Former head of Russian crypto exchange Wex arrested in Poland

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BBC Russia reported that Dmitry Vasiliev, the former head of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex, has been arrested in Warsaw, Poland.

Wex, which was previously known as BTC-e, was a well-known “dark” exchange at the start of the cryptocurrency industry. He has reportedly laundered funds for many high-profile crypto hacks, including the infamous Mt. Gox incident.

Although Vasiliev is considered innocent within Polish jurisdiction, other countries like Kazakhstan have opened a fraud case against this elusive figure and, as such, have reportedly engaged in discussions about the possibility of extradition.

It is understood that Vasiliev was arrested on August 11 by Polish authorities, but the news was only revealed by the Polish newspaper Wyborcza on September 17.

Vasiliev is said to have facilitated transactions for Chinese investors as an employee of BTC-e until it closed in the summer of 2017. Alexander Vinnik, the alleged head of BTC-e, has been charged with laundering more than 4 billion of Bitcoin dollars over six years. He was later arrested in Greece and investigated by US authorities.

A few months after Vinnik’s arrest, Vasiliev became director of the renamed Wex exchange, which then consolidated his place in the list of the top 10 exchanges, with a daily turnover of $ 80 million, at the end of the calendar year.

But a little over a year later, Binance blacklisted Wex for alleged money laundering practices, a move that would eventually lead to the exchange’s demise.

In 2019, Vasiliev was arrested by Italian authorities, but was quickly released after it was revealed that errors had been made in the extradition request.

Related: Data Center Operators Have No Problems With New Russian Crypto Crackdown

Recently, the Bank of Russia began working with local banks to suspend payments from its citizens to crypto exchanges, citing protecting customers from emotional purchases as the reason for the forced intervention.

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