Aleksej Besciokov, alleged Russian operator of crypto exchange Garantex, has been arrested by Indian authorities.

Aleksej Besciokov, alleged Russian operator of crypto exchange Garantex, has been arrested by Indian authorities.

Aleksej Besciokov, the alleged Russian operator of crypto exchange Garantex, has been arrested by Indian authorities, reports

As the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to pursue crypto-related crime, an interesting case unfolded as a joint effort between the U.S. and India led to the apprehension of Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national and Russian resident, in Kerala, India.

According to an article by Brian Krebs, an infosec analyst, Besciokov, 46, was detained by Kerala police at 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The arrest comes in response to a request from the U.S. authorities for his extradition.

The arrest follows the shutdown of Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2019 by Besciokov, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, a Russian national and resident of the United Arab Emirates.

The exchange, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) in 2022 for facilitating ransomware activity, had its servers seized and service halted last week by German and Finnish law enforcement.

The closure of Garantex was part of a broader crackdown by U.S. authorities on cryptocurrency crime. Earlier this year, OFAC imposed sanctions on several entities and individuals for their roles in ransomware schemes and other illicit activities.

Following the sanctions, which barred U.S. citizens and entities from dealing with the sanctioned parties, a joint task force was formed to close down Garantex's servers and freeze its remaining cryptocurrency balances.

The task force, which included members of the FBI, IRS, and DEA, worked with German and Finnish authorities to locate and seize Garantex's servers. The servers were said to be housed in a data center in Germany, while the Finnish authorities assisted in shutting down Garantex's online presence.

In addition to shutting down Garantex's servers and freezing its cryptocurrency balances, U.S. authorities also obtained historical backups of Garantex's servers, which allowed them to access customer information and accounting data.

This information helped authorities identify several significant amounts of laundered money, which were then frozen with the assistance of Tether.

As the case unfolded, it became clear that Garantex was a key player in a broader network of cryptocurrency crime. The exchange was used by Lazarus Group, the North Korean hackers responsible for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, to launder their money.

Furthermore, Russian oligarchs, associated with TGR Group and targeted by western sanctions following the Ukraine war, used the Garantex exchange to send their money despite the sanctions.

The closure of Garantex and the arrest of Besciokov mark significant milestones in the U.S.'s efforts to combat cryptocurrency crime. The case also highlights the increasing cooperation between law enforcement agencies around the world to address this growing threat.

The 46-year-old Lithuanian national and Russian resident was named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as being arrested in Kerala, India, on Monday.

A joint task force, including members of the FBI, IRS, and DEA, worked with German and Finnish authorities to locate and seize Garantex's servers. The servers were said to be housed in a data center in Germany, while the Finnish authorities assisted in shutting down Garantex's online presence.

In addition to shutting down Garantex's servers and freezing its cryptocurrency balances, U.S. authorities obtained historical backups of Garantex's servers, allowing them to access customer information and accounting data.

This information helped authorities identify several significant amounts of laundered money, which were then frozen with the assistance of Tether. One such instance involved the recovery of 2664 BTC, valued at $26 million, which were stolen by the ransomware group Conti and later laundered through Garantex.

As the case unfolded, it became clear that Garantex was a key player in a broader network of cryptocurrency crime. The exchange was used by Lazarus Group, the North Korean hackers responsible for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, to launder their money.

The joint task force also discovered that Garantex was a primary processing node for the Hydra darknet market, which was shut down by U.S. authorities in April 2022.

This cooperation enabled the freezing of an additional 7000 BTC, valued at $70 million, in an account controlled by Garantex.

The case began in 2022 when OFAC imposed sanctions on Garantex for facilitating ransomware activity and other illicit financial transactions. At the time, OFAC stated that Garantex had processed billions of dollars in cryptocurrency transactions since its founding in 2019, and its customers included ransomware gangs, members of the sanctioned TGR Group, and oligarchs targeted by