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- Garantex co-founder arrested in India, faces U.S. charges for money laundering and sanctions violations.
- Garantex facilitated $60B in illicit transactions before shutdown; servers seized globally.
- Global crackdown intensifies as authorities target crypto exchanges involved in illegal activities.
Garantex co-founder Besciokov, a Lithuanian national, was detain in Varkala, India, under the extradition laws as stated by the state police officers, TechCrunch and Brian Krebs reported. This arrest was conduct at around 4:00 PM on Tuesday, with police conducting an arrest as per the warrant that the Patiala House Court in New Delhi issued. Besciokov is schedule to appear in court on March 14, however Indian authorities have not comment on whether his arrest is connected to his US indictment.
The arrest occurs approximately one week after, the United States Department of Justice has announce that Besciokov and Garantex’s alleged co-founder Aleksandr Mira Serda has been indicted for conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is further charged with violating the U.S. sanctions and conducting an unlicense money transmission business. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each charge and another five for operating an unlicensed company.
Garantex $60B in Illicit Transactions
Garantex offers internet-base financial services such as money transfer and trading since its establishment in 2019 in April was blacklisted by the U.S.’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. It was further accuse of processing over $60 billion of transactions with elements related to hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and narcotics sales. Still, it continued functioning its business until March 6 when it closed after Tether decided to freeze approximately 2.5 billion USDT in Russian rubles.
Besciokov, using hacker alias ‘proforg,’ allegedly oversaw the technical side of Garantex and signed transactions related to payments for North Korean cyber criminals and Russians designated for sanctions. U.S. authorities say he and Mira Serda, engaged in efforts to disguise Garantex, shifting operational cryptocurrency wallets as frequently as daily.
The US, German and Finnish authorities simultaneously shutdown some of the servers that were housing Garantex’s business while the US Secret Service also placed a freeze on more than $26 million believed to belong to the exchange. This is because they also obtain the customer and accounting records of Garantex that could reveal other unlawful deeds.
Besciokov was said to have been arrested while on holidays with his family in India. He was to be hand over to the Delhi court and the U.S is going to press charges against him for extradition to the Eastern District of Virginia. The Russian national, Mira Serda, currently residing in the United Arab Emirates, is still at large.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he was also employed by Garantex as a Chief Commercial Officer, assisted in the company’s management of the exchange and helping in the money laundering business.
