The United States releases the Russian citizens as part of a prisoner exchange that brought home American school teacher Mark Vogel.
Alexander Vinnik was arrested in 2017 on charges related to billions of dollars of laundry using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. A large US ju judge has indicted Vinnik for 21 counts related to washing stolen funds.
The White House confirmed BBC Vinnik’s identity and imminent release.
President Donald Trump has also previously shown that he will be released from Russian prisons and return to the US Tuesday night, another detainee will be released in exchange for Vogel.
A Russian citizen, Vinnik runs the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-E. He was arrested in Greece at the request of US authorities who believed he was responsible for laundry up to $4 billion (£3.22 billion) through exchanges.
He pleaded guilty to the charges last May and faced 20 years in prison when he was sentenced.
According to the US Department of Justice, BTC-E is a cyber-email globally to transfer, wash and store revenues from illegal crimes, including hacking incidents, ransomware attacks, identity theft plans, corrupt civil servants, and drug sales. It was used by criminals.
Vinnik is said to have used BTC-E to promote these activities, and US officials said they are liable for the loss of about $111 million.
The Justice Department said the company had no money laundering anti-money laundering or KYC – “knows the customers” – and is implementing the process as requested by US federal law. It didn’t collect customer data, but investigators said it became attractive to criminals.
Separately, the White House announced Wednesday that Belarus had released three detainees after a US representative travelled to Minsk to negotiate its release.
Adam Berler, the envoy of the US hostage, said in an interview with CNN that one American is among the three detainees. He said Belarus released additional detainees last week. He is currently in Texas.
Bowler said the US secured a “trade” but Belarus was not exchanged. He added that Trump is “deeply involved” in the negotiations.
Bowler told reporters that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had agreed to release “curry favors” with Trump. He also called on leaders in Venezuela, Iran and Gaza to release Americans who they said were detaining prisoners.
Belarus is a strong ally of Russia, but it remains unclear whether the deal is related to US-Russia prisoner swaps.
The father of the two, journalist Andrey Kuznechyk, was among the people who were released, his employer, Radio Liberty, said in a statement.
Radio Liberty, also known as Radio Free Europe, is a US government-funded organization that broadcasts news in areas of the world where the free press is restricted or not yet established.
That president, Stephen Capus, told the BBC it was a “fun” day.
“It was said that this was not an exchange, but this was simply a good-willed gesture by the Lukashenko government and there was an ongoing conversation with the hope of bringing other people home, including other colleagues, in prison.” he said.
According to Radio Liberty, Kuznechyk was arrested in November 2021 on suspicion of holiganism and sentenced to the 10th. Before he was released, he was accused of creating an extremist group and sentenced to six years.
