Sanctioned Russian Crypto Exchange Garantex Seized, Operators Charged With Money Laundering
Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange popular with ransomware gangs and darknet markets, has been taken down in an international law enforcement operation, according to a Friday announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
On Thursday, a coalition of law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Germany and Finland seized Garantex’s domains and servers, and froze nearly $28 million in crypto tied to the exchange with the help of stablecoin issuer Tether.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex in 2022, accusing the exchange of knowingly facilitating money laundering for ransomware actors, including Conti and Black Basta, and darknet markets like Hydra, which, before its 2022 shut down, was…
