Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange allegedly co-founded by Aleksej Bešciokov, was sanctioned by the EU in February 2025 for it’s alleged role in sanctions evasion related to Russia’s war on Ukraine

Event date

Feb 1, 2025 - 12:00am

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The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added Garantex to its list of sanctioned entities in April 2022 for “willfully disregard[ing] Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations and allow[ing] their systems to be abused by illicit actors.” The European Union also imposed sanctions against the platform in February as part of sanctions on “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

In addition to allegedly facilitating money laundering for criminals, including North Korea’s in-house hacking squad the Lazarus Group, which was behind the massive $1.5 billion Bybit heist last month, Garantex reportedly played a large role in sanctions evasion. Upscale sanctions evasion services like the TGR Group, which cater to Russian oligarchs, have been connected to the exchange.