Police in India have arrested Aleksej Besciokov, the co-founder of Russian crypto exchange, Garantex after the European Union sanction the exchange for facilitating money laundering.
According to Indian state police officials, Besciokov, a Lithuanian national, was detained in the state of Kerala under India’s extradition law.
Aleksej Besciokov Arrested In India While On Holiday With His Family
The arrest occurred in the late afternoon on Tuesday (March 11) following an arrest warrant issued by the Patiala House Court in New Delhi.
Besciokov was reportedly vacationing with his family in India when he was arrested. He appeared before a local court in Varkala, Kerala district, after his arrest and is set to be transferred to Delhi.
The Lithuanian national will be transferred to the New Delhi court on March 14. While Indian authorities have not yet disclosed whether Besciokov’s arrest was directly linked to his indictment in the US, his extradition status suggests he is not facing charges within India.
History Of Russia’s Garantex Exchange
🚨 Multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange #Garantex seized over money laundering ties. Two individuals, Aleksej Besciokov & Aleksandr Serda, charged.💰 #Crypto #MoneyLaundering #Garantex
Read: https://t.co/fkZ5VZeFn3
— Hackread.com (@HackRead) March 10, 2025
Garantex shut down its services last week, on March 6. The platform’s closure came after Tether, the firm behind the USDT stablecoin, froze roughly 2.5 billion USDT linked to Garantex.
The exchange, headed by Besciokov, launched in 2019 and was a leading crypto exchange in Russia. In April 2022, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Garantex for processing illicit funds.
The illicit funds in question were linked to hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking. The sanctions did not deter Garantex, with the exchange reportedly facilitating over $60 billion in transactions through to 2023.
Besciokov, known as the hacker alias “proforg,” allegedly headed up Garantex’s technical infrastructure. He is also accused of approving transactions linked to North Korean cybercriminals and Russian elites evading sanctions.
Besciokov’s Co-Conspirator Aleksandr Mira Serda Still At Large
Garantex is an OFAC sanctioned entity and just had infra taken down, assets seized, team members charged by law enforcement from multiple countries (US, Germany, Finland)
They were used to launder hundreds of millions from ransomeware, DPRK hacks, etc
22.8M+ USDT was… pic.twitter.com/GeIKAOEDZO
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) March 7, 2025
Aleksej Besciokov’s arrest in India comes just days after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment charging him and Garantex’s other alleged co-founder, Aleksandr Mira Serda, with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Besciokov is facing additional charges for violating US sanctions and operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. He also faces an additional five years for the unlicensed business violation.
US authorities claim Besciokov and Serda knowingly laundered illicit funds through the exchange. It believes both individuals took steps to conceal Garantex’s activities, including moving operational cryptocurrency wallets daily to bypass detection.
Authorities in the US, Germany, and Finland seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations as part of a coordinated international operation. At the same time, the US Secret Service has frozen over $26 million linked to the exchange.
Law enforcement in the US has also obtained copies of the exchange’s customer and accounting databases, which may result in further charges for Besciokov and Serda.
The US government is expected to pursue Besciokov’s extradition to face charges in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the indictment was originally filed.
Serda, a Russian national believed to be residing in the United Arab Emirates, is still on the loose. The DOJ claims that Serda acted as Garantex’s chief commercial officer. It is believed that he managed the exchange’s business operations while assisting in laundering illicit funds.
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Co-founder of Russian crypto exchange Garantex arrested in India
- Aleksej Besciokov was arrested in India while on holiday with family due to ties with the Garantex exchange
- Besciokov due to appear at court in Delhi on March 14
- Besciokov likely to be extradited to the US, where he is wanted for money laundering
- Aleksandr Serda, Besciokov’s partner at the Garantex exchange, still at large in the UAE
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