On March 13, 2025, Indian authorities arrested Aleksej Bešciokov, co-founder of the sanctioned crypto exchange Garantex. This incident marks a key breakthrough in the three-year investigation since the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Garantex in 2022. The exchange has long become a key target of global law enforcement agencies due to its involvement in multiple charges involving transnational money laundering, sanctions evasion, and ransomware organization funds flow.

1. Why is Garantex sanctioned?

Garantex was founded in 2019. It is ostensibly an ordinary cryptocurrency exchange, but its operating model has been controversial. In April 2022, the U.S. Treasury Office of Overseas Assets Control (OFAC) officially included Garantex on the sanctions list, citing the exchange suspected of assisting Russian oligarchs in evading Western sanctions and becoming a fund cleaning tool for multiple criminal organizations.

According to investigations by relevant agencies, Garantex has received hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds, including funds used to fund hacking, ransomware payments, terrorism financing and drug transactions. In addition, the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group has also been accused of using Garantex to launder money to provide financial support for illegal cyber attacks.

2. Under sanctions: How does Garantex continue to operate?

After being sanctioned, Garantex did not go bankrupt immediately, but continued to operate in the black market and Russian local market. Since the sanctions were imposed in 2022, the exchange has still processed more than $60 billion in capital flows. This phenomenon is mainly attributed to the following factors: 1. Russian local asylum: Garantex mainly serves the Russian market, and Russia's attitude towards the exchange has always been relatively ambiguous and has not taken compulsory measures to close it.

2. Leaving the Western Financial System: After the sanctions, Garantex almost completely separated from the US dollar system and turned to using cryptocurrencies and Russian local banking systems for settlement.

3. Dark Web and Black Market Trading: Garantex has become an important trading channel for multiple dark web markets, illegal financial services and hacker organizations, evading international regulation.

Although the U.S. Treasury sanctions cut Garantex from most international financial institutions, the exchange continues to operate using decentralized finance (DeFi) tools and anonymous wallets.

Statement by law enforcement agencies on Garantex website

3. Garantex website closure: the latest progress in international law enforcement

In March 2025, German and Finnish law enforcement agencies jointly sealed Garantex's servers, resulting in the exchange's official website and main trading systems being forced to go offline. This action shows that global law enforcement agencies are strengthening their implementation of sanctions targets, no longer limiting to account freezing, but directly hitting their infrastructure.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released an indictment against the co-founder of Garantex, accusing him of alleged money laundering, violating the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) and operating unregistered remittances.

IV. Garantex funds are frozen: US$2.6 billion of illegal assets are seized

At the same time the website is closed, US law enforcement agencies announced that they will freeze more than US$2.6 billion of funds in Garantex-related accounts. The Ministry of Justice said the funds were mainly used to support illegal transactions and help criminal organizations bypass the international financial regulatory system.

This fund freezing action means that Garantex's capital chain has been severely damaged, and the possibility of further operation has been greatly reduced. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department is working with others to track the asset flows of Garantex and its associated accounts to prevent funds from being transferred to other money laundering channels.

5. Founder arrest: The end of Aleksej Bešciokov

On March 13, 2025, Garantex co-founder Aleksej Bešciokov was arrested while on vacation in India. It is reported that he hadHe is currently active in the UAE and is trying to use his overseas identity to circumvent judicial pursuit in the United States.

According to the DOJ's prosecution documents, Bešciokov is not only the technical director of Garantex, but also responsible for the exchange infrastructure maintenance, transaction audit and asset circulation arrangements. DOJ said he has long been active in Russian hacker forums under the pseudonym "proforg" and has maintained contact with multiple criminal organizations.

Bešciokov is currently being held in New Delhi, India. He will appear in court on March 14, and the United States may extradite him to the United States for trial under the extradition treaty. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

6. Beosin KYT protects users from Garantex funds pollution

At present, the Beosin team has comprehensively and continuously marked the address of Garantex on multiple mainstream chain platforms with its professional insight. We closely track the dynamic changes in Garantex addresses and continue to invest resources to update the tag library to ensure that any changes in their addresses can be accurately tracked.

Beosin KYT screenshot

When a user/client receives or transfers funds and involves Garantex-related addresses, the Beosin KYT system will immediately issue a real-time alarm based on the latest tag information to help compliant personnel to detect risks as soon as possible and take effective measures quickly to ensure the safety of customer funds and business compliance in all aspects.

Conclusion: The impact of the Garantex incident and future regulatory trends

The progress of the Garantex case reflects that the international community's supervision of illegal activities in cryptocurrencies is constantly strengthening. From sanctions on Garantex, to global law enforcement actions, to the founder’s arrest, this series of measures shows that the global crypto market is experiencing an unprecedented trend of compliance.

At the same time, the incident also sounded a wake-up call for the entire crypto industry. Countries and regulators are actively establishing stricter anti-money laundering (AML) systemsto prevent Garantex-like exchanges from becoming a whitewashing channel for criminal funds again.

In the future, compliance will become the key to the survival of exchanges, and the importance of blockchain security compliance companies such as Beosin in tracking the flow of illegal funds will become increasingly prominent. For participants in the crypto market, this case is not only a warning to black market transactions, but also a profound reflection on the future development direction of the entire industry.