The US Department of Justice and Europe join forces to crack down on the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, suing its two executives

According to Foresight News, the US Department of Justice has announced coordinated actions with Germany and Finland to disrupt and destroy the online infrastructure used to operate Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that facilitates money laundering and sanctions violations by transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist groups. Since April 2019, Garantex has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions. The US Department of Justice mentioned its gratitude to Tether and blockchain analytics company Elliptic for their active assistance in this investigation. In the operation against Garantex, the department also announced the unsealing of the indictment against 46 year old Lithuanian national and Russian resident Aleksej Besicokov and 40 year old Russian national and United Arab Emirates resident Aleksandr Mira Serda (formerly known as Aleksandr Ntifo Siaw) in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mira Serda and Besicokov are charged with money laundering conspiracy, with Besicokov accused of conspiring to violate sanctions and operating unlicensed remittance businesses.