US seizes Russian crypto exchange websites, charges head of site with money laundering
DOJ
(WASHINGTON) — The United States Secret Service said it has seized a Russian cryptocurrency exchange website, according to court documents unsealed on Friday.
The Justice Department also charged the two administrators of that website with a multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme, court documents said.
Between 2019 and 2025, Aleksej Besciokov, 46, a Lithuanian national and Russian resident, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, 40, a Russian national, allegedly controlled and operated Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Moscow.
The two allegedly “operated Garantex to launder the proceeds of criminal activity, including ransomware, computer hacking, narcotics transactions, and sanctions violations, and profited from the laundering. Garantex offered its services to the public first through the website Garantex.io and then through Garantex.org. Garantex also misled law enforcement, including the Russian police, about the identities of its customers,” the documents said.
The Justice Department said that since April 2019, Garantex has processed $96 billion in crypto transactions and noted that those proceeds were allegedly used to fund illicit activities.
“The seizure of website domains associated with Garantex’s operations and the freezing of over $26 million in cryptocurrency strikes a serious financial blow to cybercriminals worldwide,” said Michael Centrella, assistant director of the Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations. “Alongside our U.S. and international law enforcement partners, this coordinated action will prevent additional funds from falling into the hands of criminals.”
Court documents said Besciokov allegedly knew there were two different accounts linked to North Korean cyber threat actors but still let them use the cryptocurrency exchange.
The company was also under sanctions from the U.S. since at least 2022.
“By in and around early 2023, BESCIOKOV and his co-conspirators had also redesigned Garantex’s operations to evade and violate U.S. sanctions and induce U.S. businesses to unwittingly transact with Garantex in violation of the sanctions,” the indictment said. “For example, Garantex moved its operational cryptocurrency wallets to different virtual currency addresses on a daily basis in order to make it difficult for U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges to identify and block transactions with Garantex accounts.”
Besciokov and Serda also allegedly took steps to conceal themselves from Russian law enforcement, according to the court records.
American Kielce Gussie, who works as a journalist at Vatican News, did the first reading in English — several verses from the Acts of the Apostles — at the funeral of Pope Francis. Image via ABC News.
(ROME) — American Kielce Gussie, who works as a journalist at Vatican News, did the first reading in English — several verses from the Acts of the Apostles — at the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.
Gussie, originally from Florida, completed her undergraduate degree in theology at Mount St. Mary’s University.
The university featured her in an article in March 2019, saying that she planned on incorporating her faith with media.
“While in Rome, Gussie will pursue an internship with either EWTN or Catholic Bytes,” Mount St. Mary’s University said in 2019. “After completing her Licentiate, she hopes to continue working in Rome with a Catholic media company. Her goal is to incorporate her Catholic faith with media directed toward youth evangelization. Assistant Professor of Communication Mary Catherine Kennedy, Ph.D., is confident that Gussie will succeed. ‘Kielce is a go-getter. She came to the Mount with an idea of what she wanted to pursue after graduation,’ Kennedy said. She has paired her communication classes with her theology classes to pursue work in the Church. Her ambition and desire to serve others is spectacular, and I expect her to do well in her graduate studies in Rome.'”
Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Israel has resumed “focused ground operations” in the “center of the Gaza Strip” over the past 24 hours, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Israeli forces have also taken control and “re-expanded their control to the center of the Netzarim” corridor — the line that separates northern Gaza from the south — an IDF spokesperson said.
As a part of the terms of the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Jan. 19, Israeli forces agreed to withdraw troops on the ground in Gaza to a buffer zone they carved out along the perimeter of Gaza, and troops remained in the Philadelphi corridor – the 8-mile-long border between Gaza and Egypt.
During phase one of the ceasefire deal, Israel withdrew completely from the Netzarim corridor.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the residents of Gaza that “the evacuation of the population from the battle zones” in Gaza will “begin again soon,” in a video message in Hebrew on Wednesday.
Katz encouraged Gaza residents to go to “other places in the world for those who wish.”
“Take the advice of the U.S. President. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open up for you — including going to other places in the world for those who wish,” Katz said.
Last month, President Donald Trump called for the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, drawing wide international criticism and accusations from allies and the United Nations. He has since said that Palestinians should want to leave voluntarily due to the destruction.
Residents of Gaza are currently unable to leave on their own because the border crossing into Egypt is closed.
