International law enforcement seize domains behind the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex
Quick Take
- Law enforcement in the United States, Germany and Finland suspended the infrastructure powering the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
- Garantex purportedly enables money laundering from criminal organizations and processed at least $96 billion in digital asset transactions since 2019.
- The DOJ also charged two Garantex administrators with money laundering for their alleged role in operating the exchange.
The United States Department of Justice, with coordinated help from Germany and Finland, seized several domains associated with the sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
Law enforcement agencies in the three countries managed "to disrupt and take down the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex," according to a Friday release from the DOJ, adding that Garantex has enabled criminal organizations to launder at least $96 billion worth of funds through its platform since April 2019.
Stablecoin issuer Tether aided the U.S. Secret Service in freezing $23 million worth of illicitly obtained digital assets flowing through the exchange, the company said in a blog post on Friday. The blockchain forensic firm Elliptic further enabled digital asset freezing by identifying Garantex's obscured transactions, finding the exchange transacted $60 billion worth of funds even after receiving sanctions.
In an unsealed indictment, the DOJ also identified Garantex's principal technical administrator, Aleksej Besciokov, and its co-founder and chief commercial officer, Aleksandr Mira Serda. According to the indictment, Besciokov is a Lithuanian national living in Russia, while Mira Serda is a Russian national living in the United Arab Emirates. For their roles at Garantex from 2019 to 2025, they received charges related to conspiracy to commit money laundering, violating sanctions, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex in April 2022 for enabling money laundering illicitly obtained from ransomware attacks and darknet markets. Garantex was the third largest crypto exchange sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury at the time, as The Block previously reported.
While Tether helped the U.S. Secret Service freeze $23 million worth of funds, more Tether-linked digital assets could be flowing through Garantex. As of March 2024, the U.S. and UK were investigating $20 billion worth of USDT passing through the exchange as of March 2024. Tether's USDT is the largest USD-pegged stablecoin by market share.
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