Co-creator of Empire Market dark web marketplace given 40-year sentence

The co-creator of a dark web cybercriminal forum called Empire Market was sentenced this week to 40 years in federal prison for his role in helping people sell drugs, hacking tools and stolen information. 

Raheim Hamilton, 30, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge and agreed to forfeit more than $100 million worth of Bitcoin and several properties in Virginia. On Monday U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger issued the 40-year sentence and fined him $5 million. 

The Virginia native partnered with Thomas Pavey in owning and operating Empire Market from 2018 to 2020. The platform quickly became popular among drug dealers and cybercriminals — allowing them to sell narcotics, stolen account credentials, stolen documents, fake currency and hacking tools. 

More than 4 million transactions were conducted on the site for a total volume of $430 million. The vast majority of activity involved drug sales, which accounted for about $375 million, according to prosecutors. 

Dealers sold troves of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

The platform grew in popularity because people could use encryption services to communicate and allowed users to launder money made from sales through cryptocurrency washing services called mixers. 

Pavey pleaded guilty last year and will be sentenced later this month. According to the indictment, the two first began working together on schemes to sell counterfeit U.S. currency on now-defunct dark web site AlphaBay. 

When that platform was shut down in 2017, Hamilton and Pavey created and began running Empire Market on February 1, 2018, prosecutors said. 

Empire Market was organized under categories like “Fraud,” “Drugs & Chemicals,” “Counterfeit Items,” and “Software & Malware.” The indictment says that in at least one instance, counterfeit U.S. currency was sold to a law enforcement agent directly on Empire Market.

The Justice Department previously said it seized $75 million worth of cryptocurrency over the course of their investigation into the platform and obtained cash as well as precious metals.

Empire Market suddenly disappeared in the summer of 2020, with operators stealing an estimated $30 million in bitcoin from users.

The Justice Department has prioritized dark web platform takedowns in recent years, targeting marketplaces such as BreachForums, BidenCash and Archetyp.

On Thursday, the DOJ also  announced a plea deal with a 42-year-old who ran Your Mule Cashout — a money laundering platform that organized a sophisticated network of 15,000 money mules and internet infrastructure that was used to launder at least $10 million stolen by hackers from 750 bank accounts. 

He was arrested in the Republic of Georgia before pleading guilty and is facing up to 50 years in jail.