FILE PHOTO: Alexander Vinnik, a 38 year old Russian man suspected of running a money laundering operation using bitcoin, is escorted by police officers to a court in Athens, Greece December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo
(Reuters) -Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national convicted of cybercrime and released by U.S. authorities as part of an exchange of prisoners, arrived in Moscow on Thursday, state news agency RIA said.
Vinnik, who pleaded guilty in May 2024 to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, told RIA in a dispatch issued after midnight that he was already at home with his family.
RIA quoted him as saying he had been brought to Moscow aboard a plane that made a stop in Poland and not in Turkey as his lawyer had said.
The agency also said he expressed thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, other diplomats and Russian special services and his family as well as U.S. President Donald Trump.
TASS news agency reported that a U.S. Air Force passenger aircraft had left Vnukovo heading in a westerly direction after spending about an hour on the ground.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Chris Reese and Franklin Paul)
