Lex Fisun, co-founder and CEO of Global Ledger, said the Garantex scenario "undermines the illusion of control that many still cling to."
Over $15 million in active reserves from cryptocurrency exchange Garantex have been found by Global Ledger, a company that offers a crypto Anti-Money Laundering (AML) toolkit. Some of these reserves are in transit.
A dormant Garantex Ethereum wallet started earning Ether on March 6 and eventually transferred $2.3 million in Ether to Tornado Cash, according to a report by Global Ledger. The $6.1 million in Ethereum that is still in that wallet is not moving.
According to the analysis, Bitcoin ownership showed a similar pattern. After being partially moved to Grinex, roughly 2.2 BTC was bridged to the TRON network.
Lex Fisun, the CEO and co-founder of Global Ledger, told Cointelegraph that the Garantex case "undermines the illusion of control that many still cling to." "The free flow of $15 million through obscure chains and mixers is a failure of sanction enforcement, not a failure of the law."
Tether froze $27 million USDt on Garantex on March 6. The exchange suspended operations on the same day, stating that "Tether has blocked our wallets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles [$27 million] and entered the war against the Russian crypto market."
The first organization to impose sanctions on Garantex was the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury in April 2022. The Treasury Department claims that the exchange has ignored AML and other regulations that various agencies placed on cryptocurrency exchanges. On February 24, 2025, the European Union would impose penalties.
Garantex reported on March 12 that its founder, Aleksej Bešciokov, had been arrested while on vacation with his family in India. He faces several conspiracy accusations, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, and might be extradited to the US.
Russia reacts to the Tether ban
According to reports, Osman Kabaloev, a representative of the Russian finance ministry, stated on April 17 that the nation ought to create its own stablecoin. The statements were made about a month after Tether planned to freeze USDt in wallets connected to Garantex.
Kabaloev told the state-run news outlet TASS, "We do not impose restrictions on the use of stablecoins within the experimental legal regime." "Recent events have demonstrated that we may be at risk from this instrument."
According to reports, the Russian central bank and finance ministry announced plans to open a cryptocurrency exchange for "super-qualified" investors on April 24.
