Who Is The Russian Cybercriminal The United States Exchanged For Marc Fogel?

In exchange for Marc Fogel, the United States will release Russian cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faced 20 years in prison.

Vinnik, 44, headed the criminal cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, which is suspected of laundering $4 billion of criminal proceeds between 2011 and 2017. The platform facilitated transactions for cybercriminals committing crimes ranging from computer hacking to fraud, identity theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking.

He was first arrested in July 2017 in Greece at the request of the United States and extradited to the United States in 2022.

“After more than five years of litigation, Russian national Alexander Vinnik was extradited to the United States yesterday to be held accountable for operating BTC-e, a criminal cryptocurrency exchange, which laundered more than $4 billion of criminal proceeds,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said at the time.

The Trump administration’s release of Vinnik stands in stark contrast to Biden’s 2022 controversial release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed the ‘Merchant of Death,’ in exchange for basketball player Brittney Griner. Griner was imprisoned six months after Fogel for the same crime yet released more than two years before him.

After enduring three years in a Russian penal colony, Fogel, an American schoolteacher, was welcomed at the White House on Tuesday night by President Donald Trump following his return to the United States.

“I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now,” Fogel said at the White House. “I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all and President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor to get me home are heroes. I am in awe of what they all did.”

Fogel, 63, was given a 14-year prison sentence for possessing medical marijuana in 2021. An employee of the Anglo-American School of Moscow, Fogel spent 27 years teaching overseas and was planning to retire the year he was arrested. An American doctor prescribed the marijuana after Fogel had surgeries on his back, shoulder, and knee. The State Department designated Fogel as “wrongfully detained” in December.

“I’m a middle-class schoolteacher who is now in a dream world,” Fogel said, to which Trump quipped: “We’re going to show you the Lincoln bedroom. It’s a special place.”

Fogel is expected to go to Texas for medical evaluation and rehabilitation.

“I love our country,” Fogel added, choking up. “I am so happy to be back here.”