The US Secret Service has teamed up with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies to remove and seize the website of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange that has been accused of being associated with darknet markets and ransomware hackers.
On Thursday, the official Garantex website was replaced by a notice that the exchange's domain was seized by the Secret Service following a warrant by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
This is the latest measure taken by the Western government against the Moscow-based exchange.
Last month, the European Union also approved Garantex, saying it was “closely linked to the European Union's Russian Bank.” This was part of a package of sanctions against Russia for invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, the US Treasury approved Garantex, claiming that the $100 million deals made in exchange were “related to illegal actors and the darknet market.”
The Takedown notice seen by TechCrunch said the operation was carried out in coordination with the US Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Department (Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), the General Frankfurt Office, the Finnish National Christ Bureau, and the Estonian National Criger Pluse.
TechCrunch has asked all of these organizations for comment. At the time of writing, only the FBI responded and declined to comment.
TechCrunch also contacted Garantex through its official email address listed on the site prior to the seizure and its company telegram account. Garantex did not respond to these messages.
TechCrunch has confirmed the seizure notification of its website by analyzing Garantex's Internet domain records. As of Thursday, Garantex's web domain refers to a server known to be controlled by the Secret Service. The same server is also the host of seizure notifications for several other websites that have been implemented in recent years by the Secret Service.
Following the attack, Garantex did not mention law enforcement operations on its official telegram channel. On Thursday morning, Garantex announced that it has “suspended all services, including the withdrawal of cryptocurrency,” according to a machine translation of the announcement.
The decision comes after Stablecoin publisher Tether freed $28 million worth of cryptocurrency with Garantex.
“There's bad news,” writes Galantex. “We're fighting and we won't give up! Be careful with everything [Tether] In Russian, wallets are currently under threat. ”