Two Men Indicted in Chicago Over $430M Empire Market Operation

Federal authorities in Chicago have charged two men in custody, Thomas Pavey and Raheim Hamilton, with running the illicit dark web platform Empire Market ¹. A superseding indictment unsealed in federal court alleges the pair owned and managed the platform from 2018 until 2020, processing approximately four million illicit transactions valued at more than $430 million ¹. Both defendants face federal charges of conspiring to commit drug trafficking, computer fraud, access device fraud, counterfeiting, and money laundering ¹.

According to prosecutors, Pavey and Hamilton previously collaborated on the shuttered darknet platform AlphaBay, where they sold counterfeit U.S. currency ¹. Following the 2017 shutdown of AlphaBay, the duo launched Empire Market in February 2018 ¹. The site operated as an escrow-based marketplace designed to emulate AlphaBay’s interface, allowing customers to purchase narcotics including cocaine, LSD, heroin, and methamphetamine, as well as stolen credit cards and malware ¹. Transactions were settled in cryptocurrency, and buyers subsequently rated transactions on parameters such as seller stealth ¹.

Multimillion-Dollar Asset Seizures

Investigators recovered cash, precious metals, and $75 million worth of cryptocurrency at the time of the seizures during the multi-agency operation ¹. The probe was conducted jointly by Homeland Security Investigations New York, the FBI Chicago field office, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, alongside HSI New York’s El Dorado Task Force ¹. TRM Labs’ blockchain intelligence team noted that Empire Market maintained broad exposure to Western virtual asset service providers, crypto mixers, and unhosted wallets before abruptly shutting down in an exit scam in August 2020 ¹.

The indictment comes amid broader prosecutorial efforts against the platform's leadership, following prior enforcement actions such as the case where the DOJ announced a 40-year prison sentence for Empire Market's co-creator. Pavey and Hamilton remain in federal custody as proceedings continue in federal court in Chicago ¹.