Authorities from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have reported the apprehension of Lithuanian citizen Aleksej Bešciokov, who is accused of running the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
On March 12, the CBI indicated that police in the Indian state of Kerala worked with national officials to detain Bešciokov. The Lithuanian national was allegedly on vacation in India with his family and intended to leave the country shortly. His arrest stems from US charges of conspiracy related to money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Aleksej Bešciokov’s “most wanted” page.
As detailed in an indictment submitted on February 27 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Bešciokov, along with Aleksandr Mira Serda and others, allegedly used Garantex to “launder the proceeds from criminal activities, including ransomware, computer hacking, drug trafficking, and sanctions violations, and profited from this laundering” from 2019 to the present. He is expected to be transferred to US authorities under India’s Extradition Act of 1962.
This arrest occurred following Tether’s decision to freeze $27 million in USDt (USDT) on the exchange. On March 6, the platform announced a temporary suspension of all services, including withdrawals. Additionally, US officials seized three website domains linked to Garantex as part of a court order related to the criminal investigation.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury placed Garantex on its list of sanctioned entities in April 2022 for “willfully ignoring Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) responsibilities and allowing their systems to be exploited by illicit actors.” Furthermore, the European Union imposed sanctions against Garantex in February as part of measures related to “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Serda, a Russian national who co-founded Garantex and served as its chief commercial officer, appeared to remain at large following Bešciokov’s arrest.
Potential Delays in Returning to the United States?
It remains uncertain what legal options Bešciokov might pursue to contest his extradition to the US from India, should he decide to do so. Legal representatives for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 on unrelated charges, consistently challenged court rulings regarding his extradition to the US before ultimately being extradited in December 2024.
Similarly, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was in the Bahamas when the FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapsed in November 2022, was extradited to the US to face charges. He was later convicted on seven felony counts and received a 25-year prison sentence but has since filed an appeal.
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