International law enforcement agencies have collaborated to seize the website of the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, almost three years after it was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2022.
A notice on the website states: “The domain for Garantex has been seized by the United States Secret Service pursuant to a seizure warrant obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia under the authority of 18 U.S.C. §§ 981 and 982.”
The operation involved cooperation between the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Frankfurt General Prosecutor’s Office, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.
Garantex, established in 2019, had previously been subject to U.S. sanctions for facilitating transactions from darknet markets and illicit actors, including Hydra and Conti. In late 2023, sanctions were also imposed against a Russian national, Ekaterina Zhdanova, for her role in laundering ransomware proceeds via Garantex.
The seizure comes weeks after the European Union announced similar sanctions against Garantex for its close association with already sanctioned Russian banks, prompting Tether to block its crypto wallets.
Garantex announced on its Telegram channel: “Dear users! We have bad news. Tether has entered the war against the Russian crypto market and blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles.” The exchange has temporarily suspended services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, while it addresses the issue.
Garantex has published a list of cryptocurrency wallets blocked by Tether on its Telegram channel.
