US Sanctions Target Darknet Marketplace Nemesis Wallets

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses linked to the defunct darknet marketplace Nemesis Market to its SDN list.

The press release states that these addresses were controlled by Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, who was allegedly the platform’s administrator.

On March 20, 2024, the BKA seized the infrastructure of Nemesis Market in Germany and Lithuania, disrupting its operations. The police confiscated digital assets worth €94,000.

The investigation began in October 2022.

Established in 2021, the platform traded in drugs, stolen data, credit cards, and cybercriminal services, including ransomware, phishing, and DDoS attacks.

Before its closure, Nemesis had an audience of 30,000 active users who conducted transactions involving banned substances worth approximately $30 million.

According to OFAC, Parsarad earned millions of dollars in commissions from these transactions and facilitated the laundering of digital assets.

The administrator remains at large. The agency reports that Parsarad might have “discussed creating a new darknet market” with former suppliers.

In April 2022, German police seized the servers of the Hydra darknet marketplace and confiscated 543 BTC, while the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the platform.

In the same month, a US court charged Russian Dmitry Pavlov in absentia with administering Hydra, providing hosting services, conspiracy to launder money, and drug distribution. At that time, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court arrested Pavlov on a separate charge.

In December 2024, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced Hydra founder Stanislav Moiseev to life imprisonment and a fine of 4 million rubles.