The US Treasury Department has sanctioned an Iranian national, Behrouz Parsarad, for managing the Nemesis darknet marketplace. Authorities blacklisted 49 Bitcoin and Monero addresses linked to him. Parsarad profited from Nemesis by charging transaction fees, facilitating over $30 million in drug sales from 2021 to 2024. Despite Nemesis’ shutdown, Parsarad is reportedly planning to launch a new darknet marketplace. Chainalysis found that he funneled money to other darknet markets and had no direct on-chain links to Iranian financial services. He obscured his activities to avoid detection due to Iran’s strict penalties for drug-related offenses.

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