Poland arrests former chief of a Russian cryptocurrency exchange platform

Dmitry Vasilyev led WEX, a broker that collapsed in 2018 and from which 450 million dollars supposedly disappeared

Polish police have arrested a Russian citizen wanted for his alleged involvement in a fraud and money laundering scheme while operating a large cryptocurrency exchange platform, according to a statement released this Friday. The detainee, identified as Dmitry V., due to Polish privacy laws, was arrested based on a request for extradition from the United States, authorities have indicated.

Dmitry V. is suspected of numerous frauds, money transfers, and money laundering related to the management of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world,” the statement notes. “For the crimes he is charged with, the detainee could face up to 20 years in prison in the United States,” it adds. “The man is in custody awaiting the completion of all procedures related to his extradition to the U.S.,” a police spokesperson stated.

The Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, for its part, reported that Dmitry Vasilyev led WEX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in Russia until its collapse in 2018. Dmitry V., 37, was arrested in an apartment in Warsaw, according to the Polish media, which recalls that he was previously detained in August 2021 at the airport of the same city but was released 40 days later, and since then, he had managed to evade justice. After his first arrest, Polish media reported that 450 million dollars had disappeared from WEX accounts and that the Russian citizen was associated with people from the Kremlin who relied on the platform to launder money.