US charges Garantex admins with money laundering, sanctions violations

The U.S. Department of Justice charged two operators of the Garantex crypto-exchange with conspiracy to launder money and related offenses, alleging the platform processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions and was knowingly used to launder proceeds for ransomware groups, darknet markets (including Hydra), drug trafficking, and terrorism; authorities seized Garantex domains and servers, obtained databases, and froze over $26 million in funds while prior OFAC sanctions and an EU sanctions designation also targeted the exchange.