On March 5th, COINOTAG News reported that the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has officially sanctioned 49 cryptocurrency addresses linked to Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad. Parsarad is recognized as the administrator of the infamous darknet marketplace Nemesis. Among the sanctioned assets, 44 are identified as Bitcoin addresses, complemented by 5 Monero addresses.
Prior to its closure, Nemesis boasted approximately 30,000 active users and facilitated close to $30 million in illicit drug transactions during its three years of operation. OFAC reports indicate that Parsarad allegedly earned millions through transaction fees charged to users and is suspected of engaging in money laundering activities for drug traffickers and cybercriminals.
The platform enabled a plethora of illegal transactions, embracing the distribution of narcotics, personal identity information, counterfeit documents, ransomware, and various cybercrime tools such as phishing attacks and DDoS tools. The stringent actions by OFAC illustrate an ongoing commitment to combating the use of cryptocurrencies in facilitating illegal activities.