Treasury sanctions Iranian national behind defunct Nemesis darknet marketplace

The Iran-based administrator behind a darknet marketplace was sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Tuesday, one year after the platform was taken down in a law enforcement operation. 

Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad was accused by U.S. officials of being the sole administrator behind Nemesis, a platform that allegedly allowed cybercriminals and drug traffickers to sell their wares and launder the resulting funds. 

“As the administrator of the Nemesis darknet marketplace, 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,” said acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith, who noted that Treasury worked with U.S. law enforcement agencies on the action.  

German police worked with agencies in the U.S. and Lithuania on a year-and-a-half-long investigation that led to the seizure of infrastructure used to run Nemesis in two March 2024 raids.

The platform was founded in 2021 and had more than 150,000 users before it was shut down, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), or German federal police, said last year. German officials said they believed almost 20% of the estimated 1,100 sellers on the platform were based in Germany. 

The site offered an array of drugs, compromised data, fake documents and cybercrime services that included ransomware, phishing and DDoS capabilities. 

On Tuesday, the Treasury Department said the platform facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of drugs around the world between 2021 and 2024. Traffickers on the site allegedly sold fentanyl on its own and laced into other drugs. 

Parsarad had full control of the marketplace and all of its virtual currency wallets, earning money from fees he charged for each transaction made on the site. The Treasury Department believes Parsarad made millions from the site and from laundering cryptocurrencies on behalf of trackers and cybercriminals. 

U.S. officials noted that since Nemesis was taken down, Parsarad “has discussed setting up a new darknet marketplace to take the place of Nemesis with vendors that were once active on the marketplace.”

The sanctions on Parsarad included the identification of 49 blockchain addresses used by him to store and launder funds. U.S. officials said this is the first action taken by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of the FBI-led Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement Team.

Law enforcement agencies have increased the tempo of darknet marketplace takedowns in recent years in an effort to limit the amount of platforms available to drug traffickers and cybercriminals. 

The takedown of Nemesis came after global law enforcement operations against criminal marketplaces like Genesis, Hydra, Sipultie, Bohemia, Empire, xDedic, Kingdom, Piilopuoti and more.