On March. 7, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed in a press release that since Garantex opened for business in 2019, the exchange had processed at least $96 billion worth of crypto transactions, including hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal funds connected to hacking, ransomware, and drug trafficking.

The Justice Department unsealed an indictment against the two men, Aleksej Besciokov, a Lithuanian national, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, a Russian national.

According to the report, the two men ran the exchange as a vehicle for laundering money and are now charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Besciokov is also charged with violating U.S. sanctions and running an unlicensed money transmission business.

Although Garantex was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022, administrators have reportedly continued to operate, circumventing sanctions by regularly replacing crypto wallet addresses.

Garantex’s domains were seized by law enforcement—Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy — all while freezing more than $26 million in dirty money. German and Finnish authorities also seized servers hosting parts of Garantex’s infrastructure.

U.S. officials celebrated the international coordination involved in the takedown, from the FBI’s presence in the operation to the involvement of the U.S. Secret Service and Europol. The investigation was also aided by blockchain analytics company Elliptic and cash provider Tether . If convicted, Besciokov and Mira Serda each face up to 20 years behind bars.