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The lawyer, Arkady Bukh, said that as a result of the plea
bargain he now expected Vinnik to get a prison term of less than
10 years.
"He pleaded guilty on a restricted number of charges," TASS
quoted Bukh as saying, adding that Vinnik had faced life
imprisonment.
"The culmination of the negotiations was a deal with the
prosecutor's office. We expect that the prison term will be up
to 10 years."
Vinnik, accused of laundering more than $4 billion through the
digital currency bitcoin, was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the
request of the United States, although Moscow has repeatedly
demanded he be returned to Russia.
He was extradited to France from Greece where he was sentenced
to five years in prison for money laundering before he was sent
back to Greece and then on to the United States in 2022.
The U.S. Department of Justice has said Vinnik "allegedly owned,
operated, and administrated BTC-e, a significant cybercrime and
online money laundering entity that allowed its users to trade
in bitcoin with high levels of anonymity and developed a
customer base heavily reliant on criminal activity."
The maximum penalty for the U.S. charges against Vinnik is 55
years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice
website.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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