The United States accuses Garantex administrators of allegedly facilitating cryptocurrency for terrorists and hackers

US Department of Justice Friday Criminal charges against the administrators of the Russian Cryptocurrency Exchange Garantex for the alleged facilitation of money laundering from criminal and terrorist organizations, as well as for violating US sanctions.

The two administrators are Lithuanian national and Russian resident Alexey Beskov, 46 -year -old, and Alexander Mira Serda, 40 years old, a Russian national resident in the United Arab Emirates, who “knew that criminal proceeds were drunk through Garaothy and take steps to conceal the platform. According to the prosecution Against them.

Doj said Garantex “has received hundreds of millions of criminal proceeds and has been used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransom, terrorism and drug trafficking,” and that the stock exchange processes at least $ 96 billion with cryptocurrency transactions from 2019.

In the indictment, prosecutors accuses Beskokov of personally allowing cybercriminals related transactions, including the hackers of the North Korean government known as the Lazarus Group.

The prosecution announced the day after the US Secret Service and a coalition of law enforcement agencies Downloaded and seized Garantex’s official websitesreplacing their contents with a banner, including agencies logs and announcing the seizure of the site.

When TechCrunch turned to the three Garantex email addresses listed on its official page before downloading, our emails were returned as imperceptible. Garantex did not respond to multiple comment requests through its official Telegram channel.

Beskikov and Mira Sera have been charged with conspiracy for money laundering, while Beskiokov has also been charged with conspiracy for disturbance of sanctions and conspiracy and for working with an unlicensed business for transferring money. Both are confronted with a maximum of 20 years in prison for a money laundering fee, while Beskiokov faces another maximum sentence of 20 years for conspiracy for violating US sanctions and another five years of five years for conspiracy to manage money for money.

It is unclear if the two were arrested. Shannon Shevlin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, told TechCrunch that DOJ did not know if Mira Serda had been arrested in the UAE.

The two loaded Garantex administrators could not be reached by TechCrunch for comment.

US prosecutors claim that Beskov and Mira Serda knew that their exchange of cryptocurrencies was used to launder money and works actively to make it happen, even when Russian authorities ask questions. According to DOJ, when Russian law enforcement agencies have requested records at some point related to an account at Mira Serda for Garantex, the company provided incomplete information and “claims that the account has not been checked.”

“In fact, Garantex has linked the Mira Serda personal identification account,” the prosecution said.

Millions in cryptocurrency, confirms DOJ

Garantex has been the focus of Western government’s attention for several years.

In 2022, as part of a series of actions against Russian cybercrime, American Treasury sanctioned GarantexMentioning an analysis showing that “over $ 100 million transactions are related to illegal participants and markets of Darknet, including nearly $ 6 million from Russian (Ransomware As Service), Gang Conti, and also includes approximately $ 2.6 million from (Darknet Market) Hydra.”

Also in 2024 as part of a series of sanctions against Russia for invasion of Ukraine, The European Union sanctioned GarantexThey claim that the exchange is “closely linked to EU -sanctioned Russian banks”.

According to DOJ, despite the sanctions imposed by the US government, Beskiokov and its co -employment violate the law on sanctions, continuing to adopt transactions with US -based organizations, as well as “reworked Garantex operations to avoid the US and to drive the US Business.

“For example, Garantex moves its operating portfolios to cryptocurrency to various virtual currency addresses daily to make it difficult for US -based cryptocurrency exchanges to identify and block account transactions in Garantex,” the DOJ said.

Doj also said US law enforcement agencies frozen over $ 26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex money laundering. DOJ Shevlin spokesman told TechCrunch that the department frozen a total of 23 034 884,75 Tether and Binance 35.57 Bitcoin (worth about $ 3 million as of Friday), amounting to about $ 26.2 million.

Even before these law enforcement actions, Garantex announced on Thursday that he had stopped “all services, including the withdrawal of cryptocurrency”, then A stable issuer on an issuer blocked portfolios belonging to Garantex, which kept over $ 28 million.

“We have bad news. Tether entered the war against the Russian Crypto Market, “Garantex wrote on his official telegram channel in messageS “We are fighting and we will not give up! Please note that all (Tether) in the Russian portfolios are currently threatened. As always, we are the first, but not the last. “

Following the DOJ message on Friday, Garantex post a TELEGRAM signal For scammers, “pretending to be restored to Garantex or offering withdrawal.”

“These are all cheaters! Their aim is to gain access to the personal data of users, portfolio addresses and other sensitive information, “the message in the Russian reading, according to machine translation.

The announcement does not mention the download of the website, nor the accusations of Beskov and Mira Serda.