Israeli man gets 8 years for role in 'Darknet' sales totaling hundreds of millions of dollars

An Israeli man will serve eight years in federal prison for his role in facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of drugs, firearms and stolen financial information on the dark web.

Tal Prihar pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy last year before Senior U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose. He was sentenced Tuesday.

Prihar’s original recommended sentencing range called for 11 years in prison, but the judge reduced the penalty based on Prihar’s acceptance of responsibility and agreement to not fight extradition when he was first arrested in France.

In addition to the prison term, Prihar, who has four children and a wife in Israel, must forfeit nearly $9 million in currency and assets.

Ambrose called the crime serious and sophisticated.

“You created shell companies across the world to conceal the money you were making,” she said.

Prihar and a co-defendant, Michael Phan, operated a website called DeepDotWeb from 2013 to 2019, according to the government. The site provided links to users to make illegal transactions anonymously online on the dark web or “Darknet.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Smolar told the court that Prihar and Phan facilitated the sale of illegal drugs, firearms and contraband to hundreds of thousands of users.

Each time a purchase was made, the men received a kickback in virtual currency. They made millions of dollars in commission, she said.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Prihar testified that initially he didn’t know what he was doing was illegal. But once he learned that it was, he continued out of “danger-seeking and greed.”

Prihar was arrested in France and held there until he agreed to be extradited to the Western District of Pennsylvania. He has been in custody in the United States for 27 months, according to his attorney, Michael Comber.

At the time of the arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh called it “the single most significant law enforcement disruption of the Darknet to date.”

Two of the largest online marketplaces, AlphaBay and Hansa, were seized by the Department of Justice and FBI and shut down.

Prihar apologized during the sentencing hearing and asked that he be given time served so that he could return to his family in Israel.

Smolar told the court that a sentence of time served “would do nothing to address the seriousness of the crime.”

Ambrose agreed that Prihar did not deserve a substantial reduction in his sentence, although she acknowledged the hardship his family has suffered since his arrest.

The case against Phan, who remains in Israel, is pending.