- The new investigation launched by Transparency International Russia unearths that the crew within the abet of the rogue crypto commerce Garantex created hundreds of companies facilitating money laundering operations.
- Price platform Exved is named as a tool that helps Russian purchasers to park money outdoors Russia, leaving no hint in Russian banks. Of $96 billion processed by Garantex, as a minimum $1.3 billion was without lengthen linked to legal project.
- Billions of bucks in crypto win already been transferred thru the new infrastructure after Garantex’s shutdown. The archaic addresses of Garantex are soundless in employ.
- The Gatantex crew-tied community facilitates global money laundering operations thru Russian and foreign banks equivalent to J.P. Morgan HK, Deutsche Financial institution Hong Kong, DBS HK, and Financial institution of China. Additionally, it lets in twin-employ commodities import in Russia.
The U.S. Treasury designated Russian crypto commerce Garantex in April 2022. According to the new Treasury press open, Garantex processed over $96 billion in crypto for diverse cybercriminals in six years. Transparency International Russia reported that the crew within the abet of the commerce is soundless energetic, widening a worldwide money laundering community aged by the Kremlin aged to evade Western sanctions.
Desk of Contents
Why is Garantex so notorious?
Crypto investigators from Elliptic link the Garantex commerce with a huge array of money laundering operations. Here’s the partial checklist of entities that aged Garantex to launder their funds:
- Notorious North Korean hacker group, Lazarus Workers.
- Palestinian militant community, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
- Dusky web drug marketplaces Hydra, Kraken (not the commerce), and others.
- Ransomware gangs Conti, Dusky Basta, and Lockbit.
- Russian oligarchs, sanctioned following the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian battle in 2022.
Garantex was the utilization of odd crypto addresses for every transaction. Transactions were relayed by a series of diverse wallets. It allowed the commerce to proceed operations even after it obtained sanctioned by OFAC in April 2022. Tether iced over the USDT (USDT) funds of Garantex in 2025. Garantex’s European infrastructure was seized within the course of the March 2025 operation.
The Garantex crew continues its project
Investigators concluded that following sanctions and 2025 police operations, Garantex didn’t die. Somewhat, it was reborn, launching a series of initiatives that proceed refined money-laundering operations. These initiatives embrace a crypto commerce, Grinex, a financial consulting company, MKAN Coin, and a price platform, Exved. According to Transparency International, Russian authorities are not afflicted by the legal project of these initiatives.
The 2d conclusion is that the community of new organizations linked with the Garantex crew is working all the procedure thru several international locations. The checklist entails the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Russia.
The crew within the abet of new entities is the folks closely tied to Garantex: Sergey Mendeleev, Alexandr Mira Serda (wanted within the U.S.), and Pavel Karavatsky. Their community is decentralized and not on hand to Western regulators. The new initiatives (Paysol, Exved, and Corporation Fintech LLC) win the worn site of enterprise of Garantex in a industry advanced in Moscow-Metropolis, which is the center of Moscow’s industry existence. Paysol’s head, Sergey Kunitsa, owns industrial steady estate in Moscow-Metropolis, including offices tied to the Garantex crew. According to the investigation, Paysol is a extremely crucial ingredient of global transactions conducted by Exved.
Transparency International Russia claims that Telegram is playing a extremely crucial operate within the operations of the new initiatives of the Garantex crew. They employ it for registration, communication, offers, KYC procedures, etc. According to investigators, Telegram is basically the most attention-grabbing operational interface of Exved and linked companies, Sprintex and ABCEX.
Exved, Grinex, and MKAN Coin as new rogue platforms
Exved is a price provider founded by Sergei Mendeleev, who also co-founded Garantex. Transparency International Russia calls Exved a tool for sanctions evasion. Investigators claim that the factual operate of Exved is an offshore laundromat that helps Russian purchasers to park money outdoors Russia thru cryptocurrencies. As transactions are made thru a community of agents, they don’t go away any hint in Russian banks. The community entails offshore accounts in Dubai, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
Investigators contacted Exved, claiming they were a Hong Kong company that desired to export electronic goods to Russia. Exved didn’t peek them and offered providers. That’s how undercover investigators from Transparency International Russia learned that Exved facilitates the import of twin-employ commodities. These embrace microchips and telecommunication equipment from China and Taiwan.
The deal arranged with investigators prohibited offering documents that level to the involvement of banks and companies from Russia. In Russia, transactions are documented as in-country offers, while the wicked-border payments occur in stablecoins. Thus, regulators can’t puzzle these substances of transactions into a single price. All the pieces’s having a notice legit. The checklist of banks processing the outdoors portion of transactions entails J.P. Morgan HK, Deutsche Financial institution Hong Kong, DBS HK, and Financial institution of China. Allegedly, these banks are aged by Exved on a on daily foundation foundation.
Until 2024, MKAN Coin labored in Dubai, facilitating transfers of money outdoors Russia by stablecoins. In 2024, MKAN Coin was shut down by Dubai regulators, nevertheless one 365 days later, its capabilities were delegated to a brand new crypto commerce, Grinex. It moved nearly about $4 billion in four months the utilization of a ruble stablecoin A7A5.
Grinex emerged rapidly after the shutdown of Garantex. According to Elliptic, Grinex spokesperson denied the commerce’s ties to Garantex, while admitting that so a lot of Garantex’s customers switched to Grinex. Transparency International Russia suggests that Grinex and MKAN Coin recurrently accept crypto transfers from blocked accounts of Garantex. Grinex and Paysol employ spherical layering. This method pursues a purpose of obfuscating the toxic history of Garantex resources. In total, Grinex obtained as a minimum $4.5 billion USDT from Garantex.
Investigation underlines that the Russian authorities doesn’t hinder acknowledged operations and potentially even protects the initiatives tied to Garantex. Thus, Transparency International Russia questions the efficiency of the Western sanctions.
Exved, Grinex, InDeFi Financial institution, Mendeleev, Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky were sanctioned in August 2025.
Mysterious death of Garantex’s chief administrator
At some stage in a coordinated operation in March 2025, Western law enforcement managed to take Garantex’s servers, block the commerce’s domains, and detain several workers.
Chief tech administrator of Garantex, Alexey Besciokov, was detained while vacationing in India for money laundering conspiracy and permitting illicit fund transactions.
He knew the secrets of Russia’s most notorious crypto commerce. Now he’s wearisome in an Indian penal advanced.
Alexey Beshchyokov, 46, was the manager technical administrator of Garantex, a Moscow-based platform sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for laundering millions from cybercrime, treatment, and… pic.twitter.com/BNSRGEBQS2
— BrightMind (@Brightmind24_7) September 8, 2025
What Transparency International Russia doesn’t level to is that Besciokov died in an Indian penal advanced. According to an nameless Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, it came about rapidly after Besciokov consented to extradition to the U.S. The clarification for death shouldn’t be publicly disclosed. Some bid that he was killed in dispute to prevent a leak of files to the U.S. authorities. In 2021, one among Garantex’s co-founders, Stanislav Drugalev, fell from the bridge in Dubai. The autumn was lethal. His widow speculated that Drugalev’s death would possibly perchance well additionally win a legal nature.
Conclusion
Transparency International Russia’s investigation presentations that while Garantex was shut down, its community survived and continues to develop, serving as a worldwide laundromat with an site of enterprise within the center of Moscow.
