Garantex exchange, together with its domains—garantex.org, garantex.io, and garantex.academy, has been taken down by a joint law enforcement operation consisting of the:
- US Secret Service.
- Federal Bureau of Investigations(FBI).
- Finnish law enforcement.
- Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany.
- Dutch National Police Force.
- State police force of Bavaria, Germany.
- General Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Grantex Exchange Founders Have Been Indicted for Fraudulent Financial Activities.
This coordinated crackdown has resulted in the cryptocurrency exchange losing nearly $30 million as a result of Tether Limited—the company behind Tether(USDT) freezing the latest company profits.
The Moneycheck website on 7th March 2024 reported that the Tether(USDT) network froze a staggering $26 million worth of Tether coins belonging to the now defunct Garantex exchange.
For starters, garantex.org was a Russian cryptocurrency exchange website that ceased to exist in March 2025. The domain was launched in 2018 marking the advent of the Garantex exchange, an illegal entity that would grow to record transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars monthly.
An analysis shows that illegal transactions worth more than $800 million were taking place on the Garantex platform monthly by 2022. According to the Department of Justice, Garantex processed a total of at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions over the course of its operations.
Over the years, the domain had established some kind of reputation, garnering a 100/100 trust score on Scamadviser.com which categorized it as a business that is likely to be legit. This further reinforces what I have been saying all along—that online review systems such as Trustpilot and Scamadviser are relatively easy to manipulate.
The Troubles of Garantex Exchange Go Way Back To 2022
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) flagged this digital currency exchange in 2022, designating it as a dubious entity. OFAC had realized that the company was orchestrating illegal financial activities on a massive scale.
The Garantex exchange was facilitating transactions for criminal enterprises, including ransomware groups. As such, these enterprises were able to launder and move illicit funds obtained from their victims seamlessly and effortlessly. Here are some case examples showing how this entity served the best interests of criminals at heart:
1. Garantex Exchang’s Association with Hydra Market
For starters, Hydra Market was a notorious dark web marketplace. It operated on the Tor network, facilitating transactions in illegal goods and services, such as:
- Hacking software tools.
- Drugs
- Fake documents e.g. passports, driver’s licenses, and degree certificates.
- Stolen financial information e.g. credit card details.
- Crypto mixing services—a form of money laundering services that entail obscuring the origins of virtual currencies and other digital assets.
In coordination with their U.S. counterparts, German authorities shut down Hydra Market in April 2022, seizing its $25 million worth of bitcoins and servers.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control had found out that Garantex had been processing transactions for Hydra Market. This investigation was conducted in collaboration with a few other agencies including the:
- German Federal Criminal Police
- U.S. Department of Justice
- Federal Bureau of Investigations
- Drug Enforcement Administration
- Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation
- Homeland Security Investigations.
2. Garantex Exchange Collaborated With Dubious Digital Wallets
Authorities also found that the fraudulent exchange had links with many digital wallets associated with scams, including the following:
- Bitzlato Wallets—associated with the dubious Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange.
- Lazarus Group Wallets—linked to North Korean hackers.
- Blender.io Wallets—also associated with North Korean hackers.
- Several wallets that were linked to Tornado Cash, a dubious cryptocurrency mixing service.
Garantex Exchange Founders
The digital currency exchange platform belongs to two individuals discussed below:
- Aleksej Besciokov— was Garantex’s primary technical administrator besides being its co-founder. The 46-year-old was responsible for obtaining & maintaining critical Garantex infrastructure. Besciokov was also the guy who reviewed and approved transactions.
He was indicted for money laundering and operating as well as controlling an unlicensed money-transmitting business, Garantex. Besciokov was indicted for these charges by a US court in the Eastern District of Virginia on March 6th.
It is worth noting that, if convicted, the Lithuanian national and Russian resident could serve a jail term of not less than 20 years.
- Aleksandr Mira Serda—was Grantex’s chief commercial officer and co-founder. The 40-year-old Russian national and UAE resident was indicted for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the Department of Justice’s spokesman who spoke to Techcrunch, Shannon Shevlin, the whereabouts of Besciokov and Mira Serda are currently unknown. It’s unclear if the two have been apprehended or not.
The Justice Department also clarified that an indictment is simply an allegation. This implies that Besciokov and Serda are still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Final Thoughts
The United States Secret Service, FBI, and European law enforcement agencies have seized the Garantex exchange, a Russian crypto exchange linked to illicit financial activities including money laundering. The crackdown led to significant financial loss for the company, with Tether Limited, the company that owns and operates Tether(USDT) digital coins, freezing $26 million worth of USDT held by Garantex.
Active since 2018, the exchange grew so quickly that it was processing $800 million in illegal transactions monthly by 2022.
First sanctioned in 2022, Garantex facilitated money laundering for a dark web marketplace, Hydra Market, and many online criminal groups including several North Korean hacker entities.
The company’s co-founders Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda have recently been indicted in the U.S. for money laundering, with Besciokov facing up to 20 years in prison.
Their current whereabouts remain unknown. However, the Office of Public Affairs in the US Department of Justice clarifies that the two individuals remain innocent until proven guilty.
Report A Scam Incident
Have you fallen victim to the Grantex exchange platform? Do you feel you have a claim to the funds seized by Tether Limited, which were initially held on the Grantex platform?
If so, the United States government is encouraging you to contact it. To do so, send an email to GarantexClaimants@secretservice.gov. Alternatively, go to this page and fill out the form to report the scam and seek help.
An Update
Garantex has just re-emerged as, “Grinex”, operating under the domain, “grinex.io”. According to the who.is domain history records, this domain was registered in May 2024 and is set to be renewed after two years.
The following are the email addresses for this dubious broker:
- info@grinex.io.
- support@grinex.io.
- legal@grinex.io.
- compliance@grinex.io.
If you receive an email from any of these email addresses, exercise caution and block it.