The United States has sanctioned Behrouz Parsarad, the founder and administrator of the darknet site Nemesis. Forty-nine crypto wallets belonging to Parsarad were sanctioned as well. Nemesis itself was shut down last year.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions on Parsrad and his wallets on allegations that Nemesis sold almost $30 million in illicit drugs between 2021 and 2024. The site had 30,000 active users and 1,000 vendors. 

OFAC sanctioned 49 crypto addresses along with Parsarad

Nemesis also provided such services as professional hacking services and the sale of false identification documents. Parsarad used the site to launder cryptocurrency for its users.

Parsarad, an Iranian citizen living in Teheran, collected fees from users that OFAC estimated amounted to millions of dollars during its operation from 2021 to 2024. He was the sole administrator of the site.

“Parsarad sought to build — and continues to try to re-establish — a safe haven to facilitate the production, sale, and shipment of illegal narcotics like fentanyl and other synthetic opioids,”  Acting Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said.

Chainalysis said the 44 Bitcoin wallets designated by OFAC on March 4 received more than $850,000 between July 2022 and March 2024 and sent more than $1.6 million from them, apparently taking advantage of the recent Bitcoin price surge. Parsarad also had five Monero wallets.

Nemesis was shut down in March 2024 when U.S., German and Lithuanian law enforcement seized its servers. Parsarad kept a low profile in Iran, since drug offenses there carry punishments up to the death penalty. According to OFAC, Parsarad was discussing the revival of Nemesis’ services with vendors who had been active on it.

Other darknet marketplaces have been sanctioned

OFAC said in its announcement that this was the latest of several actions to combat drug trafficking on the darknet. It sanctioned Hydra Market in April 2022 and Genesis Market in April 2023. 

Authorities also targeted Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, which laundered $700 million in crypto for Hydra users. Genesis also used a third-party payment processor. Bitzlato founder and majority owner Anatoly Legkodymov pleaded guilty in the United States to operating a money transmitting business in December 2023.

The first darknet marketplace was Silk Road, established in 2011 by Ross Ulbricht and closed down in 2013. The U.S. government seized 174,000 BTC in that case and still holds them. Ulbricht received two life sentences in prison in that case, but U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned him this year. 

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