Switzerland has extradited Kremlin-linked Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin to the United States, where he faces insider-trading charges, Swiss authorities reported on December 18.
Klyushin owns M13, a Russian company that offers media monitoring and cybersecurity services. He is accused in the United States of making tens of millions of dollars with accomplices via insider trading using hacked confidential information about listed U.S. companies.
The businessman was arrested in Switzerland in March on a U.S. warrant.
Russia said on December 19 that it was deeply disappointed with the Swiss decision to extradite Klyushin.
"We are forced to state that we are dealing with another episode in Washington's ongoing hunt for Russian citizens in third countries," the TASS news agency quoted Vladimir Khokhlov, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Switzerland, as saying.
According to Russian opposition media, Klyushin is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Aleksei Gromov.
The website of M13 says its services are used by the Russian presidential administration and government.
Klyushin had argued in court that he was being targeted for “political reasons” and rejected the charges as baseless. But Swiss courts dismissed his appeal. The Federal Criminal Court in November upheld a previous rejection of Klyushin's argument that he was a victim of a U.S. political campaign.
Klyushin's extradition to the United States was approved in June after the Swiss Federal Office of Justice rejected a Russian request earlier to extradite Klyushin to Moscow to face trial there.
The United States slapped Russia with sanctions in April for interfering in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, hacking, and supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
