On March 7, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2019, was seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. A total of three domains – Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy – were seized after investigators determined that Garantex had been used by transnational criminal organizations to violate U.S. sanctions and launder funds. In addition to the domain seizure, U.S. law enforcement also froze more than $26 million in funds allegedly used to facilitate Garantex’s laundering operation.
The DOJ reported that Garantex’s servers were actually seized by German and Finnish law enforcement but emphasized that this action was the result of a coordinated effort by multiple international authorities, including Europol, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.
The DOJ also announced that federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed a three-count indictment charging two Garantex administrators – Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda – with money laundering conspiracy. Besciokov was additionally charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to court documents, Besciokov (Garantex’s primary technical administrator) and Mira Serda (Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer) controlled and operated Garantex from 2019 to 2025. Federal prosecutors allege that both administrators were aware that criminal proceeds from various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism and drug trafficking, were being laundered through Garantex and took steps to conceal their involvement in these activities on the platform.
In 2022, Garantex was also sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for laundering ransomware proceeds and funds from darknet markets. Federal prosecutors contend that, despite the imposition of sanctions, Besciokov and his co-conspirators continued to transact with U.S.-based entities in violation of U.S. sanctions and often redesigned Garantex’s operations to, among other things, cause U.S. businesses to unintentionally transact with Garantex in violation of U.S. sanctions. Federal prosecutors also allege that Garantex failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as required even though the company did substantial business in the United States as a money transmitting business.
DOJ Press Release | Indictment