Who is Alexsej Besciokov, crypto kingpin arrested in India at US request

Alexsej Besciokov, a wanted criminal in the US was arrested by the Kerala police, a statement from the Central Bureau of Intelligence said on Wednesday. The 46-yar-old is a Lithuanian national and was on a vacation with his family when he was arrested by Varkala police on Tuesday evening. He was planning to flee India, the CBI statement added. However, it wasn’t clear why he was in the country.

The CBI said that at Washington’s request, India’s foreign ministry had a provisional arrest warrant issued.

Who is Alexsej Besciokov?

The Lithuanian national is a Russian resident and the co-founder of Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the US government in 2022. 

Police said Besciokov facilitated billions of dollars in money laundering by transnational criminal and cyrbercriminal organisations. The US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Besciokov on March 7. Besciokov is currently on the US Secret Service’s Most Wanted list.

Aleksandr Mira Serda (40), a Russian national living in the UAE has also been named in the indictment. Serda is the co-founder of Garantex. 

Allegations against Besciokov 

Apart from money laundering, Besciokov is charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and conspiracy to operate an unlicenced money transmitting business.  

The CBI statement said that Besciokov profitted by laundering the proceeds from ransomware, computer hacking, and narcotics transactions. Between 2021 and 2024, Garantex laundered millions of US dollars in ransomware proceeds, including proceeds from Black Basta, Play and Conti ransomware groups.

The exchange has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since April 2019, the US Justice Department said last week.

Action against Garantex

Last week, a coalition of international law enforcement agencies from the US, Germany and Finland seized Garantex’s domains and servers and froze nearly $28 million in crypto tied to the exchange. 

Garantex has reportedly laundered money for criminals, including North Korea’s hacking squad the Lazarus Group. It also evaded sanctions. 

Blockchain research company TRM Labs said in a blog post last week that the takedown of Garantex “marks a major milestone in the fight against illicit finance” but cautioned that sanctioned exchanges often attempt to evade restrictions by creating new entities.

(With inputs from agencies)