Alleged Co-Founder of Garantex Arrested in India
Authorities in India have made a significant arrest in the wake of international efforts to crack down on a notorious cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the US government. Aleksej Besciokov, a 46-year-old Lithuanian national allegedly involved in facilitating tens of billions of dollars in money laundering for transnational criminal and cybercriminal organizations, was taken into custody while vacationing with his family on the coast of India.
Besciokov, also known by the hacker handle "proforg," is accused of being Garantex's primary technical administrator. He is believed to have played a critical role in obtaining and maintaining key infrastructure for the exchange, as well as reviewing and approving transactions. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Besciokov was instrumental in helping Garantex evade sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2022.
Garantex, launched in 2019, was initially sanctioned for receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds. Since those penalties were levied, the exchange has processed over $60 billion, according to blockchain analysis company Elliptic. The platform has been linked to facilitating sanctions evasion by Russian elites and laundering proceeds from crimes such as hacking, ransomware, darknet market trade, and thefts attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group.
German and Finnish law enforcement agencies have also taken action, seizing servers hosting Garantex's operations. A "most wanted" notice published by the US Secret Service states that US authorities obtained earlier copies of Garantex's servers, including customer and accounting databases. Federal investigators have frozen over $26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex's money laundering activities.
Besciokov was arrested within the past 24 hours while vacationing with his family in Varkala, a major coastal city in the southwest Indian state of Kerala. He will appear in a Delhi court on March 14 to face charges. The DOJ alleges that Besciokov and co-founder Aleksandr Mira Serda, 40, a Russian national living in the United Arab Emirates, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Besciokov is also accused of conspiring to violate the International Economic Emergency Powers Act and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The arrest marks another significant blow to Garantex's operations, which has been linked to facilitating illicit activities by Russian oligarchs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.