Vinnik was extradited from Greece to the United States on Friday to face charges related to money laundering and operation of the BTC-e platform and trading house from Moscow. If found guilty, Vinnik is facing a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.
"It [extradition] is almost never a problem because there is no constitution of the United States applicable outside of the border of the United States. So, any type of arrest outside of United States is legal in the perception of American judges and American court systems," Bukh said on Friday. "We [the United States] do not have to follow local law, we are following only American law; if there is a warrant, we can arrest at any time, at any place."
Bukh said Vinnik will be arraigned in US court next week and the judge will most likely deny bail because the defendant is not a US citizen. This means, Vinnik will stay in custody during the entire probe into his case, Bukh added.
The extradition of Vinnik to the United States has outraged officials in Moscow who said they are concerned that he would be subject to "punitive justice."
The Greek authorities detained Vinnik in 2017 at the request of the US government. Vinnik was initially extradited to France, where he was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $119,433. Vinnik was later returned to Greece before being taken to the United States on a private plane.
Bukh is a well known lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, who has represented numerous Russian citizens facing legal charges in the United States, including Stanislav Lisov, Maksim Boiko and Denis Dubnikov.