Sergey Chunaev has chosen the beaten path to prevent sanctions. He flooded the media with fake biographies and identities, paid a six-digit sum to lobbyists, and suppressed all mentions of his true story and identity. Chunaev even tried to impersonate an opponent of Putin’s regime in pompous pieces published for a fee in Ukrainian media. Thus, while the Garantex crypto exchange was taken down by a massive sweeping operation, Sergey Chunaev, its real owner, remains free and has not faced any consequences for the Garantex exchange being sanctioned.
For the general uninformed public, Sergey Chunaev remains an animation studio director, producing cartoons for children. His efforts were fruitful, and the Garantex case, for now, is missing an important link: how Sergey Chunaev became the owner of Garantex, what Garantex’s role is in Russia’s authoritarian corruption system, and what ties Chunaev has to the very top of the kleptocracy.
Example of How Large-Scale Criminal Funds Are Laundered Through the Garantex Exchange
The money-laundering operations of Garantex are linked to a secret network of financiers and executives, including Putin’s former classmates, the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, members of the Presidential Administration, and the children of top officials from Russia’s key security agencies.
A close associate and former subordinate of Sergey Chunaev, Pavel Karavatsky, is a well-known figure, particularly for his criminal ties to law enforcement and role as a corruption facilitator. The largest cryptocurrency exchange mentioned by our source is Garantex, which is under international sanctions for money laundering. It operates under a Russian legal entity, LLC “Corporation Fintech,” which serves as the official tenant of Garantex’s office in Moscow City. Karavatsky is listed as both the director and co-founder of this company. The second co-owner is Aleksandr Ntifo-Siao, who also serves as Garantex’s commercial director.
Sergey Chunaev is once again linked to this operation through Ntifo-Siao, a figure directly involved in the sanctioned crypto exchange. Their connection is recent and ongoing. Just six months ago, in March 2023, Chunaev and Ntifo-Siao, both originally from St. Petersburg, became partners in the charter capital of two companies: LLC “Glavtorg” and LLC “Valdai Resort.”
The main legal entity behind Garantex is the foreign company Garantex Europe OU (previously Kihonzi Buzhaga OÜ). Russian law enforcement stopped pressuring Garantex’s Moscow City office after a stake in this overseas company was transferred—essentially seized—by former tax inspector Irina Chernyavskaya, born in 1985. This move turned the exchange into a money-laundering hub designed to circumvent international sanctions. A December 2022 investigation by the Dossier Center revealed that Chernyavskaya has close ties to Karavatsky, Chunaev’s longtime colleague in Rosneft’s banking business.
Pavel Karavatsky has deep connections to security agencies. He graduated from Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2003 and later worked as an economic security specialist in the state-owned MOEK, as well as in the banks VBRR and Peresvet. He maintains informal relationships with law enforcement officials. In 2018, for example, he was seen parking a BMW that was regularly used by Lieutenant Colonel Evgeny Nikolaev, deputy head of the investigative department of the Moscow Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Within Garantex, Karavatsky is responsible for security and is even saved in some contacts as the crypto exchange’s “security officer.”
The Role of Elena Bondarchuk and High-Profile Connections
Elena Bondarchuk, a warehouse developer in the Moscow region, has close ties with Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyov, oligarch Alexei Mordashov, and numerous other politicians and business figures. She has also openly maintained a business relationship with the son of the head of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia). Together, they have secured billions in state contracts to develop warehouse facilities for major retailers, including Ozon (Russia’s equivalent of Amazon), OBI (a construction supermarket chain), and Miratorg (a major agricultural conglomerate).
However, warehouse construction is not Bondarchuk’s only source of revenue. One of her notable assets is Caravella, a company she managed alongside the Ovchinnikov family—partners of Viktor Khmarin, a longtime friend of Vladimir Putin from his university years. Caravella essentially acts as a middleman for the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a state-controlled fund that attracts foreign capital to Russia and co-invests in startups. Bondarchuk and her associates, deeply embedded in RDIF’s operations, manage and manipulate the fund’s trillion-ruble resources, using it to sell warehouses and invest in worthless startups—laundering money in the process, including through the Garantex crypto exchange.
