With international law enforcement assistance, U.S. Secret Service has seized the site of Russian crypto-exchange Garantex and taken it down, on suspicion that Garantex had ties with sanctioned Russian criminal organizations and banks.
The homepage of Garantex, which has now stopped working, previously stated that Platform’s domain was taken by an agency that received a search warrant from U.S. Attorney’s Office of Eastern District of Virginia.
Nate Herring, a spokesperson of the Secret Service, stated that the seizure had been part an “ongoing investigation,” It is hoped that this agency would be successful. “release additional information when available.”
Tether, the stablecoin that issued Tether, has been a victim of a recent attack. Frost On Thursday, USDT was worth $28 millions.
Investigators in the U.S. and Western Europe have targeted Garantex, claiming that it worked with ransomware and darknet groups.
Garantex posted a message on its Telegram account saying that Tether had blocked all exchange wallets with more than 25 million dollars ($2.5 billion) in value. “temporarily suspended all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals while our entire team solves this problem.”
“We are fighting and will not give up,” The note accused Tether.
In April 2022 the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, working in conjunction with the FBI Department of Justice amongst other U.S. Agencies, as well as German Police sanctioned Garantex.
OFAC claimed that over $100 million worth of transactions were made on the Exchange. “associated with illicit actors and darknet markets including nearly $6 million from the Russian RaaS gang Conti and approximately $2.6 million from Hydra,” Darknet Market
Sebastian Sinclair is the editor
