Polish authorities have arrested Dmitry V., the former head of Russia-based crypto exchange WEX, in Warsaw following a U.S. Department of Justice extradition request.
Dmitry V., whose full name was withheld under local privacy laws, is accused of fraud and money laundering during his tenure at WEX, which collapsed in 2018.
A Polish police spokesperson confirmed the arrest on Dec. 6, stating Dmitry V. is in custody pending extradition. If extradited to the U.S., he could face charges carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Dmitry V., a Russian national, was detained multiple times in the past. He was arrested in Poland in August 2021 but released after 40 days following a court decision. In 2019, Italian authorities detained him, though errors in the extradition request led to his release. In 2022, he was arrested again by Interpol at Croatia’s Zagreb Airport following an extradition request from Kazakhstan.
WEX, the successor to BTC-e, was once Russia’s largest crypto exchange, processing over $9 billion in transactions for more than a million users, including many in the U.S. The platform, notorious for its lack of identity verification, was linked to funds from major crypto hacks, including the breach. Approximately $450 million remains missing from WEX’s operations.
Furthermore, US authorities said that Russian IT specialist Alexander Vinnikwas the brain behind the collapse of Japan-based bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, after which he laundered the stolen monies through BTC-e and another San Francisco-based exchange called Tradehill.
The Russian hacker, accused of laundering $4 billion of criminal proceeds through BTC-e, was extradited from Greece to the United States in 2022.
WEX shut down in 2018 amid allegations of fraudulent activities. Its predecessor, BTC-e, was similarly embroiled in controversies, leading to the arrest of its former head, Alexander Vinnik, in 2017. Vinnik, also known as “Mr. Bitcoin,” pleaded guilty in the U.S. earlier this year to conspiracy to commit money laundering and is serving time following his extradition from France in 2022.
