India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has announced the arrest of Lithuanian national Aleksej Bešciokov, 46, in the city of Thiruvananthapuram.
Bešciokov, alleged to have operated the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, was detained while vacationing in Kerala with his family.
Authorities acted on a request from the United States (US), where he faces charges including conspiracy to commit money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
B. Gopakumar, deputy superintendent of police in Varkala, said:
“The accused was traced based on intelligence received from Interpol and international law enforcement agencies. He will be remanded for two days in Kerala before being transferred to Delhi for extradition proceedings.”
Bešciokov is set to appear in an Indian court on Monday, though extradition to the US appears imminent.
Bešciokov allegedly served as Garantex’s principal technical administrator from 2019 to 2025, working alongside co-founder and chief commercial officer Aleksandr Mira Serda, a Russian national.
A U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment accuses both of knowingly facilitating the laundering of illicit cryptocurrency tied to ransomware, terrorism, hacking, and other crimes.
According to the DOJ, they actively concealed the origins of these funds by misrepresenting information to law enforcement.
Since 2019, Garantex has allegedly processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
An indictment filed on 27 February in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia claims Bešciokov, Serda, and others used the platform to launder proceeds from cybercrime, drug trafficking, and sanctions violations for profit.
Bešciokov is now expected to be extradited to the US under India’s Extradition Act of 1962.
International law enforcement agencies from the US, Germany, and Finland recently seized Garantex’s website, while Tether froze $27 million in USDt linked to the platform.
Despite these actions, some operations persist, with the exchange reportedly holding in-person meetings at its Moscow office to "fully compensate" clients using unseized assets in Russia.
On 6 March, Garantex announced a temporary suspension of all services, including withdrawals.
US authorities also seized three domain names associated with the exchange as part of a court order in the ongoing criminal case.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Garantex in April 2022, accusing it of knowingly facilitating illicit transactions and failing to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) regulations.
The European Union followed suit in February, sanctioning the platform for its alleged role in financing Russia’s war against Ukraine.
While Serda remains at large, law enforcement agencies continue to track his whereabouts.
Bešciokov’s legal options for challenging extradition from India to the US remain uncertain.
If he chooses to contest the process, his case could follow a prolonged legal battle similar to that of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro in March 2023.
Kwon’s lawyers repeatedly appealed extradition rulings before he was ultimately handed over to US authorities in December 2024.
A parallel case is that of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was extradited from the Bahamas after the collapse of his crypto exchange in November 2022.
Convicted on seven felony counts, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison but has since filed an appeal.
Whether Bešciokov will pursue a similar legal defense remains to be seen.
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