Empire Market Co-Creator Sentenced to 40 Years Over $430M Dark Web Bazaar

In brief

• Raheim Hamilton, co-creator of darknet marketplace Empire Market, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and fined $5 million.
• The site facilitated more than four million transactions worth over $430 million between 2018 and 2020, all of them paid in crypto.
• Hamilton agreed to forfeit about 1,230 Bitcoin, and co-creator Thomas Pavey is due to be sentenced later this month.

A co-creator of darknet marketplace Empire Market has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said Wednesday.

Raheim Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger in Chicago, and fined $5 million. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge.

Hamilton co-owned and operated Empire Market with Thomas Pavey from 2018 to 2020. In that time, the site facilitated more than four million transactions between vendors and buyers worth more than $430 million.

Drug sales dominated, totaling nearly $375 million, and included at least 13.3 kilograms of fentanyl, 447 kilograms of cocaine and 103 kilograms of heroin. The site also sold stolen account credentials and personal information, counterfeit currency and hacking tools.