The US Division of Justice (DOJ) indicted Besciokov and his co-founder, Aleksandr Mira Serda, on March 7. Authorities accuse them of violating US sanctions, operating an unlicensed cash switch enterprise, and laundering cash via the alternate. The US is now in search of Besciokov’s extradition to Virginia for trial.
In a coordinated transfer, the US Secret Service, together with Germany and Finland, seized three Garantex domains and froze $28 million in cryptocurrency. Authorities declare Besciokov, as Garantex’s technical administrator, knowingly processed transactions linked to cybercriminals, together with North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange, has been below US and EU sanctions since 2022. It’s accused of dealing with illicit funds tied to hackers, drug traffickers, and different criminals. The DOJ estimates the alternate processed not less than $96 billion in transactions, together with lots of of hundreds of thousands linked to unlawful actions.
On March 10, Garantex invited purchasers to a gathering in Moscow, however its future stays unsure. The alternate has not resumed regular operations.
Besciokov’s arrest is a part of a broader crackdown on crypto exchanges. A number of founders, together with these of FTX, BTC-e, and Thodex, have additionally confronted authorized motion.