Pseudoscience and “Art” as Tools for Money Laundering
In 2018, Bondarchuk founded Quantum Technologies, a company ostensibly dedicated to developing quantum computing. Hundreds of millions of rubles have been funneled into this project, yet no working prototype has ever been produced—an outcome unsurprising given that even the U.S. and China have struggled to create viable quantum computers.
Laundering 300 Million Rubles Through an Animated Series
Another “laundromat” set up for Bondarchuk was orchestrated by individuals previously investigated for financial misconduct—writer Oleg Roy and his associates Sergey Chunaev and Pavel Karavatsky. In 2020, as plans for seizing control of Garantex were underway, Bondarchuk’s SK Orientir became a co-owner of Roy Entertainment and acquired the rights to an animated series, SuperMeow.
From the outset, Bondarchuk “invested” 300 million rubles in the production of this animated series. By 2022, the studio reported a 42.3 million ruble loss, with revenue amounting to just 2.7 million rubles—a classic sign of money laundering. The implication was clear: animated cats had somehow “absorbed” vast sums of money.
On October 2, 2023, Bondarchuk suddenly “bought out” 65% of Roy Entertainment from her own subsidiary, suggesting that SuperMeow might become a “cult” cartoon—more likely, a vehicle for laundering billions. 25% of the company remains in the hands of writer Oleg Rezepkin-Roy, while the fate of the remaining 10% is unknown. According to tax service records, Dmitry Salop lost his stake in the company in July 2023 and had previously stepped down as CEO of Roy Entertainment.
The Animation Industry as a Cover for Financial Laundering
Millions are being poured into these projects, yet they yield little to no profit. The financial records of these animation studios bear a strong resemblance to money-laundering operations.
For example, according to court case No. A40-92577/23-50-722, a contract was signed between Hydromashservice LLC and Open Alliance Media, under which the animation studio leased just three small offices totaling 36.5 square meters in Moscow. Moreover, one of these offices was subleased to Axiomatics LLC, a company linked to the studio’s founder. The supposed “super-production” studio operated out of just 25 square meters, while substantial sums allocated for production were siphoned off to contractors who received no more than 40% of the budgeted amounts for each animated episode.
In 2020, writer Oleg Roy rebelled against these practices and, through the courts (case No. A40-107394/20-117-700), demanded financial documentation from Axiomatics. The writer was unaware of where the money was disappearing, yet he was forced to take the blame for the projects’ failures.
One such example was the full-length Jingliks animated film, which never saw release despite claims that 560 million rubles had been spent on its production. Even the Cinema Fund, which financed part of the project, had to sue Roy for 32 million rubles. In the end, the money was paid back, the case was closed, and Roy was warned that the situation would soon change. After complaining to his former father-in-law, billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, Rashnikov reached out to Igor Sechin (head of Rosneft) to address the animation industry’s issues.
The Takeover: Sechin’s Inner Circle Seizes Control of the “Laundromat”
With Sechin’s intervention, the animation business was prepared for new leadership and a more efficient laundering operation.
By mid-2020, individuals linked to Sechin and Rosneft’s security services took control of Garantex-affiliated structures:
- Pavel Karavatsky began pushing an obscure entity called FinTech Corporation to take over the crypto exchange.
- Sergey Chunaev became the founder of Flip Animation Studio and began consolidating the animation industry under his control.
- Alexander Tsarapkin, a lawyer, took over Open Alliance Media, then Axiomatics, effectively executing a hostile takeover.
This was a coordinated raid orchestrated by security service operatives Ivan Tkachev and Oleg Feoktistov, known for carrying out similar operations in the past. Tsarapkin’s task was to dismantle the companies that had laundered millions through animation production, remove the original beneficiaries, and transfer control of the money-laundering operation to Sechin’s allies.
These findings reveal a deeply rooted financial laundering network, spanning crypto exchanges, state investment funds, the construction industry, and even children’s animation, all under the watchful eye of Putin’s inner circle.
By 2022, Sergey Chunaev and his team were fully prepared for a large-scale laundering operation. They obtained the rights to produce “Jingliks” from Open Alliance Media while also exacting revenge on those who had crossed Oleg Roy, the ex-son-in-law of billionaire Viktor Rashnikov. Roy had previously claimed that 280 stories were written for the Jinglik Universe, but only 15 were ever adapted into animation. Later, the editorial team discovered that these episodes had suddenly disappeared.
