Berlin court ruled to extradite Russian DJ Kaznacheev to the United States, accused of money laundering

The German Court of Appeal ruled to extradite the Russian musician to the United States Denis Kaznacheevaaccused of money laundering. About it informs TASS with reference to the decision of the 4th Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal.

The court’s document states that extradition is possible on one condition: “The United States, without the consent of the FRG, will not bring other charges against the accused for actions that are not the subject of the extradition request and the aforementioned indictment, and the conditions of Kaznacheev’s detention will not change.”

The court’s decision was made in absentia, and DJ Kaznacheev “was not informed about the place and time of the meeting,” says Ivan Melnikov, vice-president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. According to him, this violated Art. 5 of the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

According to American law enforcement agencies, Kaznacheev, using the darknet and being a member of the “Russian cyber mafia”, laundered $ 310 million with accomplices from 2010 to 2020. Personally, according to the prosecutor’s office, he earned from $ 3 to $ 15 million. Kaznacheev was arrested in Berlin on May 29, 2020. Later, the court released him on bail in the amount of 20 thousand euros.

The Kaznacheev case contains testimony from hackers who have already been convicted of fraud, including the son of a State Duma deputy who was sentenced in 2017 Roman Selezneva… He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Seleznev said that he laundered the proceeds from the hacking of computers and the money received from stolen credit cards with the help of Denis Kaznacheev, with whom he kept in touch via Skype. Investigators studied Seleznev’s transactions on the Liberty Reserve cryptocurrency exchange and found numerous payments marked “Denis Kaznacheev” and with data from Kaznacheev’s Russian passport, reported Russian service of the BBC.

From the testimony of Seleznev it follows that Kaznacheev also managed the LRznaki web exchanger, whose account in Liberty Reserve coincided with the account to which he transferred money.

Denis denies his involvement in the web exchanger. He says that he has never used e-wallets, web exchangers, cryptocurrency, and also never entered the darknet. Kaznacheev’s friends believe that the DJ became a victim of scammers who stole his personal data.

“There is no evidence of his involvement in the alleged act, he does not have a specialized economic or technical education, being in Germany, he observed all the laws of this country,” says Melnikov, describing the accused.

Those close to Kaznacheev announced a fundraiser to provide him with lawyers. According to Melnikov, he rented a small apartment on the outskirts of Berlin and often borrowed money from friends. This “once again shows the absurdity of accusations of multimillion-dollar fraud,” concluded Melnikov.

Russia will take decisive steps to prevent Kaznacheev’s extradition to the United States, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.