The American secret service focuses on the brain behind the Russian Crypto exchange Garanttex for their role in an alleged money laundering operation.
In a press release, the Secret Service says that it goes after Garantex due to alleged facilitation of the transaction of hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds, some of which were used to undertake illegal activities, including drug trafficking, hacking and terrorist financing.
According to the authorities, the operators of the Crypto Exchange – the Russian National Aleksandr Mira Serda and Lithuanian National Aleksej Besciokov – that the platform was used to wash funds and is accused of hiding such activities by providing law enforcement through incomplete or false information.
Both Serda and Besciokov were accused of one count of conspiracy to carry out money laundering, which bears a maximum fine of up to 20 years behind the bars. Besciokov is also charged with violating the International Economic Emergency Powers Act and the operation of a company with money exaggerated. The charges have a penalties of a maximum of 20 years and five years, respectively.
Besciokov was arrested last week by the Indian authorities at the request of the US, according to recent reports.
As part of the operation, on 6 March, the secret service seized three website -domain names seized by the crypto exchange and froze $ 26 million in funds. The Finnish and German authorities also grabbed servers in connection with Garrantex.
The same day, Garrantex announced that it would suspend its activities after Stablecoin -Emittent Tether (USDT) had blocked the portfolios of his platform, which contained approximately $ 28 million.
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