Garantex cryptocurrency exchange disrupted in international operation

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Justice Department announced today a coordinated action with Germany and Finland to disrupt and take down the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly facilitated money laundering by transnational criminal organizations - including terrorist organizations - and sanctions violations. Since April 2019, Garantex has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.

In conjunction with the operation targeting Garantex, the Department also announced the unsealing of an indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia against Aleksej Besciokov, 46, a Lithuanian national and Russian resident, and Aleksandr Mira Serda (previously Aleksandr Ntifo-Siaw), 40, a Russian national and United Arab Emirates resident. Mira Serda and Besciokov are charged with money laundering conspiracy, and Besciokov is charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

According to court documents, between 2019 and 2025, Besciokov and Mira Serda controlled and operated Garantex. Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator and responsible for obtaining and maintaining critical Garantex infrastructure, as well as reviewing and approving transactions. Mira Serda was Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer.

Garantex received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds and was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking, often with substantial impact to U.S. victims. According to the indictment, Besciokov and Mira Serda knew that criminal proceeds were being laundered through Garantex and took steps to conceal the facilitation of illegal activities on its platform. For example, when Russian law enforcement sought records relating to an account registered to Mira Serda, Garantex provided incomplete information in response and falsely claimed the account was not verified. In reality, Garantex had associated the account with Mira Serda’s personal identifying documents, even while disclosing identifying information related to other accounts requested by Russian law enforcement.

On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex for its role in facilitating money laundering of funds from ransomware actors and darknet markets. According to court documents, despite the widespread publicity of the sanctions and Garantex administrator’s personal knowledge of them, Besciokov and his co-conspirators violated those sanctions by continuing to transact with U.S.-based entities. Further, Besciokov and his co-conspirators redesigned Garantex’s operations to evade and violate U.S. sanctions and induce U.S. businesses to unwittingly transact with Garantex in violation of the sanctions. For example, Garantex moved its operational cryptocurrency wallets to different virtual currency addresses on a daily basis in order to make it difficult for U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges to identify and block transactions with Garantex accounts.

Despite doing substantial business in the United States and operating as a money transmitting business, Garantex failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as required.

On March 6, U.S. law enforcement executed a seizure order authorized by a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia against three website domain names used to support Garantex’s operations. According to court records unsealed today, Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy were associated with the administration and operation of Garantex. The seizure of these domains will prevent these sites from being used for money laundering and additional crimes. Individuals visiting those sites now will see a message indicating that the site has been seized by law enforcement.

As part of the coordinated actions, German and Finnish law enforcement seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations. U.S. law authorities have separately obtained earlier copies of Garantex’s servers, including customer and accounting databases. In addition, U.S. law enforcement has also frozen over $26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex’s money laundering activities.

Besciokov and Mira Serda are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Besciokov is also charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.    

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Matthew R. Galeotti, Supervisory Official of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Michael Centrella, Assistant Directorof the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Office of Field Operations; and Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, made the announcement.

USSS and the FBI are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Bedell for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s National Security Division and Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance.

The Justice Department also recognizes the critical cooperation of the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office, the Dutch National Police, Europol, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.

Finally, the Department thanks Tether and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic for their proactive assistance in this investigation.

Any individual who believes he/she is a victim whose funds were laundered through Garantex or who may otherwise have a claim to restrained funds should contact law enforcement at GarantexClaimants@secretservice.gov.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.