Dark web market boss gets 40 years and gives up 1,230 bitcoin, worth about $100 million

One of the people behind Empire Market, once a leading dark web drug bazaar, is going to prison for 40 years. US District Judge Steven C. Seeger sentenced Raheim Hamilton, 30, of Suffolk, Virginia, on Monday and fined him $5 million, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois said in an October 7 release.

Hamilton has agreed to forfeit about 1,230 bitcoin, 24.4 ether and three properties in Virginia. CoinDesk valued the bitcoin at about $101 million. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to a drug conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors said Hamilton and Thomas Pavey ran Empire Market from 2018 to 2020. The site handled more than 4 million transactions worth more than $430 million, including nearly $375 million in drug sales, among them fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. It also sold stolen account logins, personal data, counterfeit money and hacking tools. Buyers had to pay in crypto and were encouraged to use mixing services to hide the trail.

Pavey, 41, of Ormond Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty last year. He has agreed to forfeit about 1,584 bitcoin, two boxes of 25-ounce gold bars, three cars and two Florida properties, and is due to be sentenced by the same judge later this month.

What to watch: Pavey's sentencing later in October.