Investigation: The team behind Russian Garantex created a sophisticated international money laundering network

The U.S. Treasury designated Russian crypto exchange Garantex in April 2022. According to the new Treasury press release, Garantex processed over $96 billion in crypto for various cybercriminals in six years. Transparency International Russia reported that the team behind the exchange is still active, widening an international money laundering network used by the Kremlin used to evade Western sanctions.

Why is Garantex so notorious?

Crypto investigators from Elliptic link the Garantex exchange with a wide array of money laundering operations. Here’s the partial list of entities that used Garantex to launder their funds: 

• Notorious North Korean hacker organization, Lazarus Group.
• Palestinian militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
• Dark web drug marketplaces Hydra, Kraken (not the exchange), and others.
• Ransomware gangs Conti, Black Basta, and Lockbit.
• Russian oligarchs, sanctioned following the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022. 

Garantex was using unique crypto addresses for each transaction. Transactions were relayed via a series of various wallets. It allowed the exchange to continue operations even after it got sanctioned by OFAC in April 2022. Tether froze the USDT (USDT) funds of Garantex in 2025. Garantex’s European infrastructure was seized during the March 2025 operation.

The Garantex team continues its activity

Investigators concluded that following sanctions and 2025 police operations, Garantex didn’t die. Rather, it was reborn, launching a series of projects that continue sophisticated money-laundering operations. These projects include a crypto exchange, Grinex, a financial consulting company, MKAN Coin, and a payment platform, Exved. According to Transparency International, Russian authorities are not bothered by the criminal activity of these projects.

The second conclusion is that the network of new organizations associated with the Garantex team is operating across several countries. The list includes the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Georgia, Hong Kong, and Russia.

The team behind new entities is the people closely tied to Garantex: Sergey Mendeleev, Alexandr Mira Serda (wanted in the U.S.), and Pavel Karavatsky. Their network is decentralized and not available to Western regulators. The new projects (Paysol, Exved, and Corporation Fintech LLC) occupy the former office of Garantex in a business complex in Moscow-City, which is the heart of Moscow’s business life. Paysol’s head, Sergey Kunitsa, owns commercial real estate in Moscow-City, including offices tied to the Garantex team. According to the investigation, Paysol is an important element of international transactions conducted by Exved.

Transparency International Russia claims that Telegram is playing a crucial role in the operations of the new projects of the Garantex team. They use it for registration, communication, deals, KYC procedures, etc. According to investigators, Telegram is the only operational interface of Exved and associated firms, Sprintex and ABCEX.

Exved, Grinex, and MKAN Coin as new rogue platforms

Exved is a payment service founded by Sergei Mendeleev, who also co-founded Garantex. Transparency International Russia calls Exved a tool for sanctions evasion. Investigators claim that the true role of Exved is an offshore laundromat that helps Russian clients to park money outside Russia through cryptocurrencies. As transactions are made through a network of agents, they don’t leave any trace in Russian banks. The network includes offshore accounts in Dubai, Thailand, and Hong Kong. 

Investigators contacted Exved, claiming they were a Hong Kong company that wanted to export electronic goods to Russia. Exved didn’t scrutinize them and offered services. That’s how undercover investigators from Transparency International Russia learned that Exved facilitates the import of dual-use commodities. These include microchips and telecommunication equipment from China and Taiwan. 

The deal arranged with investigators prohibited providing documents that mention the involvement of banks and companies from Russia. In Russia, transactions are documented as in-country deals, while the cross-border payments take place in stablecoins. Thus, regulators cannot puzzle these parts of transactions into a single payment. Everything’s looking legit. The list of banks processing the external part of transactions includes J.P. Morgan HK, Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, DBS HK, and Bank of China. Allegedly, these banks are used by Exved on a daily basis.

Until 2024, MKAN Coin worked in Dubai, facilitating transfers of money outside Russia via stablecoins. In 2024, MKAN Coin was shut down by Dubai regulators, but one year later, its functions were delegated to a new crypto exchange, Grinex. It moved nearly $4 billion in four months using a ruble stablecoin A7A5.

Grinex emerged shortly after the shutdown of Garantex. According to Elliptic, Grinex spokesperson denied the exchange’s ties to Garantex, while admitting that many of Garantex’s users switched to Grinex. Transparency International Russia suggests that Grinex and MKAN Coin regularly accept crypto transfers from blocked accounts of Garantex. Grinex and Paysol use circular layering. This method pursues a goal of obfuscating the toxic history of Garantex assets. In total, Grinex received at least $4.5 billion USDT from Garantex. 

Investigation underlines that the Russian government doesn’t hinder said operations and probably even protects the projects tied to Garantex. Thus, Transparency International Russia questions the efficiency of the Western sanctions.

Exved, Grinex, InDeFi Bank, Mendeleev, Mira Serda, and Pavel Karavatsky were sanctioned in August 2025.

Mysterious death of Garantex’s chief administrator

During a coordinated operation in March 2025, Western law enforcement managed to seize Garantex’s servers, block the exchange’s domains, and detain several employees. 

Chief tech administrator of Garantex, Alexey Besciokov, was detained while vacationing in India for money laundering conspiracy and allowing illicit fund transactions.

What Transparency International Russia doesn’t mention is that Besciokov died in an Indian prison. According to an anonymous Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, it happened shortly after Besciokov consented to extradition to the U.S. The cause of death is not publicly disclosed. Some think that he was killed in order to prevent a leak of information to the U.S. authorities. In 2021, one of Garantex’s co-founders, Stanislav Drugalev, fell from the bridge in Dubai. The fall was fatal. His widow speculated that Drugalev’s death could have a criminal nature.

Conclusion

Transparency International Russia’s investigation shows that while Garantex was shut down, its network survived and continues to grow, serving as an international laundromat with an office in the center of Moscow.