The U.S. Secret Service, working with a coalition of worldwide legislation enforcement businesses, has taken down and seized the web site of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency trade accused of being related to darknet markets and ransomware hackers.
On Thursday, the official Garantex web site was changed with a discover saying the trade’s area has been seized by the Secret Service following a warrant by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Virginia.
That is the newest motion taken by Western governments in opposition to the Moscow-based trade.
Final month, the European Union additionally sanctioned Garantex as, saying it’s “carefully related to EU-sanctioned Russian banks.” This was a part of a package deal of sanctions in opposition to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Garantex, alleging that greater than $100 million in transactions accomplished on the trade “are related to illicit actors and darknet markets,” together with the infamous Russian ransomware gang Conti, and the darknet market Hydra.
Nate Herring, a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service, confirmed to TechCrunch in an announcement that the company “seized web site domains related to the administration and operation of Russian cryptocurrency trade, Garantex as a part of an ongoing investigation,” whereas declining to supply additional remark.
The takedown discover, seen by TechCrunch, stated that the operation was carried out in coordination with the U.S. Division of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, the Dutch Nationwide Police, the German Federal Prison Police Workplace (Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), the Frankfurt Basic Prosecutor’s Workplace, the Finnish Nationwide Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian Nationwide Prison Police.
TechCrunch reached out to all these organizations for remark. On the time of writing, solely the FBI responded, declining to remark.
TechCrunch additionally reached out to Garantex by way of the official e mail addresses listed on the positioning earlier than the seizure, in addition to via the corporate’s Telegram account. Garantex didn’t reply to those messages.
TechCrunch verified the web site seizure discover by analyzing Garantex’s internet-facing area information. As of Thursday, Garantex’s internet area is now pointing to servers identified to be managed by the Secret Service. The identical server can also be host to a number of different web site seizure notices carried out by the Secret Service in recent times.
Following the seizure, Garantex made no point out of the legislation enforcement operation in its official Telegram channels. On Thursday morning, Garantex introduced that it was “suspending all providers, together with cryptocurrency withdrawals,” in keeping with a machine translation of the announcement.
The choice got here after stablecoin issuer Tether froze $28 million value of its cryptocurrency on Garantex.
“We now have dangerous information,” Garantex wrote. “We’re combating and won’t quit! Please observe that every one [Tether] in Russian wallets is at present beneath menace.”
