Indian authorities have arrested Aleksej Besciokov, reportedly a co-founder of the crypto exchange Garantex, which was sanctioned in 2022 for enabling money laundering.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had unveiled an indictment against Besciokov and another Garantex alleged co-founder, Aleksandr Mira Serda, on 7 March, for their roles at the exchange, with Besciokov reportedly being responsible for Garantex’s infrastructure.
The exchange had received hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds, including those used in hacking, ransomware attacks and drug trafficking, according to the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control.
In conjunction with the indictment, German and Finnish law enforcement also seized servers used in Garantex operations and US authorities seized copies of the exchange’s servers and frozen $26m in funds.