New Delhi:

A Lithuanian man, who was wanted in the US for a massive cryptocurrency fraud, has been arrested in Kerala, officials said on Wednesday. The accused, Aleksej Besciokov, had set up a cryptocurrency exchange ‘Garantex’, allegedly to launder the proceeds of criminal activities such as ransomware, computer hacking, and narcotics transactions.

Besciokov was arrested when he was planning to flee the country, officials said.

According to the US Secret Service documents, Besciokov, over the period of nearly six years, allegedly controlled and operated Garantex, which facilitated money laundering to the tune of at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions by transnational criminal organisations (including terrorist organisations) and violated sanctions.

“Garantex received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds and was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking, often with substantial impact to US victims,” it said.

Officials said that Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator and was responsible for obtaining and maintaining the critical infrastructure of the platform as well as reviewing and approving transactions. He was wanted by the US on many charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering in violation of Title 18 of the US Code, conspiracy to violate the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and Conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money services business.

He was sanctioned by the US in April 2022.

Earlier this week, the Ministry of External Affairs received a provisional arrest warrant at the request of US officials. Following this, a joint effort of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Kerala police arrested Besciokov from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram.

He will be produced before the Patiala House Court soon, officials said.