CNN
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Accused Russian money launderer Alexander Vinnik is being released from US custody in exchange for Marc Fogel, a Trump administration source told CNN Wednesday.
Vinnik is accused of running a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly did business with drug dealers and identity thieves. Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece and subsequently extradited to France, where he was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020 for money laundering. He was extradited from France to the United States in 2022.
According to the source, Vinnik has to forfeit money seized by the US government as part of the exchange.
Vinnik’s lawyers had lobbied for his release as part of prisoner exchanges in the past and the Biden administration had floated his name as part of an effort to free Americans like Paul Whelan. On Wednesday, a lawyer for Vinnick expressed happiness at his release, saying, “it is a real relief for my client and his family.”
“I have met many people in the US to push for him to be included in the next exchange/swap. I have met Marc Fogel’s attorneys who were very helpful,” Frédéric Bélot said in a statement to CNN.
The New York Times first reported that Vinnik was being released.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment when asked about Vinnik’s status in the US.
Trump and members of his administration have been highly critical of prisoner swaps in the past. Both Washington and Moscow have revealed few details about the agreement that led to Fogel’s release on Tuesday.
A White House statement announcing his return after more than three years in Russian detention only referenced an “exchange.” President Donald Trump and top national security officials declined to offer specifics when repeatedly pressed on the matter on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin said a Russian citizen was released as part of an exchange involving Fogel and will return to Russia soon, but would not reveal the person’s identity.
Discussions between Moscow and Washington had increased in recent days, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added, leading to the release of Fogel and “one of the citizens of the Russian Federation” who is “currently being held in detention in the United States.”
Vinnik is one of multiple accused Russian cybercriminals who have been extradited to the US in recent years and subsequently floated in prisoner swap discussions with the Kremlin. In Vinnik’s case and others, Russian diplomats have relentlessly fought the detainee’s extradition to the US. When those efforts failed, Russian embassies and consulates in the US have paid close attention to the alleged cybercriminals’ trials because they are potential bargaining chips.
On Wednesday, the US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff – who was part of the discussions – told CNN that he was approached and told “there might be an opportunity to get Mark Fogel” out of Russia “several days ago.”
“People approached us, me in this case, and said that there might be an opportunity to get Mark Fogel out,” Witkoff added. He then spoke to Trump, the National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“The President directed me to go over there and complete it if we could,” said Witkoff.
Fogel arrived at the White House late Tuesday draped in an American flag and was greeted by Trump, who said it was “an honor to have played a small role” in his release.
Another American is also expected to be released, according to Trump. A number of Americans are still being held in Russia, and at least two have been classified as wrongfully detained: Stephen Hubbard and Russian-American dual national Ksenia Karelina.
A senior White House official had told CNN that Fogel’s release would not play out as a direct one-for-one exchange with a Russian held in the US. “I think you will see the president give consideration if there are some nonviolent people… But you will not see a one-for-one thing happening at the same time,” Adam Boehler, Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, said Tuesday.
The deal to release Fogel, who was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, was negotiated by Trump, Witkoff, “and the President’s advisers,” according to a statement from Waltz.
In an extraordinary move, Witkoff had personally gone to Russia to bring back Fogel, Waltz’s statement indicated. There has been no known high-level US travel to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Speaking alongside Boehler, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CNN that while Fogel’s release is not linked to ending Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, he thinks it’s a “good sign” that Russia was willing to cooperate. Speaking about the war, he said: “We don’t just want to see it end. We want to see it end in a way that’s sustainable,” he said.
‘A surreal experience’
Fogel will journey to San Antonio, Texas to participate in the US government readjustment program on Wednesday, an attorney for Fogel told CNN, to help them acclimate after being imprisoned abroad.
Wrongful detainees returning to the US are given the option to take part in PISA, which stands for Post Isolation Support Activities. A former senior State Department official described the program as helpful for former detainees “to tell (their) story.”
Everything “will be new” and “surreal” for Fogel as he adjusts back to life in the US, according to Paul Whelan, an American wrongly held in Russia for more than five years until he was freed in a prisoner exchange last year.
“He’s waking up in the first world after spending three and a half in the third world. Everything will be new to him. Everything familiar will be a just a surreal experience,” he told CNN on Wednesday.
The ex-marine also offered a rare insight into the small group of Americans formerly held by governments and groups abroad who “stay in touch” to support one another.
“If someone needs to chat about what they’re going through, maybe they need some sort of help. We get together and do that,” said Whelan. “It’s an exclusive club, it’s sort of like the club of presidents.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Jimmy Carr, Jennifer Hansler and John Berman contributed reporting.