German Citizen Charged with Laundering Funds Linked to Prominent Darknet Marketplace “Dream Market”


Owe Martin Andresen, the suspected main administrator of Dream Market, one of the largest illicit darknet marketplaces before its 2019 shutdown, has been indicted for an alleged scheme to launder funds from Dream Market’s administrator accounts. Andresen was arrested last week in Germany on parallel charges brought by the German government.

“Andresen allegedly channeled commissions earned from selling illegal drugs, stolen personally identifiable information, counterfeit identification documents, and other items through cryptocurrency wallets and even converted his ill-gotten gains into gold bars,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “Thanks to the close coordination between federal and German law enforcement, Andresen and his co-conspirators will no longer profit from the online sales of narcotics and fraud services, and Andresen will be prosecuted in both Germany and the United States as a result of his actions.”

Read more…
Source:  U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • International team takes down virus-spewing Andromeda botnet

    December 5, 2017

    Police and private companies have taken down a massive botnet used to move malware onto compromised PCs. The Andromeda botnet, also known as Gamarue, is thought to have spanned over two million PCs and distributed over 80 types of malware onto infected PCs. It was shut down on November 29 in a combined operation by Europol, ...

  • Fast-growing cyber crime threatens financial sector: Europol

    November 8, 2017

    The “remorseless” growth of cyber crime is leading to 4,000 ransom attacks a day and gangs’ technological capability now threatens critical parts of the financial sector, the head of Europol said on Wednesday. Online criminals have become so sophisticated that gangs have created “conglomerations” with company structures that specialize in different criminal activities to carry out ...

  • British Police Arrest At Least 3,395 People for ‘Offensive’ Online Comments in One Year

    October 14, 2017

    Figures obtained by The Times through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 3,395 people across 29 forces were arrested last under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which makes it illegal to intentionally “cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another”, in 2016. The true figure is likely to be significantly higher, as thirteen ...

  • Cyber-security threat to UK ‘as serious as terrorism’ – GCHQ

    October 9, 2017

    Keeping the UK safe from cyber-attacks is now as important as fighting terrorism, the head of the intelligence monitoring service GCHQ has said. Jeremy Fleming said increased funding for GCHQ was being spent on making it a “cyber-organisation” as much as an intelligence and counter-terrorism one. It comes after the NHS and parliament suffered cyber-attacks this year. Mr ...

  • How cyber impacts the full spectrum of terror threats

    September 27, 2017

    Despite the immediate logistical demands of three catastrophic hurricanes in the last two months and various geopolitical flashpoints, cybersecurity remains a key issue and very much on the minds of top federal defenders. “There is no longer a ‘home game’ and an ‘away game,'” for homeland security, DHS Acting Secretary Elaine Duke said at a Sept. ...

  • Banker helped gang launder £16m for cybercriminals

    September 20, 2017

    A gang of five men, including a corrupt banker, have pleaded guilty to their part in laundering more than £16m for international cybercriminals. Using their man on the inside at Barclays, the gang set up around 400 bank accounts over a three-year period, according to the UK’s National Crime Agency. They shuffled stolen funds through these accounts ...