Lithuanian National Arrested in India for Cryptocurrency Exchange Money Laundering

Indian authorities have apprehended Aleksej Bešciokov, a Lithuanian national accused of founding the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex. The arrest occurred in the Indian state of Kerala, where Bešciokov was reportedly on vacation with his family. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) collaborated with local law enforcement to detain him as he was preparing to depart the country. The charges against Bešciokov include conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, all of which were filed by US authorities seeking his extradition.

The indictment, submitted to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges that Bešciokov, along with Aleksandr Mira Serda and others, utilized Garantex to launder funds from various criminal activities. These activities include ransomware attacks, computer hacking, narcotics transactions, and sanctions violations, spanning from 2019 to the present. Bešciokov is anticipated to be transferred to US custody under India’s Extradition Act of 1962.

The arrest of Bešciokov follows the freezing of $27 million worth of USDt (USDT) by Tether on the Garantex platform. The crypto exchange announced the suspension of all services, including withdrawals, on March 6. Additionally, US authorities seized three website domain names linked to Garantex’s operations as part of a judge’s order in the criminal case. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had previously sanctioned Garantex in April 2022 for disregarding Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations, allowing illicit actors to abuse their systems. The European Union also imposed sanctions on the platform in February as part of broader sanctions against Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Serda, a Russian national and Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, remains at large at the time of Bešciokov’s arrest. The legal process for Bešciokov’s extradition to the US is expected to follow a similar path to other high-profile cases, such as that of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro and later extradited to the US. The outcome of Bešciokov’s legal recourse and extradition process remains uncertain, but it is clear that the US authorities are determined to bring him to justice for the alleged crimes.