US, European law enforcement seize Russian crypto exchange Garantex and indict 2 administrators

Updated 3/7 at 10:50am EST with additional details from U.S. law enforcement.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday confirmed Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex was taken down, accusing the platform of processing at least $96 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions. 

The action was taken alongside corresponding seizures by German and Finnish law enforcement of servers that hosted Garantex’s operations. U.S. officials said they made copies of Garantex’s servers before the seizure, allowing them to obtain customer and accounting databases. 

The DOJ also announced indictments of 46-year-old Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov and 40-year-old Russian Aleksandr Mira Serda — two people accused of running Garantex from 2019 to 2025. Serda is a co-founder of the company and is chief commercial officer.

Both are charged with money laundering and Besciokov is facing additional charges due to his role as Garantex’s primary technical administrator — which made him responsible for maintaining the platform’s infrastructure and reviewing transactions. 

The indictment accuses Besciokov and Mira Serda of knowing the platform was being used to process money obtained illegally and actively trying to hide this, even from Russian law enforcement.  

U.S. prosecutors said despite the 2022 Treasury Department sanctions, Besciokov and others continued to conduct transactions with U.S. entities — going so far as to redesign Garantex to evade the sanctions.  

Court documents say Garantex was able to evade sanctions by constantly moving the company’s operational cryptocurrency to different virtual wallets each day — making it nearly impossible for U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges to block transactions associated with Garantex accounts. 

The Secret Service led the effort to execute a seizure warrant that allowed U.S. officials to take down three websites used to run and market Garantex’s operations. 

Mira Serda is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison while Besciokov is facing 45 years if convicted. Besciokov is based in Russia and Mira Serda is in the United Arab Emirates, according to U.S. officials. 

The announcements came one day after the exchange’s website was replaced with a seizure notice.

“The domain for Garantex has been seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia under the authority of 18 U.S.C §§ 981 and 982,” the notice said. The image included insignias of the FBI, Justice Department, the Secret Service, Europol and several European law enforcement agencies. 

Last week, the European Union announced sanctions on Garantex, writing that the platform was used to circumvent sanctions and had ties to Russian banks that had also been sanctioned. Europol told Recorded Future News that it provided forensic support for the operation.

Garantex was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2022 due to its prominent role in the Russian ransomware ecosystem. U.S. officials said at the time that cybercriminals use the platform to effectively cash out illicitly-gained cryptocurrency and investigators traced over $100 million in transactions that were associated with illicit actors and darknet markets, including nearly $6 million from Russian ransomware gang Conti. 

On Thursday, Garantex posted a message on Telegram claiming more than 2.5 billion rubles — or about $28 million — had been frozen by stablecoin operator Tether. Tether controls the widely-used USDT coin, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. 

“Dear users! We have bad news. Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles,” Garantex told its users. 

“We are temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while our entire team solves this problem. We are fighting and will not give up! Please note that all USDT in Russian wallets is now under threat. As always, we are the first, but not the last.”

Garantex was founded in 2019 and has become one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Russia, gaining further prominence after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

The platform allowed people to circumvent sanctions on Russian banks by bringing rubles to the company’s offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg and getting cryptocurrency in return, which can then be exchanged for other fiat currencies. 

U.S. and European law enforcement agencies have repeatedly accused the platform of being used by cybercriminals, gangs and designated terrorist groups.