Indian authorities arrest Garantex administrator following shutdown of crypto exchange
Aleksej Besciokov was apprehended in the coastal town of Varkala while vacationing with his family
Indian authorities arrested Aleksej Besciokov, the suspected administrator of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, on March 11 in the southern state of Kerala.
Besciokov, a 46-year-old Lithuanian citizen residing in Russia, was apprehended in the coastal town of Varkala while vacationing with his family, according to KrebsOnSecurity. The arrest followed charges filed against him last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Besciokov is accused of being the administrator and operator of Garantex since 2019, managing its critical infrastructure and approving numerous transactions that facilitated the laundering of funds from illegal activities such as the sale of ransomware, terrorism, drug trafficking, and sanctions evasion, according to an indictment unsealed on March 7.
The U.S. government also issued charges against Aleksandr Mira Serda, a 40-year-old Russian national based in the United Arab Emirates who is suspected of co-founding the exchange. Mira Serda previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at Garantex and managed accounts used for illicit purposes.
Since 2019, Garantex has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions, including hundreds of millions linked to criminal activities. Despite being sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in April 2022 and by the EU in February 2025, Garantex continued facilitating illegal transactions, including processing funds from three darknet marketplaces that specialised in selling drugs and child sexual abuse material.
The indictment asserts Besciokov knowingly permitted transactions tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, a cyber threat organisation sanctioned by OFAC in 2019.
Authorities in Germany and Finland additionally seized Garantex's operational servers last week. U.S. law enforcement also froze over $26 million linked to the exchange's money laundering operations.
Besciokov faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, carrying combined potential sentences of up to 45 years imprisonment. Mira Serda faces a charge of money laundering conspiracy. which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Besciokov is expected to appear in court in New Delhi in the coming days.