US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against Garantex top managers and companies associated with the exchange

What’s new? The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on the Grinex crypto exchange, calling it the successor to Garantex, which was also subject to economic restrictions in 2022 for processing $100 million in criminal transactions. Sanctions were also imposed on three Garantex executives and six affiliated companies in Russia and Kyrgyzstan that supported the exchange’s operations.

Press release

What else is known? On March 6, 2025, the US Secret Service, in conjunction with German and Finnish law enforcement agencies, took action against Garantex’s infrastructure, including seizing the web domain and freezing more than $26 million in cryptocurrency.

On March 7, the US Department of Justice announced indictments against Garantex executives Alexander Mira Serda and Aleksej Besciokov, after which Besciokov was arrested in India.

In response, Garantex transferred its customer base and funds to a new platform, Grinex, in order to continue operating under sanctions and pressure from law enforcement agencies.

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Garantex was launched at the end of 2019 and registered in Estonia, but conducted most of its operations from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Transactions processed by Garantex totaling over $100 million are linked to darknet marketplaces and ransomware developers.

In February 2022, Garantex lost its Estonian license to provide crypto services because the local financial intelligence unit identified critical deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system and discovered links between Garantex and wallets used for criminal activities.

In response, Garantex developed infrastructure to conceal its operations and make it difficult to establish links between wallets and the exchange, allowing it to continue storing funds and providing other services to criminals.

For example, Garantex received millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from ransomware attacks by Russian groups Conti, Black Basta, LockBit, NetWalker, Phoenix Cryptolocker, and Ryuk.

Immediately after the March 6 operation, Garantex launched Grinex. The advertisement stated that the exchange was created in response to sanctions and the freezing of Garantex’s assets. Since its creation, Grinex has facilitated the transfer of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

The launch of Grinex allowed Garantex customers to regain access to their accounts using the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5, issued by the Kyrgyz company Old Vector and A7 Limited Liability Society (A7), which provides platforms for evading sanctions when conducting cross-border payments. Thus, Garantex users were paid compensation in A7A5 tokens.

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A7 and its subsidiaries A7 Limited Liability Society (A71) and A7 Agent Limited Liability Society (A7 Agent) are owned by sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor and Russia’s Promsvyazbank (PSB).

The new statement says that OFAC is also imposing sanctions against Old Vector, A7, A71, and A7 Agent.

The Treasury Department emphasized that Garantex’s management contributed to the development of cybercrime and sanctions evasion while registering trademarks and participating in business development events to give the company the appearance of legitimacy. Garantex’s network of partner companies also allowed it to transfer money, including money obtained illegally, outside of Russia.

The press release states that Sergey Mendeleev is the co-founder of Garantex, Alexander Mira Serda is the co-owner and commercial director, and Pavel Karavatsky is another co-owner and regional director.

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Mendeleev is also the founder and head of Independent Decentralized Finance SmartBank & Ecosystem (InDeFi SmartBank) and Exved. Among other things, InDeFi SmartBank helped users purchase virtual currencies from Garantex.

Exved is a payment platform that works closely with InDeFi Bank to facilitate cryptocurrency trading between Russia and other countries to circumvent sanctions, according to a press release.

In this regard, OFAC added Mendeleev, Mira Serda, and Karavatsky, as well as InDeFi SmartBank and Exved, to the sanctions list.

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As part of its program to combat transnational organized crime, the US State Department has offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Mira Serda, and up to $1 million for other Garantex senior executives.

“Exploiting cryptocurrency exchanges to launder money and facilitate ransomware attacks not only threatens our national security, but also tarnishes the reputations of legitimate virtual asset service providers,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.