Garantex co-founder arrested while on holiday in India, report

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—by Protos Staff

A co-founder of the Russian crypto exchange Garantex has reportedly been arrested by police in India under the country’s extradition laws, according to TechCrunch.

Kerala State police arrested Aleksej Besciokov at 4pm IST yesterday in the coastal region of Varkala, where he was reportedly holidaying with his family. 

Last week, the US charged Besciokov, who is Garantex’s main technical administrator, with facilitating money laundering for transnational criminal organizations and conspiracy to violate sanctions. In conjunction with Germany and Finland, the US also seized Garantex’s online domains.

Just before this, Tether froze $27 million worth of USDT on the platform, which Garantex called a “war against the Russian crypto market.” According to the US, Garantex has processed at least $96 billion worth of crypto transactions for the past six years. 

Garantex says ‘USDT in Russian wallets under threat’ as Tether freezes $27M

Read more: Russian founder of sanctioned exchange Garantex starts Tether desk

Forensic blockchain analytics company Elliptic claims that Russian elites use the exchange to dodge sanctions while North Korean-backed hackers launder their funds with it. Garantex has also been linked to violent debt gangs, the Kremlin, and Russian-owned oil firms.  

TechCrunch couldn’t confirm if the arrest of Besciokov was due to recently filed US charges and reports only that extradition laws were cited for his arrest. 

The 46-year-old was taken to a local district court and will appear in court on Monday.

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