United States authorities have unveiled a massive reward for any information provided regarding the management members of the Garantex crypto exchange.

After operating for years and facilitating billions of transactions involving cybercriminals, the now rebranded entity is under heavy fire.

Substantial Reward

The Office of the Spokesperson for the US Department of State issued a statement yesterday, announcing that it is targeting the now-obsolete Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which was allegedly used by a variety of criminals carrying out cybercrime and money laundering within its network.

The department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) has prepared two rewards, totaling up to $6 million, for any information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Garantex executives. This is split between up to $5M for Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda, co-owner and CCO, and up to $1 million for other key leaders of the exchange.

OFAC, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, is taking steps to redesignate Garantex and designate its successor, Grinex, which remains operational. This followed Tether’s interference, which involved blocking wallets associated with the exchange and seizing USDT assets earlier this year.

German and Finnish authorities also aided by seizing their domain and freezing over $26 million in digital assets controlled by Garantex. OFAC will also be naming three executives from the exchange and six affiliated companies in Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic.

As per reports from the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, between April 2019 and March 2025, the exchange processed at least $96 billion in crypto transactions. It also received hundreds of millions in proceeds from the criminals using it to carry out a range of crimes, including terrorism, drug trafficking, ransoms, and others, oftentimes, causing significant harm to victims from the United States.

Known Facts

Garantex was founded at the end of 2019 and registered in Estonia. Most of its operations were conducted from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In February 2022, it lost its license for providing digital asset services after Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU) unveiled serious deficiencies in its laws against money laundering and terrorist financing, as wallets linked to criminal activity were discovered.

After the EFIU enforcement and OFAC’s designation, the exchange created an infrastructure designed to prevent institutions from accrediting wallet addresses back to them, in an attempt to evade sanctions. This allowed them to continue providing services to various entities involved in criminal activities.

A known money launderer, Ekaterina Zhdanova, has reportedly funneled over $2 million in Bitcoin to the USDT stablecoin using the exchange. She is currently being pursued under an executive order from November 2023 for conducting financial operations or services in the world’s largest country.

In March 2025, the US DOJ unsealed indictments against the CCO and Aleksej Besciokov, a known executive. Following this, the latter was arrested in India, while the former remains at large.

US and European law enforcement agencies disrupted Garantex, a Russia-linked crypto exchange accused of laundering billions of dollars for cybercriminals, drug traffickers, and sanctioned entities, the Justice Department announced Friday.

As part of a coordinated operation with Germany and Finland, US authorities seized multiple domains associated with Garantex and froze over $26 million in assets linked to illicit transactions. Law enforcement in Germany and Finland also took control of servers supporting the platform’s operations.

The crackdown coincided with the unsealing of an indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia against Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national residing in Russia, and Aleksandr Mira Serda,a Russian national based in the UAE.

Prosecutors charged both with conspiracy to commit money laundering, while Besciokov faces additional charges of violating U.S. sanctions and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Illicit transactions

Authorities alleged that Garantex processed at least $96 billion in crypto transactions since its inception in April 2019, facilitating a broad spectrum of crimes, including ransomware payments, darknet drug sales, and financial transactions tied to terrorist organizations.

Besciokov, identified as Garantex’s primary technical administrator, allegedly managed the platform’s infrastructure and approved transactions, while Mira Serda, a co-founder and chief commercial officer, oversaw its business operations.

Prosecutors said the defendants knowingly concealed illegal activities on the exchange, obstructed Russian law enforcement inquiries, and continued processing transactions for US-based entities despite being sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in April 2022.

To evade sanctions, Garantex allegedly moved its crypto holdings between wallets daily, making it difficult for compliance teams at major exchanges to block transactions.

US Attorney Erik S. Siebert of the Eastern District of Virginia said:

“Garantex was a haven for criminals seeking to launder illicit funds through crypto, and this takedown demonstrates our global commitment to dismantling such networks.”

The exchange, which continued operating after OFAC’s designation, never registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as required for money service businesses in the US.

Operations seized

On March 6, the US Secret Service, with a court order, seized three Garantex-related domains — Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy — redirecting visitors to a law enforcement notice stating the sites had been taken down.

If convicted, Besciokov and Mira Serda each face up to 20 years in prison for money laundering conspiracy. Besciokov could face an additional 25 years for sanctions violations and running an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

The FBI and the US Secret Service led the investigation, with assistance from Europol and law enforcement agencies in Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and Estonia. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic and stablecoin issuer Tether also played a role in identifying illicit transactions linked to Garantex.

The charges against Besciokov and Mira Serda remain allegations, and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Mentioned in this article

Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange popular with ransomware gangs and darknet markets, has been taken down in an international law enforcement operation, according to a Friday announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

On Thursday, a coalition of law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Germany and Finland seized Garantex’s domains and servers, and froze nearly $28 million in crypto tied to the exchange with the help of stablecoin issuer Tether.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex in 2022, accusing the exchange of knowingly facilitating money laundering for ransomware actors, including Conti and Black Basta, and darknet markets like Hydra, which, before its 2022 shut down, was once the largest darknet market in the world.

The sanctions had little to no effect on Garantex – according to data from blockchain sleuthing firm Elliptic, which aided the U.S. in its investigation, the exchange processed more than $60 billion in crypto transactions after being sanctioned. In total, the exchange has transacted over $96 billion.

According to court documents, Garantex collected virtually no know-your-customer (KYC) information about its clients, allowing criminals to use its services unchecked, and accounts were registered to customers using names like “Drug,” “hacker,” “taliban,” “Cashout, cleancoins” and “God.”

In addition to ransomware actors and darknet markets, Garantex’s clientele allegedly included North Korea’s state-sanctioned hacking squad, the Lazarus Group, which was behind the massive $1.5 billion Bybit heist last month, as well as Russian oligarchs, who used the service to evade international sanctions tied to the war in Ukraine. Sophisticated international sanctions evasion companies, like TGR Group, which cater to Russian elites, have been tied to Garantex.

Following the seizure of Garantex’s servers and domains, two of its operators have been criminally charged in the U.S. for their connections to the exchange.

Lithuanian national and Russian resident Aleksej Besciokov, 46, has been charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to violate sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Aleksandr Mira Serda, 40, a Russian citizen currently residing in the United Arab Emirates, has been charged with money laundering conspiracy.