US sanctions Russian crypto exchange over cybercrime — day before Trump-Putin summit in Alaska
The U.S. Treasury Department has re-designated the Russian-linked cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe OU, accusing it of directly enabling ransomware gangs and other cybercriminals by processing over $100 million in illicit transactions since 2019.
The new sanctions come just one day before U.S. President Donald Trump is set to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. The Aug. 15 summit will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump returned to office and Putin's first visit to the U.S. in a decade.
The agency also sanctioned Garantex’s successor, Grinex, along with three of the company’s top executives and six associated firms in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, according to the Aug. 14 announcement.
Garantex, founded in late 2019 and operating mainly from Moscow and St. Petersburg, has been a key hub for laundering money from ransomware attacks and other criminal schemes. U.S. officials say the exchange maintained accounts for hundreds of thousands of users, including actors tied to Russia-linked ransomware groups such as Conti, Black Basta, LockBit, and Ryuk.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) previously sanctioned Garantex in early April, 2022. Despite losing its Estonian license in for anti–money laundering failures that same year, Garantex built systems to conceal its activities and continued servicing sanctioned entities.
On March 6, in a joint operation with German and Finnish law enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service seized Garantex’s web domain and froze over $26 million in cryptocurrency. The next day, U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges against two Garantex executives, one of whom was arrested in India. In response, Garantex moved customer funds to a newly created exchange, Grinex, in a bid to continue operations despite the crackdown.
Grinex, established by Garantex staff, quickly began processing billions in cryptocurrency transactions. U.S. officials say it was created specifically to evade sanctions and law enforcement actions. The company also partnered with Russian and Kyrgyzstani firms to issue a ruble-backed digital token, helping customers recover funds and resume transactions. One of those firms, A7 LLC, is linked to sanctioned Russian bank Promsvyazbank and Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor.
The Treasury Department said these actions target not just the exchanges but also the network of companies and individuals supporting Russian sanctions evasion.
