Garantex administrator arrested in India at request of US authorities

Indian police have arrested the co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the European Union and the U.S. government, under India’s extradition law, TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with state authorities.

At 4 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. PT) on Tuesday, the state police of Kerala arrested Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov in the coastal municipality of Varkala, a state police official who made the arrest confirmed to TechCrunch.

The police official said the Patiala House Court in New Delhi issued the arrest warrant against Besciokov.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Besciokov of personally approving transactions on Garantex linked to North Korea-government hackers and other cybercriminals, criminally charging Besciokov for facilitating money laundering on the crypto exchange.

Indian government officials confirmed Besciokov’s arrest in a statement later on Wednesday. The statement said that Indian police sought an arrest warrant for Besciokov at the request of the U.S. government, and that Besciokov was planning to flee India.

In a brief statement shared with TechCrunch, U.S. Justice Department spokesperson Nicole Oxman confirmed that Besciokov was “arrested in India at the request of the United States,” and declined to comment further.

Shortly after the arrest, Besciokov was produced before the local court in the district, and will be taken to the Patiala Court on Monday to face the charges, the police official told TechCrunch.

KrebsonSecurity first reported Besciokov’s arrest on Tuesday. Garantex did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment about Besciokov’s arrest.

Besciokov was indicted along with Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda, who co-founded Garantex and lives in the United Arab Emirates.

The two administrators, according to U.S. prosecutors, “redesigned Garantex’s operations to evade and violate U.S. sanctions and induce U.S. businesses to unwittingly transact with Garantex in violation of the sanctions.”

Last week, the U.S. Secret Service seized Garantex’s websites after the Justice Department unsealed its indictment against Besciokov and Serda. U.S. authorities also froze more than $26 million in cryptocurrency.  

Since then, Garantex has suspended its operations, and invited customers to “face-to-face meetings” at its office in the Russian capital Moscow after coming up with an unspecified “solution for blocked assets.” 

On Tuesday, Garantex sent TechCrunch a press release saying that “despite the unprecedented nature of the situation, Garantex is not abandoning its obligations to its users and intends to fully compensate for the blocked user assets at the expense of its existing assets in Russian Federation territory through a procedure similar to the financial institution rehabilitation procedure.”

“Garantex’s activities will cease after the rehabilitation procedure is completed, with the exception of the compliance department,” the press release states.

Updated with a statement from the Indian government and the U.S. Department of Justice confirming Besciokov’s arrest in India.