DOJ Indicts Alleged Dream Market Admin Over $2M Gold Scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted 49-year-old German citizen Owe Martin Andresen on charges that he converted roughly $2 million in cryptocurrency tied to the darknet marketplace Dream Market into gold bars shipped to his home in Germany. Authorities report they seized about $1.7 million in gold bullion and $23,000 in cash at the time of his arrest.

Prosecutors allege Andresen operated under the online alias Speedstepper and was the long-unidentified main administrator of Dream Market. According to the indictment, he accessed wallets that had been dormant since the site closed and consolidated funds into new addresses in late 2022. Beginning in August 2023, investigators say he used an Atlanta-based cryptocurrency service to purchase gold from international dealers, who shipped the bullion directly to his German address.

Andresen was arrested in Germany on May 7. The U.S. indictment contains 12 criminal counts, each carrying a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. German authorities have filed parallel charges that carry penalties of up to five years for each count. Prosecutors also linked roughly $1.2 million in bank and cryptocurrency accounts to transactions connected to the marketplace.

Dream Market operated from 2013 until it voluntarily shut down in 2019 amid law enforcement pressure. At its peak the site hosted nearly 100,000 listings and used Bitcoin for payments. U.S. authorities allege the marketplace facilitated large-scale illicit drug sales, including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin and dozens of kilograms of fentanyl.

Previous prosecutions identified and convicted other Dream Market administrators who used the handles Oxymonster, KITT3N and GOWRON. The current indictment comes amid wider law enforcement efforts to recover dormant darknet proceeds, including a recent recovery of about $1 billion in Bitcoin tied to the Silk Road marketplace.

Court proceedings in the United States and Germany will determine the outcome of the charges against Andresen.