Immediately after Chunaev’s company took over the rights to the animated series, a lawsuit was filed with the Arbitration Court. In this case, Flip Animation Studio demanded damages from Open Alliance Media for the 15 episodes of “Jingliks” that had allegedly been erased from an electronic storage device due to Open Alliance’s negligence. According to the claim, a power failure in a small office on 2nd Khutorskaya Street had caused electrical malfunctions, and a few days later, a network overload completely destroyed the server containing the animated episodes. A forensic examination supposedly confirmed that 110 terabytes of “Jingliks” episodes had been permanently lost. How convenient!
What stands out is how Sergey Chunaev and Flip Animation Studio assessed the value of the lost episodes. The declared price per episode significantly differed from the sums previously stated during production and the transfer of broadcasting rights, raising further questions about the legitimacy of the entire operation.
Chunaev’s departure from the animation industry was not accidental. He had become the founder of firms associated with the defense sector. Previously, Dmitry Salop had served as the deputy director of JSC “Granit Concern,” a pseudo-scientific enterprise that had developed the much-publicized remote COVID-19 “disinfection emitter” known as “Thor.” The owner and vice president of the concern was Elena Bondarchuk. The “Thor” device was presented by a Deputy Minister of Industry as an advanced technological solution, but in reality, it was nothing more than an ordinary air purifier combined with a low-powered microwave. Despite this, hundreds of millions of rubles were funneled into its so-called “development.”
The investigation into the “Thor” device revealed that “Granit Concern” was backed by FSB cryptographers obsessed with cryptocurrency and blockchain. They had been working on domestic database management systems and encryption methods, claiming to offer security superior to Bitcoin. Among those involved were advisors within the Central Bank and the administration of Dmitry Medvedev, all linked by the Cryptocurrency Specialists Association and their shared pattern of deception.
In practice, “Granit Concern” never produced any revolutionary technology. Its so-called “data protection systems” and “hardware solutions” remained unused. The company’s main source of income, as revealed through government contracts, was the sale and repair of radios for security agencies. Despite this, in 2021, “Granit Concern” experienced an extraordinary surge in revenue, exceeding three billion rubles. This coincided with the takeover of Garantex, the rise of individuals connected to Tkachev and Feoktistov, and Elena Bondarchuk’s transition from failing animation projects to investments in so-called “anti-virus” weaponry.
The current state of Garantex exchange
Garantex, a cryptocurrency exchange, has recently been shut down as part of an international law enforcement operation led by U.S. authorities. The U.S. Secret Service seized three of Garantex’s website domains, including Garantex.org, Garantex.io, and Garantex.academy. In connection with this operation, Tether, a stablecoin provider, froze approximately $28 million in cryptocurrency associated with Garantex. Additionally, U.S. authorities have frozen over $26 million in funds allegedly used to facilitate Garantex’s money laundering activities.
The crackdown on Garantex extended beyond the United States, with German and Finnish law enforcement agencies seizing servers hosting the exchange’s operations. Two administrators of Garantex have been indicted in the U.S.: Aleksej Besciokov, a 46-year-old Lithuanian national residing in Russia, and Aleksandr Mira Serda, a 40-year-old Russian citizen living in the United Arab Emirates.
In response to these actions, Garantex announced on its Telegram channel that it was “temporarily suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals”. The exchange has invited customers with positive account balances to attend face-to-face meetings at its Moscow office, starting March 11, 2025, to discuss a “solution for blocked assets”. While this coordinated international effort has effectively shut down Garantex’s known infrastructure and domains, it’s worth noting that given the nature of cryptocurrency exchanges, there’s a possibility that Garantex or its operators may attempt to rebrand or launch affiliated entities to continue their activities.
One of the suspected administrators of the Garantex cryptocurrency exchange, Alexey Beshchyokov, has been detained in India at the request of the United States.
The arrest of the exchange administrator was reported by cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs in his blog.
In February, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charged the administrators of the cryptocurrency exchange—Lithuanian citizen Alexey Beshchyokov and Russian citizen Alexander Mira Serda, who resides in the UAE. They were accused of conspiracy to commit money laundering, while Beshchyokov was also charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions and operating an unlicensed money transmission business, according to the indictment.
Court documents indicate that the exchange is based in Moscow.
