Criminal Case Against Failed WEX Crypto Exchange Points at Russian Law Enforcement

The formerly anonymous administrator of the cryptocurrency exchange WEX, which shut down last summer, has made some shocking claims about the fate of “hundreds of millions” of dollars of clients’ cryptocurrency in talks with Russian police.

Russian citizen Alexei Bilyuchenko, who confessed to being the tech administrator of the infamous BTC-e exchange and later co-founder of WEX, had been questioned as part of a criminal investigation underway in Russia since late 2018, BBC News Russian reported Friday. The report was based on materials of the probe, obtained by the BBC and reportedly confirmed as genuine by two sources “close to the  investigation.”

In his statements, Bilyuchenko said he was forced to send all the cryptocurrency in WEX’s wallets to unnamed staffers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor of the Soviet KGB, shortly before the exchange ceased operations.

The admin further said he had been close to Alexander Vinnik, the…