"Months later, in August 2023, Andresen allegedly used a cryptocurrency service provider based in Atlanta, Georgia to purchase gold bars from international companies using funds in the Consolidated Wallets and directed those companies to ship the gold bars to his home address in Germany," the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The criminal counts and potential penalties
Owe Martin Andresen, 49, has been indicted in the United States on a total of 12 federal counts: six counts of international concealment money laundering and six counts of concealment money laundering. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury, carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison for each of those counts, the Department of Justice said.
Separately, Andresen was arrested in Germany under charges of concealment money laundering that the source characterizes as "each also punishable by up to five years." The reporting ties the U.S. indictment to actions prosecutors allege took place after Dream Market ceased operations in 2019.
Alleged role in Dream Market and the marketplace's scale
Prosecutors allege Andresen was the marketplace's main administrator operating under the handle "Speedstepper." Dream Market Incognito Market was launched in November 2013 to provide anonymous access to illegal items and services and grew into one of the largest dark web marketplaces after the seizure of the Hansa and AlphaBay marketplaces. At its peak, Dream Market "grew to carry close to 100,000 listings at any given time," the DOJ said.
The Department of Justice attributes to the marketplace the facilitation of large quantities of illegal drugs until its shutdown in 2019, listing more than 450 kilograms of cocaine, 90 kilograms of heroin, 45 kilograms of methamphetamine, 25 kilograms of crack cocaine, 13 kilograms of oxycodone, and 36 kilograms of fentanyl.
The reporting notes that other high-ranking administrators who used the monikers "Oxymonster" and "KITT3N" were previously convicted following prosecutions led by the Department of Justice, while a mid-level administrator using the "GOWRON" handle was convicted after prosecution by the United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service.
Access to dormant cryptocurrency wallets and alleged use of private keys
According to the indictment as summarized by prosecutors, Andresen accessed dormant Dream Market cryptocurrency wallets in November and December 2022. Those wallets reportedly contained "millions of dollars in commission payments," which Andresen is alleged to have moved into new cryptocurrency wallets. Prosecutors say that activity "could have been carried out by only someone possessing the marketplace's original private keys."
The DOJ describes a sequence in which funds allegedly moved from what it calls "Consolidated Wallets" were later used to purchase physical assets — specifically gold bars — using a cryptocurrency service provider based in Atlanta, Georgia, and shipped to Andresen's German home address.
German searches, seizures, and the laundering timeline
German law enforcement identified additional money laundering transactions by Andresen inside Germany. The reporting states that, in total, Andresen is alleged to have laundered over $2 million between August 2023 and April 2025.
On May 7, 2026, searches of Andresen's residence and two other locations carried out by German authorities recovered approximately $1.7 million in gold bars that the DOJ alleges were purchased using Dream Market funds, more than $23,000 in cash, and evidence on bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets holding approximately $1.2 million in suspected Dream Market proceeds.
The reporting links those physical and financial seizures to the separate German criminal proceedings and to the U.S. indictment alleging international concealment and concealment money laundering.
What this means for law enforcement, technologists, and the public
- Law enforcement: The case shows cross-border coordination — U.S. indictments grounded in cryptocurrency movements and German searches yielding physical assets — and highlights prosecution strategies that trace digital commissions into tangible goods.
- Technologists and crypto-service providers: Prosecutors' contention that only holders of Dream Market's original private keys could have moved the dormant funds underscores the evidentiary role that wallet access and transaction histories play in building money-laundering cases.
- The public and victims of narcotics trafficking: The DOJ's accounting of quantities tied to Dream Market underscores the scale of illicit commerce the agency attributes to the marketplace prior to its 2019 shutdown and frames the criminal forfeiture and prosecution efforts that followed.
The allegations against Andresen tie long-dormant cryptocurrency holdings to a sequence of purchases and shipments that ended in the recovery of millions in physical assets and digital evidence. With concurrent German charges and a U.S. grand jury indictment, prosecutors will now seek to link the movements of funds and the possession of private keys to the operation of one of the dark web's largest marketplaces before its 2019 shutdown.
