US Charges Operators and Users of Darknet Marketplace xDedic

The US Department of Justice has charged 19 individuals connected to the operations of the darknet marketplace xDedic.

The investigation, conducted with the cooperation of law enforcement agencies from the US, Belgium, Ukraine, Germany, and the Netherlands, led to the seizure of the platform’s domains and infrastructure in January 2019. Throughout its operation, xDedic facilitated fraudulent transactions amounting to over $68 million.

The marketplace administrators accepted cryptocurrency payments to conceal the identities of buyers and sellers.

xDedic sold stolen credentials for more than 700,000 compromised servers, as well as personal information of US residents, companies, and government institutions from various countries.

Twelve of the 19 defendants have already been sentenced, with the cases of five more soon to be heard in court, while two await extradition from the United Kingdom.

Among those convicted are two xDedic administrators—Moldovan Alexandru Habasescu and Ukrainian Pavel Kharmansky. They were sentenced to 41 and 30 months in prison, respectively.

The top seller on the platform, Russian Darii Pankov, earned over $350,000 in illicit profits from selling credentials for 35,000 compromised servers. He was sentenced to 60 months in prison.

The most active buyer on the marketplace was Nigerian citizen Allen Levinson, who sought access to American certified auditing firms. Using the acquired information, he claimed over $60 million in fraudulent tax refunds. He was sentenced to 78 months in prison.

In December 2023, German police shut down the darknet marketplace Kingdom Market, which sold drugs, malware, criminal services, and forged documents.