Dozens of Bitcoin and Monero addresses have been added to the U.S. government's list of sanctioned entities

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified 49 virtual currency addresses used by Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad

The U.S. government has imposed sanctions on dozens of Bitcoin and Monero addresses allegedly linked to Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, the alleged administrator of the Nemesis darknet marketplace.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified 49 virtual currency addresses used by Parsarad. In total, 44 Bitcoin and five Monero addresses were subject to the sanctions. Monero is a privacy coin designed to shield transaction details and other identifying information.

Parsarad was subject to an international law enforcement operation in March to take down Nemesis, which had around 30,000 active users and facilitated the sale of nearly $30 million in narcotics during its three years of operation.

“Parsarad enriched himself from fees he charged users of Nemesis with every transaction, pocketing what OFAC estimates to be millions of dollars over the course of the marketplace’s existence,” OFAC stated. “In addition to providing criminals with a platform to conduct transactions, Parsarad laundered virtual currencies for narcotics traffickers and cybercriminals active on Nemesis.”

Nemesis sold an array of drugs, personal identifying data, forged documents and ransomware as well as cybercrime services like phishing and DDoS tools. It also reportedly had a forum where topics like "explosives and firearms" were discussed.

The sanctions are allegedly tied to President Donald Trump’s December 2019 Executive Order looking to stamp out the fentanyl trade. Parsarad does not appear to have been apprehended and has allegedly “discussed setting up a new darknet marketplace” with former vendors, OFAC claims.

The Treasury Department has worked to take down a number of darknet sites in recent years. In April 2022, law enforcement agents shuttered Hydra Market, which was seen as the largest bust since the Silk Road was taken offline in 2013.

In January, Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had served over seven years of his life sentence. He was arrested in 2015 and charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit crimes against the United States and continuing criminal enterprise.