ALIASES: Aleksej Bešciokov, "proforg," "iram"
DOB: January 21, 1979
NATIONALITY: Lithuania
CITIZENSHIP: Lithuania
HEIGHT: N/A
WEIGHT: N/A
HAIR COLOR: Brown / Colored
EYE COLOR: Blue
U.S. SECRET SERVICE FIELD OFFICE: Washington / Headquarters – Cyber Investigative Section
CASE SUMMARY
According to court documents, between 2019 and 2025, Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda and Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov controlled and operated Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly facilitated money laundering by transnational criminal organizations (including terrorist organizations) and sanctions violations. Since April 2019, Garantex processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions. Mira Serda was Garantex’s co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer. Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator and responsible for obtaining and maintaining critical Garantex infrastructure, as well as reviewing and approving transactions.
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 impact to U.S. victims. According to the indictment, Mira Serda and Besciokov knew that criminal proceeds were being laundered through Garantex and took steps to conceal the facilitation of illegal activities on its platform. For example, when Russian law enforcement sought records relating to an account registered to Mira Serda, Garantex provided incomplete information in response and falsely claimed the account was not verified when, in fact, Garantex had associated the account with Mira Serda’s personal identifying documents, even while disclosing identifying information related to other accounts requested by Russian law enforcement.
On March 6, 2025, the U.S. Secret Service executed a seizure order authorized by a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia against three website domain names used to support Garantex’s operations. The seizure of these domains will prevent these sites from being used for money laundering and additional crimes.
As part of coordinated actions, German and Finnish law enforcement seized servers hosting Garantex’s operations. U.S. authorities separately obtained earlier copies of Garantex’s servers, including customer and accounting databases. In addition, U.S. law enforcement also froze over $26 million in funds used to facilitate Garantex’s money laundering activities.
Mira Serda and Besciokov are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Besciokov is also charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the International Economic Emergency Powers Act—which also carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in person—and with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The prosecution is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.
Relevant Links
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
If you have information regarding this individual, please contact the U.S. Secret Service at MostWanted@usss.dhs.gov.