THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 46-year-old Lithuanian national Aleksej Besciokov, who was arrested by Kerala police based on the red corner notice issued by Interpol, had been to Kerala before. Thiruvananthapuram Range DIG Ajeetha Begum said Aleksej arrived in the state with his wife and two daughters on February 11.
His family flew back on Monday and he was scheduled to leave the country on Tuesday when he was arrested from a homestay where he was staying, she said.
According to the DIG, Aleksej used to visit Varkala regularly.”In the last five years, he has stayed in Varkala for about two months,” she said.
She said when Jojin Raj, a civil police officer with the Tourism Police, knocked at his door, Aleksej offered him a bundle of cash as bribe, which was turned down by the cop.
The arrest was made soon. The state police got to act against the international criminal after the ACJM Patiala House Court issued an arrest warrant based on the request of the US.
Aleksej was the primary technical administrator of Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly facilitated money laundering by transnational criminal groups, including terrorists.
According to the US Secret Service documents, since April 2019, Garantex processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions. Russian national Aleksandr Mira Serda was Garantex’s co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer.
Besciokov was Garantex’s primary technical administrator and responsible for obtaining and maintaining critical Garantex infrastructure, as well as reviewing and approving transactions, the documents read.
Garantex received hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds which was used to facilitate various crimes, including hacking, ransomware, terrorism, and drug trafficking, the documents claimed.