Officials with India’s central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced the arrest of Lithuanian National Aleksej Bešciokov, who is said to be running a cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
In a notice of March 12, the CBI Says Police in the Indian state of Kerala have contacted national authorities to arrest Bešciokov. The National Lithuanian has been reported vacationing In India with his family and planning to leave the country. The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder is based on US conspiracy charges to make money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed currency that releases business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Alexei Bešciov’s “Most Wanted” page. Source: US Secret Service
According to a accusation filed in Feb. 27 In the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia, Bešciokov, Aleksandr Mira Serda and others ran Garantex to “launder the criminal activities of the criminal activities, including ransomware, computer hacking, narcotics transactions, and penalties, and confirmed from the” Bešciokov is expected to be transferred to the US’s caution in accordance with the Indian Extradition Act in 1962.
The alleged arrest of the founder of Garantex followed Tether’s Freezing $ 27 million worth of USDT (USDT) on the platform. The crypto exchange was announced on March 6 that all services were temporarily suspended, including withdrawals. US authorities also Masama Three website domain names “used to support Garantex’s operations” as part of a judge’s order in the criminal case.
Related: Penalties in the US are crypto addresses linked to Nemesis Darknet Marketplace
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Garantex to its list of punished creatures in April 2022 for “accidentally disregarded (ING) anti-money laundering and counting on terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations and allowing (ing) their systems to be abused by improper actors.” The European Union is also Pinapawa Penalties against the platform in February as part of the penalties in the “Russian invasion war against Ukraine.”
Serda, a co-founder and chief commercial official of Russia, still seems to be at the time of arresting Bešciokov.
A Garantex spokesman refused to comment.
Delays in return to the United States?
It is unclear what may have a legal recourse bešciokov in fighting US extradition from India if he chooses to do so. Lawyers for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 on unrelated charges, repeated appeal to court decisions about US extradition before he finally given to the officials In December 2024.
Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was in Bahamas when the Crypto Exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, was extradited from the island country to the US to deal with charges. He was later convicted of seven felony counts and was sentenced to 25 years in prison but filed an appeal.
Magazine: Meet attorney Max Burwick – ‘The Ambulance Chaser of Crypto’
