Russian cyber criminal Alexander Vinnik, guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering, is the prisoner heading to Russia in exchange for returned American Marc Fogel.
Russian news agency RT reported in a post on Telegram that the exchange was confirmed by a lawyer for Vinnik.
The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed U.S. official, reported that Vinnik was in U.S. custody in California Wednesday morning and was being prepared for transport to Russia.
Vinnik operated BTC-e, once one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. He was arrested in 2017 and detained at Washington's request on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through the exchange. In May, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faced 20 years in prison.
Vinnik will reportedly forfeit $100 million in criminal proceeds from alleged facilitated cryptocurrency transfers as condition of his release, according to an ABC News reporter's post on X.
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.