The United States Secret Service said it has seized a Russian cryptocurrency exchange website, according to judicial documents revealed on Friday.
The Department of Justice also accused the two administrators of that website with a multi -million dollar money laundering scheme, according to judicial documents.
The splash page of the cryptographic site allegedly operated by Russian criminals.
Duo
Between 2019 and 2025, Aleksej Besciokov, 46, a Lithuanian national and Russian resident, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, 40, a Russian citizen, allegedly controlled and operated by Garantex, an exchange of cryptocurrency based in Moscow.
The two allegedly “operated the guarantax to wash the product of the criminal activity, including ransomware, computer piracy, narcotics transactions and sanctions violations, and benefited from washing. Garantex offered their services to the first through the gratax.io website and then through guarantorx.org. Garantex also mistreated the law of the law, including the law, including the law of the law, The identities of your customers.
The seal of the headquarters of the Federal Research Office, February 20, 2025.
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The Department of Justice said that since April 2019, Garantex has processed $ 96 billion in cryptographic transactions and pointed out that those income supposedly used to finance illegal activities.
“The seizure of the website domains associated with guarantex operations and the freezing of more than $ 26 million in cryptocurrencies attacks a financial blow to cybercriminals worldwide,” said Michael Center, assistant director of the Secret Service Field Operations Office. “Together with our US and international police partners, this coordinated action will prevent additional funds from falling into the hands of criminals.”
Judicial documents said that Besciokov allegedly knew that there were two different accounts linked to the cybernetic threat actors of North Korea, but still allowed them to use cryptocurrency exchange.
A secret service member is outside the perimeter before Super Bowl Lix on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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The company was also under sanctions from the United States since at least 2022.
“At the beginning of 2023, Besciokov and its conspirators had also redesigned the guarantex operations to evade and violate the sanctions of the United States and induce US companies to transact involuntarily with guarantor in rape in violation of sanctions,” the accusation said. “For example, Garantex transferred his operational cryptocurrency wallets to different directions of virtual currencies daily to make it difficult for cryptocurrency exchanges based in the United States to identify and block transactions with guarantex accounts.”
Besciokov and Serda also supposedly took measures to hide from the Russian police, according to judicial records.
