garantex

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the Russian shadow banking network A7 Network as a significant transnational criminal organization, listing its relevant addresses in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed a draft rule that aims to prohibit U.S. institutions from participating in any fund transfers involving the network's "sub-agent companies," covering convertible virtual currencies and not limited to fiat currencies, which is expected to affect approximately 348,000 institutions, including several cryptocurrency exchanges.The proposal is based on six special measures granted by Section 9714 of the Countering Russian Money Laundering Act, ultimately selecting the sixth measure, which is the fund transfer ban. The fifth measure, which restricts correspondent accounts, is considered to have loopholes: research by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs shows that A7A5 transactions completely bypass the correspondent banking system, which the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network views as a core aspect of its business model. A7A5 is a ruble-backed token issued by Old Vector, registered in Kyrgyzstan, operating on Tron and Ethereum, with reserves held at the Russian state-owned defense bank Promsvyazbank.The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network stated that between February 2025 and June 2026, over 180 entities handled at least $17.91 billion in A7A5, which historically circulated almost entirely through the sanctioned exchanges Garantex and Grinex, often used as a non-frozen bridge to convert into USDT and then into fiat currency.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced today sanctions against multiple companies, exchanges, and executives associated with the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex and the ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5.According to OFAC, Garantex is suspected of handling over $100 million in ransomware and dark web transactions. After its network domain was seized and $26 million in funds were frozen, the parties quickly established Grinex to continue operations.The A7A5 stablecoin is issued by the Kyrgyzstan company Old Vector and is supported by the Russian state-owned bank Promsvyazbank. Blockchain analytics firms report that the stablecoin's daily trading volume has reached $1 billion, with a total trading volume exceeding $51 billion, making it an important tool for evading sanctions.This sanction action is coordinated and executed by the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, aimed at cutting off digital asset channels used for ransomware attacks and evading sanctions.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jin10, the U.S. State Department stated that the State Department and the Treasury Department plan to take action against the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex operated by Russia.

ChainCatcher message, Swiss blockchain analytics company Global Ledger indicates that a large amount of off-chain and on-chain data suggests that the sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex may have been renamed to Grinex. Both on-chain and off-chain data show a clear connection between the two exchanges, with Grinex being the direct successor of Garantex.

ChainCatcher news, according to TechCrunch, Aleksej Besciokov, co-founder of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, was arrested by local police in Varkala, Kerala, India on March 12. The exchange had previously been sanctioned by the EU and the US government.Indian police confirmed that the arrest was based on a warrant issued by the Patiala House Court in New Delhi, executed at the request of the US government. A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice, Nicole Oxman, confirmed this news to TechCrunch but declined to comment further.Last week, the US Department of Justice charged Besciokov with personally approving transactions on Garantex related to North Korean government hackers and other cybercriminals, and filed criminal charges against him for assisting in money laundering through the cryptocurrency exchange. US authorities have frozen over $26 million in cryptocurrency assets and seized Garantex's website.

ChainCatcher news reports that according to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States, along with Germany and Finland, has successfully dismantled and seized the online infrastructure of the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex. Since April 2019, the exchange has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions and has been accused of providing money laundering services to transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist groups, and violating sanctions.At the same time, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has filed a lawsuit against two administrators of Garantex: 46-year-old Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov and 40-year-old Russian national residing in the UAE, Aleksandr Mira Serda. Both are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, and Besciokov is additionally charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and operating an unlicensed money transmission business.Court documents show that from 2019 to 2025, the two defendants controlled and operated Garantex, knowingly allowing the platform to be used for money laundering while taking steps to conceal the illegal activities. Despite the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioning Garantex on April 5, 2022, the defendants continued to transact with U.S. entities and redesigned their operations to evade sanctions, including changing cryptocurrency wallet addresses daily to avoid detection and blocking by U.S. cryptocurrency exchanges.U.S. law enforcement has seized three domain names: Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy, frozen over $26 million in funds used for money laundering, and obtained server copies that include customer and accounting databases. If convicted, the two defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, stablecoin operator Tether has frozen $27 million USDT on the Russian-sanctioned trading platform Garantex, forcing the platform to suspend operations.Garantex announced on its official Telegram channel on March 6: "Tether has frozen wallets worth over 2.5 billion rubles (approximately $27 million)."The exchange stated that it has temporarily suspended all services, including withdrawals, and its website is currently under maintenance.Shortly after this news was released, the EU issued its 16th package of sanctions on February 26, sanctioning Garantex for "Russia's aggression against Ukraine."

ChainCatcher news, blockchain analysis platform Elliptic tweeted that the attacker of the Atomic wallet transferred part of the funds to the OFAC-sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex in exchange for BTC, and then continued to launder money through the Sinbad.io mixer.It is reported that Garantex was established at the end of 2019, initially registered in Estonia, and later moved most of its operations to Moscow. The OFAC sanctioned Garantex and the Russian Hydra darknet market in April 2022.According to a previous report by ChainCatcher, on June 3, multiple Atomic Wallet user accounts were hacked, resulting in a loss of cryptocurrency valued at approximately 35 million dollars. (Source link)