The Departments of State and the Treasury are targeting Garantex, a Russian-operated cryptocurrency exchange allegedly used by a wide variety of cybercriminals and cybercrime organisations for money laundering, and its network.
The Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) is offering two rewards totaling up to $6 million for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of leaders of Garantex, including up to $5 million for Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda, a/k/a “Aleksandr Ntifo-Siaw,” and up to $1 million for other key leaders of Garantex.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is also taking actions to re-designate Garantex and to designate Grinex, a cryptocurrency exchange set up as Garantex’s successor.
OFAC is also designating three of Garantex’s executives and six partner companies in Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic.
According to the U.S. Secret Service and FBI, Garantex received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds and was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking, often with substantial harm to U.S. victims.
Between April 2019 and March 2025, Garantex processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
