{"id":124929,"date":"2025-03-12T17:15:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=124929"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:15:47","slug":"indian-authorities-arrest-alleged-garantex-founder-for-us-extradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=124929","title":{"rendered":"Indian authorities arrest alleged Garantex founder for US extradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsOfficials with India\u2019s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Be\u0161ciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.\u00a0<br \/>\nIn a March 12 notice, the CBI said police in the Indian state of Kerala had coordinated with national authorities to arrest Be\u0161ciokov. The Lithuanian national was reportedly vacationing in India with his family and planning to leave the country. The arrest of the alleged Garantex founder was based on US charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.<br \/>\nAleksej Be\u0161ciokov\u2019s \u201cmost wanted\u201d page. Source: US Secret ServiceAccording to an indictment filed on Feb. 27 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Be\u0161ciokov, Aleksandr Mira Serda and others operated Garantex to \u201claunder the proceeds of criminal activity, including ransomware, computer hacking, narcotics transactions, and sanctions violations, and profited from the laundering\u201d between 2019 to the present. Be\u0161ciokov is expected to be transferred to US custody in accordance with India\u2019s Extradition Act of 1962.<br \/>\nThe alleged Garantex founder\u2019s arrest followed Tether\u2019s freezing of $27 million worth of USDt (USDT) on the platform. The crypto exchange announced on March 6 that it had temporarily suspended all services, including withdrawals. US authorities also seized three website domain names \u201cused to support Garantex\u2019s operations\u201d as part of a judge\u2019s order in the criminal case.<br \/>\nRelated: US sanctions crypto addresses linked to Nemesis darknet marketplace<br \/>\nThe US Department of the Treasury\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Garantex to its list of sanctioned entities in April 2022 for \u201cwillfully disregard[ing] Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML\/CFT) obligations and allow[ing] their systems to be abused by illicit actors.\u201d The European Union also imposed sanctions against the platform in February as part of sanctions on \u201cRussia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine.\u201d<br \/>\nSerda, a Russian national and Garantex\u2019s co-founder and chief commercial officer, was seemingly still at large at the time of Be\u0161ciokov\u2019s arrest.\u00a0<br \/>\nDelays returning to the United States?<br \/>\nIt\u2019s unclear what legal recourse Be\u0161ciokov could have in fighting US extradition from India should he choose to do so. Lawyers for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023 on unrelated charges, repeatedly appealed court decisions regarding US extradition before he was finally handed over to officials in December 2024.\u00a0<br \/>\nFormer CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was in the Bahamas when crypto exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, was extradited from the island nation to the US to face charges. He was later convicted of seven felony counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison but filed an appeal.\u00a0<br \/>\nMagazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick \u2014 \u2018The ambulance chaser of crypto\u2019<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/india-arrest-aleksej-besciokov-garantex?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsOfficials with India\u2019s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Be\u0161ciokov, who was alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.\u00a0 In a&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124929"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}