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The U.S. Department of Justiceannounced on Fridaycriminal guardianship against the administrators of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex for allegedly facilitate money laundering by criminal and terrorist organizations , as well as violating U.S. sanctions .
The two administrators are Lithuanian national and Russian occupant Aleksej Besciokov , 46 , and Aleksandr Mira Serda , 40 , a Russian subject residing in the United Arab Emirates , who “ have a go at it that criminal take were being wash through Garantex and took steps to conceal the facilitation of illegal activities on its platform,”according to the indictmentagainst them .
The DOJ order that Garantex “ received hundreds of millions in criminal take and was used to ease various crimes , including hacking , ransomware , terrorism , and drug trafficking , ” and that the central process at least $ 96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2019 .
In the bill of indictment , prosecutors impeach Besciokov of personally allowing transactions link up to cybercriminals , include the North Korean - government hackers known as Lazarus Group .
The annunciation of the indictment come a day after the U.S. Secret Service and a concretion of law of nature enforcement agenciestook down and seized the official websites of Garantex , interchange their contents with a streamer featuring the agencies ’ logos and herald the land site ’s raptus .
When TechCrunch reached out to three Garantex e-mail savoir-faire list on its prescribed page prior to the put-down , our e-mail were pass as undelivered . Garantex did not respond to multiple requests for comment through its prescribed Telegram channel .
Besciokov and Mira Sera are both accused of a money laundering conspiracy , while Besciokov is also accused of conspiracy to assault imprimatur and conspiracy , and of operating an unlicensed money carry concern . Both face a maximum of 20 days in prison for the money laundering charge , while Besciokov faces another maximum prison term of 20 years for conspiracy to plunder U.S. sanctions , and another maximum of five yr for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting job .
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It ’s unclear if the two have been arrested . Shannon Shevlin , a interpreter for the Department of Justice , tell TechCrunch that the DOJ does n’t know if Mira Serda has been arrested in the UAE .
The two charged Garantex administrators could not be reach out by TechCrunch for comment .
U.S. prosecutor alleged that Besciokov and Mira Serda love that their crypto exchange was used for money laundering and actively shape to make that happen even when Russian authorities inquire question . concord to the DOJ , when Russian natural law enforcement bespeak records at some point bear on to a Mira Serda invoice on Garantex , the company render uncompleted information , and “ claimed the account was not verify . ”
“ In realism , Garantex had link up the account with Mira Serda ’s personal identifying documents , ” according to the bill of indictment .
Millions in crypto seized, DOJ confirms
Garantex has been the focal point of Western government natural action for several years .
In 2022 , as part of a series of actions against Russian cybercrime , the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Garantex , cite an analysis that show that “ over $ 100 million in transactions are associated with illegitimate player and darknet markets , including intimately $ 6 million from Russian [ Ransomware as a Service ] gang Conti and also including some $ 2.6 million from [ darknet market ] Hydra . ”
Also , in 2024 , as part of a series of sanctions against Russia for invade Ukraine , the European Union sanctioned Garantex , aver the exchange is “ intimately associated with EU - sanction Russian banks . ”
According to the DOJ , despite sanction imposed by the U.S. government , Besciokov and his co - conspirators profane sanction police force by continuing to accept transaction with U.S.-based entity , and also “ redesigned Garantex ’s operations to duck and violate U.S. warrant and induce U.S. business to unwittingly transact with Garantex in violation of the sanctions . ”
“ For model , Garantex moved its operational cryptocurrency billfold to dissimilar virtual currency addresses on a daily basis for make it unmanageable for U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange to identify and block dealing with Garantex news report , ” read the DOJ announcement .
The DOJ also say that U.S. law enforcement froze over $ 26 million in funds used to alleviate Garantex ’s money laundering . DOJ spokesperson Shevlin severalize TechCrunch that the department froze a total of 23,034,884.75 Tether and 35.57 Bitcoin on Binance ( deserving around $ 3 million as of Friday ) , add up to about $ 26.2 million .
Even before these law enforcement natural process , Garantex announced on Thursday that it had freeze “ all services , including cryptocurrency pulling out , ” afterstablecoin issuer Tether blocked walletsbelonging to Garantex that were holding more than $ 28 million .
“ We have sorry news . Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto securities industry , ” Garantex compose on its official Telegram canal in anannouncement . “ We are fighting and will not give up ! Please mention that all [ Tether ] in Russian wallets is presently under threat . As always , we are the first , but not the last . ”
After the DOJ ’s announcement on Friday , Garantexposted an alert on Telegramabout scammer “ pretending to be the restored Garantex commutation or offering to withdraw funds . ”
“ These are all scammers ! Their finish is to gain access to users ’ personal data , billfold address and other sensitive information , ” the announcement in Russian read , grant to a political machine rendering of it .
The proclamation made no citation of the website takedown , nor of the indictment of Besciokov and Mira Serda .
