ChainCatcher news, according to Protos, Russia is using Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for some Russians held by the U.S. and its allies, including Alexander Vinnik, the founder of the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange.Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were taken to a location outside of Russia yesterday. According to Business Insider citing TASS, Vinnik and others will be sent in another direction, and their names have been removed from the FBI's electronic database.It is reported that in May of this year, Vinnik pleaded guilty during his time at BTC-e, admitting to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is responsible for approximately $121 million in losses and encouraged criminals to use the platform to launder and store illegal proceeds. Gershkovich and Whelan were arrested in March 2023 and December 2020, respectively, on espionage charges, but the U.S. denies these allegations.

ChainCatcher News: The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators behind BTC-e, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice stated that Vinnik was an operator of BTC-e from 2011 to 2017, during which the exchange processed over 1 million users and transactions exceeding $9 billion.BTC-e was linked to the hack of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which was involved in laundering 300,000 bitcoins. BTC-e was shut down in July 2017, at which time Vinnik was arrested for the first time.The Department of Justice added that BTC-e was not registered as a money services business in the U.S., did not implement any KYC or anti-money laundering rules, and did not collect any customer data. Additionally, Vinnik used shell companies to handle BTC-e's fiat currency exchanges.The press release stated that the exchange did indeed obtain funds from criminal activities, including ransomware attacks, hacks, and other schemes, with Vinnik being directly responsible for approximately $121 million in losses.