Owner of Empire cybercrime market gets 40 years in prison

The co-creator of Empire Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces before its shutdown, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for facilitating $430 million in illegal transactions from 2018 to 2020.

30-year-old Raheim Hamilton (also known online as "Sydney" and "ZeroAngel") owned and operated Empire Market from August 2017 until its abrupt shutdown in 2020 amid persistent extortion-based DDoS waves, which prompted exit-scam claims after users weren't given time to withdraw funds from their escrow accounts.

Between June 2016 and July 2017, Hamilton also sold on AlphaBay (a notorious dark web marketplace that shut down in 2017) under the "ZeroAngel" username.

Empire Market operated as a hidden service on the dark web accessible only via TOR browsers and was modeled and advertised as an AlphaBay clone.

Together with co-defendant Thomas Pavey (aka "Dopenugget"), who also pleaded guilty last year to a federal drug conspiracy charge, Hamilton facilitated more than 4 million transactions between vendors and buyers.

While the cybercrime market also sold counterfeit currency, stolen account credentials, computer hacking tools, and personally identifiable information, drug sales represented the most prevalent activity, totaling nearly $375 million over the site's lifespan with over 166,000 listings for controlled substances alone.

At its peak in August 2020, the marketplace had roughly 1.68 million unique registered users, including more than 5,000 vendors and nearly 360,000 buyers.

When he pleaded guilty in January, Hamilton admitted that Empire Market was designed to help users avoid law enforcement detection and launder money, as all transactions were conducted in cryptocurrency to maintain the users' anonymity.

"The controlled substances sold on the market included approximately at least 13,314.23 grams of fentanyl, 446,683.15 grams of cocaine, 71,992.33 grams of methamphetamine, and 103,396.21 grams of heroin," the Department of Justice said.

"Hamilton and Pavey established that all transactions on the site must be conducted using only cryptocurrency. They encouraged users to use tumbling and mixing services to conceal cryptocurrency transactions and utilize encryption while communicating on the site. They also allowed users to rate vendors based on how well the vendors concealed the drugs they shipped."

According to court documents, the two accomplices also hired moderators to resolve disputes between customers and vendors, with Hamilton supervising approximately 5 moderators and even personally handling some cases​​​.

The plea agreement also revealed that law enforcement agents made multiple undercover purchases between April 2019 and May 2020 (buying at least 143.5 grams of methamphetamine and 105.4 grams of heroin) and intercepted a package containing 443.5 grams of methamphetamine ordered on Empire Market.

When the U.S. Justice Department charged the two defendants in July 2024, it also announced that authorities had already seized $75 million worth of cryptocurrency during the investigation.

Hamilton has also agreed to forfeit three Virginia properties and approximately 1,230 bitcoin and 24.4 Ether, while Pavey (who will also be sentenced later this month) agreed to forfeit two Florida properties, approximately 1,584 bitcoin, two boxes containing 25-ounce gold bars, and three cars.