Golden Finance reported that federal prosecutors in Illinois have charged Thomas Pavey and Raheim Hamilton with operating the darknet market Empire Market. The prosecution alleges that they conducted a total of $430 million in transactions through the platform from 2018 to 2020, allowing users to anonymously purchase drugs and stolen credit card information using cryptocurrency. The two were previously detained for selling counterfeit currency on another darknet market, AlphaBay. The new charges include drug trafficking, computer fraud, forgery, and money laundering, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Law enforcement authorities seized $75 million worth of cryptocurrency, cash, and precious metals during the investigation.