Empire Market co-creator sentenced to 40 years

Raheim Hamilton was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and fined $5 million for his role in Empire Market, a dark web marketplace that prosecutors said facilitated more than $430 million in transactions. U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed the sentence on October 5, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Prosecutors said Empire Market handled more than four million transactions from 2018 to 2020. Drug sales accounted for nearly $375 million of the platform’s activity, they said. The marketplace also offered stolen account credentials and personal information, counterfeit currency and hacking tools. Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, pleaded guilty to a federal drug-conspiracy charge. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said he agreed to forfeit approximately 1,230 bitcoin, 24.4 ether and three properties in Virginia. The office’s forfeiture figure refers to the assets he agreed to surrender; the sentence also includes the separate $5 million fine. Prosecutors said Hamilton and Thomas Pavey operated the marketplace together and required transactions to use cryptocurrency.