NEW YORK, August 6. /TASS/. Russian national Alexander Vinnik, who was earlier extradited to the United States, appeared in court in the Northern District of California on Friday, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Earlier [on Friday], he for the first time appeared before Judge Sallie Kim in the San Francisco courthouse, the statement reads.

The court’s press service told TASS earlier that Vinnik was expected to first appear in court at 8:30 pm on Friday. The essence of the charges is to be explained to the defendant, and some procedural issues could also be raised. As a rule, the trial of the case on the merits begins within weeks or even months after the first appearance in court.

On Thursday, Vinnik was extradited from France first to Greece and then to the United States. Vinnik, a Russian IT specialist, was detained during his vacation in Greece in July 2017 at the request of the United States, where he is accused of laundering $4-9 billion through a no longer existing crypto exchange, BTC-e.

In December 2019, Greek Justice Minister Konstantionos Tsiaras ruled that Vinnik be extradited first to France, then to the United States and eventually to Russia. In December 2020, a Paris court sentenced him to five years in prison for money laundering and ordered a fine of more than 100,000 euros.

In Russia, Vinnik is charged with embezzlement of over 600,000 rubles ($9,900) and computer fraud worth 750,000 million rubles (some $12.4 million). He himself said back in Greece that he would agree to return to Russia and stand a court trial in his homeland.