<span style="font-weight: 400">Dmitry Vasiliev, former owner and CEO of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex was detained in Warsaw, BBC Russia <a href="https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-58597472" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">reported</a> on Friday. Although Vasiliev is considered innocent in Poland, he’s wanted in Kazakhstan for fraud charges connected to the now-defunct platform.</span>
<h2>Former Wex CEO Could Be Extradited to Kazakhstan After Arrest in Poland</h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400">BBC's Russian portal reported last week that Dmitry Vasiliev, the former CEO of WEX, was arrested in Poland on August 11. The Belarus native has been placed under police custody for 40 days. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400">According to Polish news outlet Wyborcza, the country’s prosecutor's office is currently considering Vasiliev’s extradition to Kazakhstan. The <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/kazakhstan-project-aims-to-allow-businesses-to-provide-crypto-investment-services/">central Asian country</a> has been pursuing Vasiliev for years through Interpol. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400">As per reports, Vasiliev is accused of facilitating money laundering at Alexander Vinnik’s e-BTC exchange until its closure. Vinnik had been arrested in Greece on the charges of laundering $4 billion over six years in 2017.  </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400">Following Vinnik’s arrest, e-BTC - which at one point was Russia’s largest crypto exchange -- was rebranded as Wex, with Vasiliev as its director. However, a year later Wex ran into the same troubles as its predecessor and was consequently blacklisted by Binance -- leading to its eventual demise. </span>
<h2><b>An Overview of Accusations Against Vasiliev</b></h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400">After its relaunch in September 2017, Wex temporarily soared into the list of top ten crypto exchanges, with a daily trade volume of $80 million. In late 2018, however, Binance froze funds coming in from Wex after its users alleged the exchange was involved in money laundering.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400">Aside from flouting KYC norms, the exchange was also suspected of inflating Bitcoin prices on its order books. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400">In 2019, Vasiliev became the subject of criminal investigation in <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/bitfinex-launches-regulated-security-token-exchange-in-kazakhstan/">Kazakhstan</a>, as he was charged with defrauding a local investor of $20,000 through Wex. The investigation led to his arrest by the Italian authorities in July 2019. However, Kazakh investigators were unable to extradite the former Wex chief, owing to the mistakes made with the extradition request. </span>

Former Wex CEO Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan After Arrest in Poland 

Dmitry Vasiliev, former owner and CEO of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex was detained in Poland, BBC Russia reported on Friday.

Divya is a postgraduate from Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in International Relations and a professional writer with more than 5 years of experience writing for the web. She is an avid reader interested in the global financial system and the effects of decentralization. At Cryptoknowmics, she hopes to deliver clear and understandable content to inform readers about the latest events in the crypto sector.

Former Wex CEO Faces Extradition to Kazakhstan After Arrest in Poland

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