Dark Web Investigation Results in Charges Against 19 People
Four years after a dark web marketplace was shutdown, federal officials announced they have charged 19 people over the past few years, for their role in facilitating the marketplace.
The announcement of the charges marks the “culmination” of the years long transnational investigation into the xDedic Marketplace.
The xDedic Marketplace was taken down in January 2019, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa Division) seized the website’s domain names and infrastructure, with help from international law enforcement partners like Europol, as well as law enforcement partners in Belgium, Ukraine, Germany, and the Netherlands.
At the time the site was busted, authorities said it was responsible for more than $68 million in fraud over five years of operation.
Selling Credentials
According to court documents, the xDedic Marketplace sold login credentials to servers around the world as well as personally identifiable information, including birthdates and Social Security numbers of U.S. residents.
More than 700,000 compromised servers were offered for sale on the marketplace, including 150,000 in the U.S. and at least 8,000 in Florida where the indictments were handed down.
Criminals who purchased the information used it to conduct a wide range of illegal activity including tax fraud and ransomware attacks.
xDedic suspects used cryptocurrency and other means to hide the locations of servers and the identities of administrators, sellers, and buyers.
Victims spanned the globe and included federal, state, and local government infrastructure, as well as hospitals, call centers, accounting and law firms, universities, and others.
Defendants Sentenced
To date, 14 people have been sentenced for their role in xDedic and five cases are still pending.
Those charged include xDedic administartors, buyers, and sellers.
Among the suspects is Russian national Dariy Pankov, who was one of the largest sellers on the marketplace by volume. Pankov was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 60 months in federal prison.
Another suspect is Nigerian national Allen Levinson who was a prolific buyer on the marketplace and had a “particular interest in purchasing access to U.S.-based Certified Public Accounting firms.” Prosecutors say Levinson used the information to file fake U.S. tax returns. Levinson was extradited to the U.S. from the U.K. and was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.