to Polish laws, the media reports called the suspect \u201cDmitry V.\u201d but seemingly referred to the former CEO of the WEX crypto exchange, Belarus-born Dmitry Vasiliev.<\/p>\n

Vasiliev was arrested by the \u201cShadow Hunters,\u201d an elite unit of the Central Bureau of Police Investigation (CB\u015aP), at an apartment in the Wola district, Krzysztof Wrze\u015bniowski, a CB\u015aP\u2019s spokesperson, revealed.<\/p>\n

Wrze\u015bniowski noted that the arrest was based on an order issued by the Warsaw District Prosecutor\u2019s Office, which acted on an extradition request from the US Department of Justice. \u201cDmitry V. is suspected of numerous frauds, money transfers, and money laundering in connection with running one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Vasiliev was arrested in Poland in August 2021. The fugitive was detained at Warsaw\u2019s Chopin Airport on a request from Kazakhstan, seeking his extradition for crypto-related crimes. However, he was released after a few weeks in custody and returned to Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Polish authorities expressed disconcert about how Vasiliev reentered the country and remained undetected for so long, suggesting that he probably lived quietly to evade the law.<\/p>\n

Now, the wanted \u201ccrypto king\u201d faces a new extradition request from the US to be prosecuted for his alleged crimes. If successfully extradited, Vasiliev could face up to 20 years in prison, Wrze\u015bniowski stated.<\/p>\n

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The man is in custody, awaiting the completion of the entire procedure in connection with his extradition to the US.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The $450 Million WEX Collapse<\/h2>\n

As several media outlets have reported, Vasiliev allegedly managed World Exchange Services (WEX) until its collapse in 2018. The exchange was born to \u201cfill the gap\u201d of the extinct BTC-e crypto exchange, which shut down due to an FBI investigation for international money laundering and hiding the stolen funds from Mt. Gox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As reported<\/a> by the BBC in 2019, despite Vasiliev being the figurehead, WEX was run \u201cfrom the shadows\u201d by Alexey Bilyuchenko. Bilyuchenko was Alexander Vinnik\u2019s partner in the defunct BTC-e exchange.<\/p>\n

After BTC-e\u2019s collapse, he funded WEX with the help of millionaire Konstantin Malofeyev. The exchange crashed the next year when the $450 million in customer\u2019s funds vanished. According to the BBC, Bilyuchenko stated he had lost control of the exchange<\/a> in the spring of 2018 after being \u201ctricked\u201d by fake security service agents.<\/p>\n

The suspect claimed he was \u201csuggested\u201d to send the funds to a wallet controlled by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in a meeting with Malofeyev and the \u201cagents.\u201d He alleged that Malofeyev\u2019s associates scammed him.<\/p>\n

However, the Moscow millionaire, who has \u201cstrong ties\u201d with the Kremlin, denies the allegations. Bilyuchenko initially evaded US detention for the BTC-e case but was reportedly arrested by Russian authorities for the WEX collapse in 2022. In 2023, he was charged<\/a> by US authorities for his role in the BTC-e exchange and the Mt. Gox hack.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Polish police detained a Russian citizen linked to the now-collapsed WEX exchange for alleged fraud and money laundering. US authorities solicited his extradition for his crypto-related crimes and currently await the completion of the extradition process. WEX\u2019s \u2018Crypto King\u2019 Detained In Poland On Friday, local media outlets reported that Polish authorities had arrested a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}