BBC Russia has reported that Dmitry Vasiliev, the former chief of Russian cryptocurrency substitution Wex, has been arrested in Warsaw, Poland.

Wex, which was previously known every bit BTC-eastward, was a well-known "nighttime" commutation in the early days of the cryptocurrency industry. It is alleged to take laundered funds for numerous high-profile crypto hacks, including the notorious Mt. Gox incident.

Although Vasiliev is regarded as innocent within Poland'south jurisdiction, other countries such as Kazakhstan have an open fraud example confronting the elusive figure and as such, accept reportedly engaged in discussions surrounding the possibility of extradition.

It is understood that Vasiliev was detained on August eleven past Smoothen authorities, but the news was only uncovered by the Smoothen newspaper, Wyborcza, on Sept. 17.

Vasiliev allegedly facilitated trades for Chinese investors as an employee for BTC-e upwards until its closure in the summer of 2022. Alexander Vinnik, the declared head of BTC-eastward, was charged with laundering over $4B in Bitcoin over six years. He was subsequently arrested in Hellenic republic and was the bailiwick of an investigation by United States regime.

A few months after Vinnik'due south arrest, Vasiliev emerged as director of the rebranded exchange, Wex, which went on to cement its place in the list of Top-x exchanges, with a daily trading turnover of $eighty one thousand thousand, past the calendar year end.

But just over a yr subsequently, Binance blacklisted Wex for alleged money laundering practices — a conclusion that would eventually issue in the demise of the commutation.

In 2022, Vasiliev was arrested past Italian authorities, but was shortly released later it was revealed that mistakes were made in the extradition request.

Related: Data middle operators have 'no problem' with new Russian crypto crackdown

Recently, the Bank of Russia began collaborating with local banks to append its citizens payments to crypto exchanges, citing client protection from "emotional" purchases equally the reason for enforced intervention.