The U.S. Secret Service, working with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies, has shut down and seized the website of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which has been accused of ties to darknet markets and ransomware hackers.
On Thursday, Garantex’s official website was replaced by a notice stating that the exchange’s domain name had been seized by the Secret Service under a search warrant from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. This is the latest action by Western governments against the Moscow-based exchange.
Last month, the EU also sanctioned Garantex, saying it had "close ties to EU-sanctioned Russian banks." It is part of a package of sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Garantex, saying more than $100 million in transactions on the exchange were "linked to illegal actors and darknet markets," including the notorious Russian ransomware gang Conti and the darknet market Hydra.
U.S. Secret Service spokesman Nate Herring confirmed in a statement that the agency "seized domain names related to the management and operations of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex as part of an ongoing investigation," but declined to provide further comment.
The takedown notice stated that the operation was carried out in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Europol, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), the Frankfurt Attorney General, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.