The US will trade a Russian cybercrime boss in American captivity, Alexander Vinnik, in exchange for the freed schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, Marc Fogel who was released yesterday after spending over three years imprisoned in Moscow and a penal colony in Rybinsk.
Vinnik was arrested in 2017 and detained in the US on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through BTC-e, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges at the time.
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Earlier last year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in a San Franciso federal court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Vinnik was categorized as a “nonviolent” criminal and will forfeit tens of millions of dollars in assets due to the exchange, a US official told The New York Times on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
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Before the leak about Vinnik’s pending release, Trump told reporters that the US was asked little in exchange for Fogel, raising concerns in Ukraine about what other ‘asset’ Trump might have been using to negotiate for the American.
Trump officials said that the exchange was considered a gesture of “good faith” between the US and Russia as the convicted felon and new American president aims to force an end to the war in Ukraine.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia. I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Fogel landed in the US later on Tuesday and met with Trump. “Promises made, promises kept!!!” the White House announced in a post on X, accompanied by a photo of Fogel stepping off a plane.
Trump called the prisoner deal with Russia “very fair, very reasonable.” He also revealed during the meeting with Fogel that another detainee would soon be released but did not provide further details. “Somebody else is being released tomorrow,” he said.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s advisers negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” Waltz said in a statement shared by The New York Times.
Fogel was arrested at a Russian airport in 2021 for the illegal possession of a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the US. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
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