Founder of dark web's Nemesis Market charged with cryptocurrency money laundering and other crimes

TechFlow news, April 22 — According to a U.S. Department of Justice announcement, Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad has been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury for operating the darknet marketplace Nemesis Market, charged with distribution of controlled pharmaceuticals and money laundering. The platform provided cryptocurrency laundering services for illegal transactions via coin mixing services and accepted only cryptocurrency payments.

In March 2024, U.S. law enforcement, in coordination with German and Lithuanian authorities, seized Nemesis Market. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Parsarad. If convicted, Parsarad faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment.