A Dutch nationwide often acknowledged as 'Mr Dark' - who allegedy made $1.6 million in cryptocurrency from net hosting violent rape and baby porn movies - has been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury inside the District of Columbia.
Michael Rahim Mohammed, 32, allegedly operated the 'Dark Scandals' web site, which has operated on each the darknet and the traditional net since 2012.
The website hosted greater than 2000 movies and pictures, and marketed that it supplied "real blackmail, rape and forced videos of girls all around the world."
Users may take out the unlawful content material - delivered in e-mail 'packs' for obtain - with Bitcoin or Ethereum, or by importation their very own movies to the content material library. In whole the positioning obtained 1650 deposits of cryptocurrency, together with 188 Bitcoin and 26.7 Ether.
Site guidelines prohibited faux sexual violence
The website's guidelines prohbited "fake, amateur...or acted movies", insisted on "real rape/forced content", and said a choice for "own made material."
But whereas cryptocurrency helped fund the positioning, it additionally recorded the main points of the crime on the blockchain.
Law enforcement companies have been in a position to observe 303 Bitcoin and Ethereum accounts that paid cryptocurrency to the positioning utilizing Chainalysis dealings trace package program. A forfeiture criticism seeks to get better the cash in hand and provides the yield to the victims.
The criticism notes many accounts have been opened strictly for the one dealings and had incomplete KYC verification. But the evaluation helped establish different illicit dealingss too:
"Law enforcement determined many payments from these accounts to other darknet markets, which were flagged by blockchain analytics companies, facultative law enforcement to identify illicit dealingss."
Darknet not so darkish
The website was introduced down after a world investigation was launched together with US investigators, the Dutch National Police, Europol, and the German Federal Criminal Police.
Michael Rahim Mohammed has been charged with distribution of kid porn, manufacturing and transportation of obscene issues on the market or distribution, active inside the enterprise of promoting or transferring obscene matter, and laundering of commercial enterprise devices.
Chief Don Fort of IRS Criminal Investigation explicit the case ought to function a warning to different criminals that officers can shine a lightweight on the darknet:
"Criminals should know if you leave a digital footprint, we will find you. If you exploit our children, we will put you behind bars. If you thought you were anonymous, think again. The dark web is not quite as dark now ascribable the hard work of IRS-CI and our partner agencies."
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