The co-founder of the Wex crypto exchange can be released without serving time in prison

The Moscow City Court postponed consideration of the complaint until March 18. Ivanov-Bilyuchenko asks to cancel the verdict of the first instance, according to which the co-founder of the largest Russian-speaking crypto exchange at the time is facing 3.5 years in a penal colony and a fine of 500,000 rubles. The punishment was imposed on September 30 by the Moscow Petty Bourgeois Court for embezzlement of 3.17 billion rubles of money from Wex customers.

The official reason for the postponement of the meeting is the judge's illness. This is the third postponement since the beginning of December, when the appeal was submitted to the highest instance of the capital.

The prosecutor's office also asks to change the verdict of the Petty-Bourgeois court, considering it too lenient. The state prosecution asked for 4.5 years in prison and a fine of 1 million rubles under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Theft of other people's property by appropriation or embezzlement as part of an organized group or on an especially large scale").

In March, it will be two years since Alexey Bilyuchenko, who changed his name to Ivanov shortly before his arrest, is in jail. Since, according to Russian law, serving time in pre-trial detention is counted in the calculation of 1.5 of the term appointed by the court, by the new date of the hearing, three of the 3.5 years awarded will have expired. If the practice of postponing meetings continues, the prisoner may be released by the beginning of summer.

Compensation of 3 billion rubles, which appear in the lawsuit, is due not to its clients, but to the owner of the Wex crypto exchange, the Singapore–based World Exchange Services company, which is backed by people associated with businessman Konstantin Malofeev. Active clients of the exchange, which collapsed in 2018, are preparing a class action lawsuit demanding that they return what they lost on Wex accounts.

Source: https://bits.media/soosnovatel-kriptobirzhi-wex-mozhet-vyyti-na-svobodu-bez-otsidki-v-kolonii/