In Italy, a native of Minsk and a citizen of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Vasiliev, who had previously been associated with the infamous WEX (formerly BTC-e), was detained. This is what the BBC says with reference to the statement of a close friend of Vasilyev's. However, the reason for the detention is not specified.
BTC-e was founded in 2011 and closed down in 2017 following the arrest of a Russian citizen, Alexander Vinnik, in Greece and the confiscation of the FBI's servers. Subsequently, WEX adopted the custom BTC-e, although it denied its direct connection to the latter. As noted by the BBC, it was Vasilyev who was the owner of the Singapore registered WEX.
The BBC has sent requests to the police and the Italian Ministry of Justice. "No comment," said Dmitry Gurin, press attaché at the Russian Embassy in Italy.
It is also known that in April 2019, a criminal case was initiated against Vasilyev in Kazakhstan on suspicion of embezzlement of $20,000 by WEX in Almaty. Vasiliev himself stated that he made a deal to sell the stock exchange in mid-2018 and was not involved in it since then. At the same time, users began to report problems with withdrawals on WEX.