Co-creator of Empire Market dark web marketplace given 40-year sentence

Raheim Hamilton, a co-creator of the dark web marketplace Empire Market, was sentenced to 40 years in prison and ordered to forfeit over $100 million in bitcoin after pleading guilty to a drug conspiracy; prosecutors say Empire Market facilitated more than 4 million transactions totaling about $430 million—primarily drug sales—and was used to trade stolen credentials, counterfeit currency and malware, with law enforcement seizing substantial cryptocurrency and targeting other dark web platforms.