The United States is charged with GARANTEX, allegedly facilitating laundering money to terrorists and infiltrators

US Department of Justice Announced Criminal charges against the officials of the Russian encrypted currency GARANTEX of allegedly facilitating money laundering by criminal and terrorist organizations, as well as violating US sanctions.

Eddan are the national resident and the Russian Liton Alexeosov, 46 years old, and Alexander Mira Serda, 40, a Russian citizen residing in the United Arab Emirates, “they knew that criminal returns are washed through Garns and took steps to hide the facilitation of illegal activities on her platform.” According to the indictment Against them.

The Ministry of Justice said that GARANTEX “obtained hundreds of millions in criminal revenues and was used to facilitate many crimes, including piracy, ransom programs, terrorism, and drug trafficking”, and that the stock exchange was treated at least 96 billion dollars in the coded currency since 2019.

On the indictment, Persiukovs are accused of personally allowing transactions associated with the e -criminal, including infiltrators in the northern government known as the Lazaros Group.

The announcement of the indictment came a day after the US Secret Service and the Coalition of Law enforcement agencies Get down and seize the official websites of GarantexReplace their contents with a banner with agencies and advertising the site of the site.

When Techcrunch reached three GARANTEX email addresses on its official page before the removal, our emails were returned as unpleasant. GARANTEX did not respond to multiple requests to comment through the official Telegram channel.

Besciokov and Mira Sera are accused of conspiracy of money laundering, while Besciokov is also accused of conspiracy to violate penalties and conspiracy, and operate unlicensed money transfer work. Both face a maximum of 20 years in prison for money laundering, while Besciokov faces another 20 -year -old sentence to conspire to violate US sanctions, and another five years as a maximum conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer company.

It is not clear whether the two have been arrested. Shannon Chefelin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, told Techcrunch that the Ministry of Justice does not know whether Mira Serda was arrested in the United Arab Emirates.

GARANTEX officials can not be accessed by Techcrunch for comment.

American prosecutors claimed that Besiukov and Mira Serda knew that their exchange of encryption was used to laundering money and actively worked to achieve this even when the Russian authorities asked questions. According to the Ministry of Justice, when the application of Russian law requested the records at some point in relation to the Mira Serda account on GARANTEX, the company provided incomplete information, and “he claimed that the account was not verified.”

“In fact, GARANTEX account with Mira Serda’s personal identification documents,” according to the indictment.

Millions of encryption, the Ministry of Justice confirms

GARANTEX was the western government axis for several years.

In 2022, as part of a series of measures against Russian electronic crimes, The US Treasury is punishedWith an analysis mentioned that “more than $ 100 million in transactions is linked to illegal actors and Darknet markets, including approximately $ 6 million of Ransian (Ransomware as a service), including about $ 2.6 million of Market Market Hydra.”

Also, in 2024, as part of a series of sanctions against Russia to invade Ukraine, The European Union is punishedShe claims that the exchange is “closely related to Russian banks approved by the European Union.”

According to Doj, despite the US government sanctions, Besciokov has violated and participated in the Penal Code by continuing to accept transactions with US -based entities, as well as “GARANTEX operations to evade sanctions.”

“For example, GARANTEX has moved the operating coil governor to the different virtual currency headlines on a daily basis to make it difficult to exchange cryptocurrency in the United States to identify and prohibit transactions with GARANTEX accounts”, read the announcement of the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice also said that the application of the American law freezed more than $ 26 million of money used to facilitate money laundering in GARANTEX. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, Chefflene, told Techcrunch that the administration freezed a total of 23,034,884.75 ropes and 35.57 Bitcoin on Binance (at a value of about 3 million dollars from Friday), which amounted to about 26.2 million dollars.

Even before these law enforcement procedures, GARANTEX announced on Thursday that it had suspended “all services, including coded currency withdrawals”, after that Reserved preserved governor engraved He belongs to the GARANTEX, which was carrying more than $ 28 million.

“We have bad news. GARANTEX wrote on Telegram official channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel on the official Telegram channel in advertisement. “We are fighting and will not surrender! Please note that all (rope) in Russian portfolios are currently threatened. As is always the case, we are the first, but not the last.”

After the announcement of the Ministry of Justice on Friday, Garantex Publish alert to Telegram About the fraudsters, “they pretend that they are the GARANTEX exchange that has been restored or offered money.”

“These are all the fraudsters! Their goal is to access the personal data of users, the headlines of the portfolio and other sensitive information,” advertising in Russian reading, according to its automatic translation.

The advertisement did not mention any website on the website, nor the accusation regulations from Besciokov and Mira Serda.