President Donald Trump has reportedly traded prisoners with Russia, freeing the former owner of a crypto exchange for American teacher Marc Fogel.
According to a new report by The New York Post, anonymous White House officials say Trump has swapped Russian prisoner Alexander Vinnik – who was convicted of money laundering through the crypto exchange BTC-e, which he founded in 2011 – for Fogel.
Vinnik, a computer scientist, was convicted in 2020 by a French court for laundering money and sentenced to five years in prison. He also pleaded guilty in 2024 to similar charges to a federal judge in San Francisco.
The report says that Vinnik failed to register BTC-e as a money service business in the US, despite having US customers.
White House sources go on to say that Vinnik is currently in custody in California and is waiting to be taken back to Russia while Fogel – who was imprisoned in the nation for three and a half years on drug-related charges – returned to the US earlier this week.
As stated by Fogel after his return to the US, according to The New York Post,
“I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero.”
In 2022, then-President Joe Biden engaged in a prisoner swap that saw Russia trade WNBA star Brittney Griner to the US for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer known as “The Merchant of Death,” after Griner was held indefinitely on drug charges.
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