TL;DR
- The Russian Court overturned the million-dollar fine against the co-founder of WEX.
- Customers of the WEX exchange lost the option to recover their money.
- The United States still has charges pending against the Russian businessman in the Mt. Gox case.
The Russian Supreme Court has canceled a civil case against Alexey Ivanov-Bilyuchenko. He is a co-founder of the failed digital trading platforms BTC-e and WEX. The court annulled a financial penalty that exceeded 18 billion rubles, or $221.1 million. The legal action sought monetary compensation for damages.
A statement from the high court confirmed the action. It overturned prior decisions from lower courts in Moscow. The judicial process for the claim by World Exchange Services Pte. Ltd. is now terminated.
This ruling removes a legal method for users of the WEX platform to seek repayment. Investigators stated that in 2018, Ivanov-Bilyuchenko prevented access to the exchange for its owner and customers. He was found to have taken digital currency valued at over 18 billion rubles.
A court in Moscow found him guilty of large-scale theft under the Russian criminal code. Following that criminal conviction, the Singapore-based company that owned WEX filed a civil lawsuit. It asked for financial compensation for the losses.
The defendant had agreed to work with law enforcement
A penal colony sentence of three and a half years was given to him. He also received a fine of 500,000 rubles. A higher court in Moscow upheld this sentence.
Most of the exchange’s digital holdings were moved elsewhere or taken by other entities years ago. There is no functional system in place to return money to depositors. The situation for these users remains unresolved, and the expectation of any refund has effectively vanished.
Separately, Alexey Ivanov-Bilyuchenko faces charges from the United States Department of Justice. American authorities accuse him of involvement in the 2014 breach of the Mt. Gox exchange. This was one of the largest thefts of digital currency on record.
U.S. court documents allege that he and an associate planned to launder 647,000 Bitcoins taken from Mt. Gox. However, this American case has seen little progress. The suspect remains in Russia. There is no public record of any effort to extradite him. The U.S. indictment stays active but dormant, meaning the allegations are not dismissed but are not being pursued.
A Telegram channel with reported ties to Russian security services previously stated that a digital wallet connected to Ivanov-Bilyuchenko lost 6,500 Bitcoins. The unresolved legal cases in multiple countries indicate a future for the individual that likely involves further incarceration.
