Authorities in India have apprehended Aleksej Besciokov, a co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange that has been sanctioned by both the United States and the European Union for its role in money laundering.
Besciokov, a citizen of Lithuania, was taken into custody in Varkala, Kerala, under India’s extradition laws, according to local police officials, as reported by various sources.
The arrest took place at 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, following an arrest warrant issued by the Patiala House Court in New Delhi.
Besciokov is slated to appear in court on March 14. While Indian authorities have not confirmed if his arrest is directly related to his indictment in the U.S., the circumstances of his extradition imply that he is not currently facing charges in India.
On March 6, Garantex ceased its operations shortly after Tether froze nearly $2.5 billion in Russian rubles.
Indictments and Global Sanctions
Besciokov’s arrest follows the unsealing of an indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice that charges him and another alleged co-founder of Garantex, Aleksandr Mira Serda, with conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
In addition, Besciokov faces charges for violating U.S. sanctions and running an unlicensed money transmission business. Each of these charges carries a potential maximum sentence of 20 years, plus an additional five years for the unlicensed business charge.
Founded in 2019, Garantex was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2022 for processing illegal funds associated with hacking, ransomware, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Despite these sanctions, the exchange reportedly processed transactions exceeding $60 billion.
Global Action Against Garantex
Known by the hacker alias “proforg,” Besciokov is alleged to have managed Garantex’s technical infrastructure and approved transactions linked to North Korean cybercriminals and Russian individuals seeking to evade sanctions.
U.S. authorities claim that both he and Serda knowingly laundered illicit funds, taking steps to hide Garantex’s activities, which included relocating operational cryptocurrency wallets daily to avoid detection.
As part of a coordinated international effort, law enforcement from the U.S., Germany, and Finland seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations, while the U.S. Secret Service froze more than $26 million associated with the exchange.
Investigators also secured copies of Garantex’s customer and accounting databases, potentially revealing further illegal activities.
According to information from sources close to the case, Besciokov was vacationing in India with his family at the time of his arrest. He has since appeared in a local court and is expected to be transferred to Delhi.
The U.S. government intends to seek his extradition to confront charges in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the indictment was filed.
Mira Serda, a Russian citizen currently living in the United Arab Emirates, remains at large. The DOJ contends that he served as Garantex’s chief commercial officer, overseeing the exchange’s business operations while aiding in the laundering of illegal funds.