Garantex operator arrested in India as part of crackdown on sanctioned crypto exchange

Authorities in India have arrested Aleksej Besciokov, one of the two alleged operators of the now-defunct illicit crypto exchange Garantex, according to a Justice Department announcement on Wednesday.

Besciokov, a Lithuanian national, allegedly served as Garantex's principal technical administrator from 2019 to 2025. During that time, he helped Aleksandr Mira Serda, co-founder and chief commercial officer of the exchange, in running the platform. A U.S. Department of Justice indictment against Besciokov and Serda accuses the two of facilitating the laundering of illicitly obtained cryptocurrency. 

Besciokov and Mira Serda supposedly knew funds from ransomware, terrorism, hacking and other crimes flowed through Garantex and took efforts to conceal the origin of these funds, such as misrepresenting information and documentation to law enforcement, according to the DOJ indictment unsealed on March 7. In all, the DOJ alleges that Garantex processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2019.

International law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Germany and Finland seized Garantex's website last week and froze more than $26 million in cryptocurrency. However, some operations appear to be continuing, as the company has been holding “face-to-face meetings” at its office in Moscow in order to "fully compensate" clients using unseized assets in Russia, according to a Garantex press release seen by TechCrunch , which first reported the news.

Besciokov and Mira Serda, who lived in the United Arab Emirates and remains at large, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Besciokov faces additional charges of conspiracy to violate sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. He will appear in court in India on Monday, though is likely to be extradited to the U.S.

The United States government sanctioned Garantex as well as the related darknet marketplace Hydra in April 2022.