CBI, Kerala Police, Founder of Cryptomonede founder

The CBI and Kerala police arrested the Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov, which was sought by the United States to establish the exchange of Cryptocurrection Guarantex, which would have washed the income of criminal activities, including ransomware, officials said on Wednesday.

He was arrested when he was supposed to have been plotted to escape from the country, officials said.

According to the documents of the US Secret Service, Besciokov, in the period 2019-25, it is assumed that “controlled and operated” Guarantex, which facilitated the money laundering at the tone of at least 96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions by transnational criminal organizations (including terrorist organizations) and sanctions violated.

“Garantex has received hundreds of millions of criminal income and was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism and drug trafficking, often with a substantial impact on American victims,” ​​he said.

He said that Besciokov was the main technical administrator of Garantex and responsible for obtaining and maintaining the critical infrastructure of the platform, as well as the review and approval of the transactions.

The requisition documents mentioned by the Secret Service said that Besciokov is accused of a conspiracy number for committing the money laundering, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

He is also accused of a number of conspiracy to violate the international law of economic emergency powers-which also has a maximum sentence of 20 years in person-with conspiracy to operate a business transmission business, which has a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

“At a request submitted by the US, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which acts under the extradition law of 1962, issued a provisional arrest warrant on March 10, 2025 against the subject from ACJM Patiala House in Delhi.” Police, “said the CBI spokesman in a statement. He is sought to face trial in front of the United States District Court for the East District Court of Virginia, he said. The US Secret Service performed a confiscation order on March 6 authorized by a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia against three domain names of web sites used to support Guarantex operations to prevent these sites to be used for money laundering and additional crimes.