A Moscow court has sentenced three senior Russian law enforcement officers to lengthy prison terms following their conviction for embezzling over $350,000 from customers of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Garantex.
Police officers found guilty of major fraud and bribery
The Butyrsky District Court ruled that Antonina Shakina, a former senior investigator with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, along with Renat Bakhtiev and Leonid Golubev, both senior detectives from the Main Directorate’s Special Technical Measures Bureau, orchestrated a complex scheme to steal client assets.
Bakhtiev received a 14-year prison sentence, while Shakina and Golubev were sentenced to 12 years each. All three were fined 6.5 million rubles.
Authorities stated that the officers were found guilty of accepting bribes, producing forged documents, and abusing their offices. Shakina and Bakhtiev faced additional charges of large-scale fraud.
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AAPLThe court ordered the trio to pay more than 31 million rubles in compensation to three victims, recognizing the significant material damages they inflicted during the theft.
The primary offense involved the embezzlement of over 30 million rubles’ worth of funds from Garantex clients. The group allegedly relied on fabricated complaints and forged court orders to gain control over the targeted accounts.
Sophisticated scheme and wider implications
The investigation, launched in the spring of 2023, began after St. Petersburg resident Alexander Sazonov reported an attempt to steal nearly 25 million rubles from his Garantex deposit. Authorities connected the three Moscow officers to this case, as well as to the wrongful withdrawals from accounts belonging to Mikhail Korniychuk and Agakerim Gamzabekov.
Investigators revealed that the officers and their co-conspirators used fraudulent complaints to initiate the asset freeze. They then employed forged court rulings, enabling the transfer of both fiat and cryptocurrency to accounts they controlled through intermediaries.
All participants in the scheme were apprehended in October 2023. Additionally, the convicted officers were stripped of their ranks within the Ministry.
Ongoing legal aftermath and Garantex background
Defense attorneys have not yet responded to the verdicts. The unusually long sentences suggest that appeals are likely, though the court’s decision currently stands.
Garantex previously operated as a major Russian cryptocurrency exchange, with a business office in Moscow and registration in Estonia. The exchange provided crypto trading and cross-border transfer services before international sanctions led to its decline.
In recent years, Garantex faced increasing scrutiny over claims it enabled activity by sanctioned individuals, criminal groups, and darknet operators. In March 2025, Tether froze $27 million worth of USDT in wallets linked to the platform, and U.S. authorities seized its web infrastructure during a coordinated action.
The United States also imposed sanctions on Garantex founders and offered bounties for key executives, intensifying international enforcement measures targeting the company and its leadership.
Reports indicate that Grinex, a Kyrgyzstan-based exchange regarded as Garantex’s successor, has also faced sanctions by Western governments amid growing concerns about illicit cross-border transfers in the crypto sector.
As the crackdown on shadowy financial networks expands, traditional markets are witnessing a parallel evolution. Wall Street’s move toward Web3 is reshaping how assets are held, with platforms like 1stepSwap enabling investors to directly store tokenized shares of U.S. companies, gold, and silver in crypto wallets while removing intermediaries and instantly finding the best market prices.
