Garantex co-founder Aleksej Besciokov arrested by Indian authorities: report

Indian police have arrested Aleksej Besciokov, co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union for facilitating money laundering. 

Besciokov, a Lithuanian national, was detained in Varkala, Kerala, under India’s extradition law, according to state police officials, TechCrunch and Brian Krebs reported . 

The arrest occurred at 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday following an arrest warrant issued by the Patiala House Court in New Delhi. 

Besciokov is expected to be transferred to the court on March 14. Indian authorities have not disclosed whether the arrest was directly linked to his indictment in the U.S., but his extradition status suggests he is not facing charges within India.

Garantex shut down its services on March 6 shortly after Tether froze nearly 2.5 billion USDT in Russian rubles.

DOJ indictment and international sanctions

Besciokov’s arrest comes days after the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging him and Garantex’s other alleged co-founder, Aleksandr Mira Serda, with conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Besciokov faces additional charges for violating U.S. sanctions and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, with an additional five years for the unlicensed business violation.

Garantex, launched in 2019, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2022 for processing illicit funds linked to hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking. Despite sanctions , the exchange reportedly facilitated over $60 billion in transactions.

International crackdown on Garantex

Besciokov, known by the hacker alias “proforg,” allegedly oversaw Garantex’s technical infrastructure and approved transactions linked to North Korean cybercriminals and Russian elites evading sanctions. 

U.S. authorities claim he and Serda knowingly laundered illicit funds and took steps to conceal Garantex’s activities , including moving operational cryptocurrency wallets daily to bypass detection.

As part of a coordinated international operation, U.S., German, and Finnish authorities seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations, while the U.S. Secret Service froze over $26 million associated with the exchange. 

Law enforcement also obtained copies of Garantex’s customer and accounting databases, potentially exposing further illicit activities.

Besciokov was detained while vacationing with his family in India, according to sources close to the investigation. He appeared before a local court after his arrest and is set to be transferred to Delhi. 

The U.S. government is expected to pursue his extradition to face charges in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the indictment was filed.

Mira Serda, a Russian national residing in the United Arab Emirates, remains at large. The DOJ alleges he acted as Garantex’s chief commercial officer, managing the exchange’s business operations while assisting in laundering illicit funds.