Indian Authorities Arrest Garantex Co-Founder Aleksej Besciokov at US Request

Indian police have arrested Litva Aleksej Besciokov, co-founder of the Garantex crypto exchange, at the request of the United States.

Besciokov has been indicted and charged with criminal offenses for facilitating money laundering on the cryptocurrency exchange.

Besciokov to be extradited to the US

TechCrunch reports that Indian authorities arrested Aleksej Besciokov in Kerala, a southern state, under the country’s extradition laws. The US requested his arrest following an indictment announced by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 7.

The DOJ accused Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda, another co-founder of Garantex, of violating US sanctions. They accused the exchange of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transfer business. The US will seek Besciokov’s extradition to the Eastern District of Virginia for trial.

Moreover, in coordination with Germany and Finland, on March 6, the US Secret Service executed a seizure of three Garantex domains (Garantex.org, Garantex.io, Garantex.academy) and related servers. They also froze $28 million in cryptocurrency belonging to the exchange.

The DOJ indictment alleges that Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator, responsible for maintaining its infrastructure and approving transactions. Authorities accuse him of knowingly allowing transactions linked to hackers backed by the North Korean government, such as the Lazarus Group, the organization responsible for the recent Bybit hack, and other criminal organizations.

Garantex is a Russia-based cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2022, it has been under US and EU sanctions for allegedly facilitating money laundering for transnational criminal organizations. It includes terrorist groups, ransomware hackers, drug traffickers, and activities violating sanctions.

According to the DOJ, between 2019 and 2025, Garantex processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions, including hundreds of millions of dollars tied to illicit funds.

On March 10, 2025, Garantex invited clients to an in-person meeting in Moscow. They seem to be trying to figure out how to deal with the consequences. However, there is no clear sign that the exchange has resumed normal operations until now.

Garantex is not the only cryptocurrency exchange whose founder has been arrested. At least four other exchanges, including FTX, BTC-e, GCG Asia/GCFX, and Thodex, are also in a similar situation.