The US Secret Service, working with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies, has deducted and captured the Garantex website, a Russian Cryptocurrency exchange accused of being linked to dinner markets and Ransomware hackers.
On Thursday, the official website of the Garantex was replaced with a notice, saying the exchange domain was captured by the secret service following an order from the US Bar Association for the Eastern Virginia County.
This is the latest action taken by Western governments against Moscow -based exchange.
Last month, the European Union also sanctioned the Garantex after, saying it “is closely linked to Russian banks sanctioned by the EU”. This was part of a package of sanctions against Russia for its occupation in Ukraine.
In 2022, the US Treasury sanctioned Garantex, claiming that more than $ 100 million in transactions made in exchange “are linked to illegal actors and dinner markets”, including the infamous Ransomware Conti gang, and Darknet Market Hydra.
The announcement of the meeting, first by Techcrunch, said the operation was carried out in coordination with the US Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, the Dutch National Police, the Federal Federal Police Office (Bundeskrinhalamt or BKA), the Office of the Frankfurt Prosecutor General, the National Office of Investigation.
Techcrunch reached all these organizations for comments. At the time of writing, only the FBI replied, refusing to comment.
Techcrunch also arrived in the Garantex through official email addresses listed on the site before the seizure, as well as through the company telegram account. Garantex did not respond to these messages.
Techcrunch verified the announcement of confiscation of the website by analyzing the guarantee domain data. Since Thursday, the Garantex Internet field is now showing servers known to be controlled by the secret service. The same server is also a host of some other seizure announcements of the website carried out by the secret service in recent years.
After the confiscation, the Garantex did not mention the law enforcement operation on its official telegram channels. On Thursday morning, the Garantex announced it was “suspension of all services, including Cryptocurrency’s withdrawals”, according to a translation of the notification machine.
The decision came after Stablecoin Tether’s emitter raised $ 28 million with Cryptocurrency in Garantex.
“We have bad news,” Garantex wrote. “We are fighting and we will not give up! Please note that all (tether) in Russian wallets are currently under threat.”
