Sanctioned Russian Crypto Exchange Garantex Has Been Seized, Its Operators Charged With Money Laundering
In 2022, Garantex was sanctioned for facilitating money laundering for extortion criminals and darknet markets.
Cheyenne Ligon | Edited by Nikhilesh De , Mar 7, 2025 18:31 UTC
Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange known to extortion gangs and darknet users, has been shut down in an international law enforcement operation, according to information released Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Thursday, a joint operation by law enforcement agencies in the United States, Germany, and Finland resulted in the seizure of Garantex domains and servers, as well as the freezing of nearly $28 million in cryptocurrency linked to the exchange, via stablecoin issuer Tether.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex in 2022, accusing the exchange of knowingly facilitating money laundering for ransomware criminals including the Conti and Black Basta gangs, as well as darknet markets such as Hydra, which was the largest darknet market in the world before its closure in 2022.
Garantex has been largely untouched by the sanctions — according to Elliptic, a blockchain research firm that assisted the U.S. in the investigation, the exchange has processed more than $60 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since the sanctions were imposed. In total, the exchange’s transaction volume has exceeded $96 billion.
Court documents show that Garantex collected little or no know-your-customer (KYC) information about its customers, allowing criminals to use its services unhindered, with accounts registered to customers with names such as “Narkotik,” “Hacker,” “Taliban,” “Cashout, cleancoins,” and “God.”
In addition to ransomware and darknet markets, Garantex’s clients have allegedly included the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group, which carried out a massive $1.5 billion heist on Bybit last month, and Russian oligarchs using the platform to circumvent international sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. Garantex has been linked to sophisticated international sanctions-busting schemes such as TGR Group, which caters to the Russian elite.
Following the seizure of Garantex's servers and domains, two of its operators were charged with criminal offenses in the United States for their involvement in the exchange's operations.
Lithuanian citizen and Russian resident Alexey Beschiokov, 46, is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business. Alexander Mira Serda, 40, a Russian citizen currently residing in the United Arab Emirates, is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
