The Justice Department has announced a collaborative operation with Germany and Finland to dismantle the online infrastructure of Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange accused of facilitating money laundering by transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist groups, and violating sanctions. Since April 2019, Garantex has reportedly processed over $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
In connection with this operation, an indictment was unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia against Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national residing in Russia, and Aleksandr Mira Serda (formerly Aleksandr Ntifo-Siaw), a Russian national residing in the United Arab Emirates. Both individuals face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Besciokov is also charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Court documents indicate that between 2019 and 2025, Besciokov and Mira Serda managed Garantex. Besciokov served as the primary technical administrator while Mira Serda was co-founder and chief commercial officer. The exchange allegedly received hundreds of millions from criminal activities such as hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking.
Besciokov and Mira Serda are accused of knowingly laundering criminal proceeds through Garantex while concealing illegal activities on its platform. When Russian authorities requested records for an account linked to Mira Serda, Garantex allegedly provided incomplete information.
On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Garantex for facilitating money laundering from ransomware actors and darknet markets. Despite these sanctions being publicized widely, Besciokov and his associates continued transactions with U.S.-based entities by redesigning operations to evade detection.
Garantex failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as required for businesses operating within the United States.
On March 6, U.S. law enforcement executed a seizure order against three domain names used by Garantex: Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy. These domains were integral to its operations. Visitors now see a message indicating their seizure by law enforcement.
As part of international efforts, German and Finnish authorities seized servers hosting Garantex's operations while U.S. authorities obtained earlier copies containing customer data. Additionally, over $26 million used for money laundering activities has been frozen by U.S. law enforcement.
Both Besciokov and Mira Serda face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges related to money laundering conspiracy; Besciokov faces additional penalties for other charges.
The announcement was made by Erik S. Siebert from the Eastern District of Virginia along with officials from various departments including Matthew R. Galeotti from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Michael Centrella from USSS; Bryan Vorndran from FBI’s Cyber Division; among others involved in investigating this case.
Prosecution will be led by Assistant U.S Attorney Zoe Bedell alongside Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz from National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team under Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section within Criminal Division at DOJ who received support from National Security Division & Office International Affairs too during proceedings thus far along cooperation extended towards German Federal Criminal Police Office Frankfurt General Prosecutor Dutch National Police Europol Finnish National Bureau Investigation Estonian National Criminal Police Tether blockchain analytics firm Elliptic proactively aiding investigation overall hereon forthwith…
Victims believing funds laundered via Garatex should contact authorities using email provided: GarantexClaimants@secretservice.gov
Indictments remain allegations until proven otherwise beyond reasonable doubt inside courtroom settings where defendants retain presumption innocence initially throughout process entirety...
