Paris (AFP)

The Russian Alexander Vinnik, extradited from Greece to France and suspected of fraud and money laundering on one of the main bitcoin exchange platforms, was placed on Tuesday evening in pre-trial detention, AFP learned from a judicial source.

Upon his arrival from Greece on Thursday, this 40-year-old man was immediately charged by an investigating judge for "extortion by organized gang", "aggravated laundering", "criminal association" and "attacked an automated processing system organized band data. "

He is implicated in multiple financial embezzlement, in particular via the BTC-e bitcoin exchange platform founded in 2011 and which has become one of the most important on the globe. According to American justice, she played a role in online extortion and other cybercrime activities.

Claimed by his lawyers, the deferred debate on his detention was held Tuesday evening before a judge of liberties and detention in incredible conditions.

At the start of the hearing, the court said that he had to wear a mask and not touch the accused, citing "a health risk", which caused the excitement of his three lawyers.

"This measure creates an atmosphere of unease and terror in Mr. Vinnik", denounced Zoé Konstantopoulou, his Greek lawyer.

Then the defense of the Russian, who has been on a hunger strike for about 40 days and appeared emaciated at the hearing, demanded that the proceedings be public. "The entire procedure took place without a witness," said his lawyer in France, Me Ariane Zimra. The court finally decided that the hearing would continue in camera.

Mr. Vinnik, at the heart of a judicial and diplomatic showdown, was arrested in Greece in July 2017 in the tourist resort of Chalkidiki (north).

Also demanded by Washington and by Moscow, he wanted to be extradited to Russia, where the acts of which he is accused are of a much smaller scale than the cases of laundering and scam for which the United States and France want 'hear.

But the European mandate has priority for Greece, a member country of the European Union.

In France, a preliminary investigation was opened in 2016 by the Paris prosecutor's office after several dozen complaints.

According to Express, several small bosses, victims of the Locky ransomware, were among the complainants.

The investigations made it possible to link this malicious software, which blocks and encrypts the data and only unblocks them against payment of a ransom, to Mr. Vinnik.

© 2020 AFP