One of the operators of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Sanctioned Guarantex was arrested in India on Tuesday, according to two recent news reports.
According to the reports, the Lithuanian national and Russian resident Aleksej Besciokov, 46, was arrested by the police in the Indian state of Kerala, while on vacation on the southern coast of the country with his family, Techcrunch and Krebsosecurity reported.
Last week, a coalition of international agencies for the application of the US Law., Germany and Finland confiscated the guarantax domains and servers and almost $ 28 million frozen in cryptography linked to exchange with the help of the Stablecoin emitting layer. The exchange was sanctioned by the United States Treasury Treasury Control Office (OFAC) in 2022, for knowing to knowing money laundering for ransomware actors, including Conti and Black Enough, and Darknet markets such as Hydra, the world’s largest market before its closure in 2022.
In addition to allegedly facilitating money laundering for criminals, including the internal piracy team of North Korea, the Lazarus group, which was behind the huge robbery of $ 1.5 billion last month, Garantex played an important role in the evasion of sanctions. Exclusive sanctions of sanctions evasion services such as the TGR group, which serve Russian oligarchs, have connected with the exchange.
Read more: Russian encryption exchange sanctioned guarantex seized, operators accused of money laundering
Together with the seizure, American prosecutors accused Besciokov and another of the guarantex operators, Aleksandr Mira Serda, 40, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, with money laundering conspiracy. Besciokov is currently on the most sought after list of the US Secret Service.
Neither the Kerala Police nor the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) responded to the commentary request on the arrest reported by Besciokov.
