Russian crypto exchange Garantex has been shut down by US and European law enforcement agencies after the company said it had frozen 28 million$ in assets. The move was part of an effort to evade sanctions and combat cybercrime.
The Galantex main website posted a notice announcing the domain had been officially taken down in accordance with a US court order. The operation was coordinated by the FBI, the US Department of Justice, Europol and police in the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Estonia. Last week, the EU imposed sanctions on Garantex for using the exchange to circumvent financial regulations and its links to sanctioned Russian banks. The US Treasury Department has already added Garantex to its sanctions list, and the Russian cybercrime ecosystem has identified the platform as aiding money laundering through it. According to investigations, illegal transactions worth more than $100 million were processed through Garantex, including $6 million from the Conti extortion group.
Law enforcement agencies are tightly controlling financial flows, and sanctions are forcing criminals to look for new ways to circumvent sanctions.
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