Former owner of WEX cryptocurrency exchange Dmitry Vasiliev was detained at Zagreb airport while trying to enter Croatia. This is reported by local media.

According to the publication, the detention took place on the basis of an Interpol red card issued by Kazakhstan on Wednesday (May 25th). The country’s law enforcement agencies suspect Vasilyev of embezzling $20,000 and are seeking his extradition.

Vasiliev himself denies all accusations.

Recall that in July 2018, due to “technical work”, the WEX exchange stopped withdrawing funds completely. At the same time, according to Dmitry Vasiliev, an agreement was signed on the transfer of ownership of the WEX to Dmitry “Seaman” Khavchenko, a former militant of the “DPR”.

In August of the same year, he learned about the bankruptcy of the exchange and the suspension of its work. A venture group of exchange clients calculated that the damage exceeded $400 million. Personally, Vasilyev was credited with withdrawing $200 million.

In the spring of 2019, Kazakhstan law enforcement recognized him as a suspected fraud in absentia and put him on the interstate wanted list.

In July 2019, Vasilyev was arrested in Italy and spent several weeks in prison.

His arrest and detention in September 2021 was confirmed by the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office. In early December, the former head of WEX was released, after which he came to Russia. Then lawyer Krzysztof Brola stated that the court has not yet made a final decision on the extradition of Dmitry Vasiliev to Kazakhstan.

Later, an unknown person withdrew 100 ETH from one of their WEX wallets. The funds went to the Binance exchange.

In March 2022, the “red manager” of BTC-e (WEX) Alexey Bilyuchenko, suspected of embezzling the assets of the bitcoin exchange, was detained in the Russian Federation.