Alleged Nemesis Market founder charged by federal grand jury with money laundering, drug distribution

Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad was charged by a federal grand jury on Tuesday for his role in founding and running a well-known dark web marketplace used to sell drugs and cybercriminal services. 

According to a Justice Department indictment, the 36-year-old Tehran native launched Nemesis Market in March 2021 and allegedly processed more than 400,000 orders through 2024 that included fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and more. 

Nemesis Market had more than 150,000 users and about 1,100 vendor accounts that offered an array of drugs, stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, counterfeit currencies and malware. The Treasury Department said last month that Parsarad “facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million worth of drugs.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department said Persaud remains at large.

Matthew Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement that U.S. officials worked with German and Lithuanian law enforcement to seize servers and other infrastructure in order to shut down Nemesis Market in March 2024. Officials in Turkey and the British Virgin Islands also assisted with the operation. 

“Nemesis Market, through the darknet, was a borderless powerhouse of criminal activity that not only fueled the drug epidemic, but also a multitude of illegal acts with the capacity to harm our citizens and destroy our communities,” FBI Cleveland Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Johnston added. 

U.S. officials tracked more than 55,000 orders of methamphetamine, cocaine and crack cocaine alongside about 17,000 orders of opioids. Government agents purchased drugs off of Nemesis Market and used labs to confirm that they were mixtures containing fentanyl and other dangerous substances. 

Parsarad has been charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and distribution of controlled substances as well as money laundering conspiracy. He is facing a maximum penalty of life in prison. 

Last month, the Treasury Department sanctioned Parsarad, noting that he has tried to reestablish the platform since it was taken down last year. 

Parsarad allegedly 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.