India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, who is accused of running the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
Authorities in Kerala coordinated with national agencies to detain Bešciokov while he was on vacation with his family and preparing to leave the country.
The arrest is based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
According to an indictment from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Bešciokov and others allegedly used Garantex to launder proceeds from cybercrimes, including ransomware, hacking, drug sales, and sanctions violations, from 2019 onward.
Bešciokov is expected to be extradited to the US under India’s Extradition Act of 1962.
The arrest follows Tether freezing $27 million in USDT on Garantex. The exchange halted withdrawals and suspended services on March 6, while US authorities seized three website domains linked to its operations.
Garantex was sanctioned by the US Treasury in April 2022 for failing to meet anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) requirements. The European Union also sanctioned the platform in February, linking it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This inquiry was part of a broader clampdown on entities believed to be assisting Russian nationals in evading international sanctions through the use of cryptocurrencies. On March 25, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced penalties against 13 organizations and two individuals for such activities.
The implications of these findings are yet to be fully realized, and it remains unclear whether Tether’s parent company has violated any laws.
Despite Tether’s operations being outside the U.S., American regulators, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has mechanisms to influence the stablecoin’s offshore activities.
Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda, Garantex’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, remains at large.
While Bešciokov is expected to be handed over to US authorities, legal delays could slow the process. In past cases, extradition battles have taken months or even years.
Terraform Labs’ Do Kwon fought US extradition for over a year before being sent from Montenegro in December 2024, while Sam Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas soon after FTX collapsed.