Israel’s current plan is to make Gaza unlivable, re-establish those so-called “humanitarian zones,” concentrate Palestinians in those bubbles or islands and from there offer voluntary transfer out of Gaza, retired Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, a security hawk who continues to advise the military and defense ministry, told ABC News.
Avivi stressed leaving would be voluntary. They would be loaded on buses and sent through the Kerem Shalom crossing either to Ashdod port, or to an airport near Eilat.
Prior to resuming ground operations, an Israeli official told ABC News that its renewed campaign of strikes on the Gaza Strip would continue until all remaining hostages are released.
Palestinian health officials said that at least 436 people have been killed — including more than 130 children, according to UNICEF figures — since Israel renewed its bombardment of the coastal territory overnight Tuesday, marking the collapse of a ceasefire with Hamas that began in January. Another 678 people have been wounded, Palestinian officials said.
On Tuesday, an Israeli official told ABC News of Hamas, “They got hammered last night and they’re going to continue to be hammered until we get the hostages out.”
The official described the Israel Defense Forces’ renewed attacks against Hamas in Gaza as a “different form of negotiating,” and said Israel had “not closed the door” to talks resuming via mediators if Hamas is willing to accept further hostage-prisoner swaps.
An Israeli official told ABC News on Tuesday that the offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”
Far-right Israeli Minister Ben Gvir and his party have rejoined Netanyahu’s coalition in the Knesset, after leaving when the ceasefire went into effect earlier this year.
Gvir has extreme views and wants Netanyahu to go even further in Gaza. There is a vote on Israel’s budget at the end of March.
If Netanyahu’s coalition fails to pass that budget, his government falls, according to Israeli law.
Wednesday brought fresh strikes in Gaza. The IDF said it attacked what it called “a Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles at Israeli territory.”
The Israeli navy also “struck several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip,” which the IDF said were slated for use by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Wednesday that one foreign staffer working for the United Nations was killed by an Israeli strike in central Gaza, with five others suffering “severe” injuries. The wounded were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the ministry said.
The IDF denied involvement. “Contrary to reports, the IDF did not strike a UN compound in Deir el Balah,” it said in a statement.
Israel’s renewed campaign in Gaza marked the end of nearly two months of relative quiet in the region, which has been devastated by intense fighting since October 2023. The ceasefire saw 33 Israeli hostages released from Gaza in return for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage still thought to be alive.
Several members of Hamas’ administrative and civil wings were killed in the renewed strikes. They included Deputy Minister of the Interior Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Abu Tuffah and Deputy Minister of Justice Omar al-Hatta.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country would act against Hamas “with increasing intensity.”
“From now on, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said in a statement. “Hamas has already felt the presence of our force in the last 24 hours and I want to assure you: This is just the beginning.”
“The military strike on Hamas and the release of our hostages are not contradictory goals — they are goals that are intertwined,” Netanyahu said.
The renewed offensive prompted major protests in Israel, including from the families of those still being held hostage in Gaza.
“The greatest fear of the families, the kidnapped and the citizens of Israel has come true,” the Hostage Families’ Forum said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the kidnapped.”
ABC News’ Guy Davies, Jordana Miller, Diaa Ostaz, Samy Zyara, Dana Savir and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.
Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The European Union responded on Wednesday to the Trump administration’s metals tariffs, saying member states would place countermeasures on some 26 billion euros, or about $28 billion, worth of U.S. goods.
The U.S. at midnight began imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from all trading partners, with no exceptions or exemptions, the White House said.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement that the EU “must act to protect consumers and business.”
“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. “These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”
The European measures were designed to match the scope of those U.S. tariffs, which the European Union said would be worth about $28 billion. The countermeasures were expected to begin on April 1 and be fully in place by April 13, the commission said.
“In the meantime, we will always remain open to negotiation,” von der Leyen said.
The countermeasures comprise two steps, the first of which is to restore on April 1 a set of previously suspended 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. on a range of products.
For step two, member states will then put in place by mid-April new countermeasures targeting about 18 billion euros worth of U.S. goods entering the bloc.
Those new countermeasures will target both industrial and agricultural products, including steel and aluminum, home appliances, wood products, poultry, beef and other food imports, according to a fact sheet released on Wednesday.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, said European officials would continue working with their U.S. counterparts toward a “win-win” outcome, but the “unjustified tariffs on our exports will not go unanswered.”
“We should be making this great relationship stronger, not weaker,” he said in a statement.
