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A court has granted the defense of Tal Prihar ( the alleged admin of deepdotweb.com) , the motion for an extension of the time to file pretrial motion in the United States vs. Tal Prihar. Tal Prihar is alleged to be the admin of the dark web markets news website DeepDotWeb.

Tal Prihar and co-defendant Michael Phan are being accused of money laundering through the DeepDotWeb.com website. According to the United States government, Tal Prihar and Michael Phan earned money from the dark web through affiliate links. Users would signed up to dark web markets using their affiliate links and make purchases, they earned a commission for these purchases.

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DeepDotWeb was seized in May 2019 and the US government announced the seizure.

DeepDotWeb is alleged to have received approximately 8,155 BTC between 2014 and April 2019. It is alleged that this came through their affiliate links. This is estimated to be $8,414,173 at the time of each bitcoin transaction, this is also estimated to also be $15,000,000 at the time of their withdrawal from the DeepDotWeb bitcoin wallet. This price difference is due to the volatile nature of bitcoin and the price fluctuations.

Tal Prihar, is an Israeli citizen who was residing in Brazil. he was arrested in France taking a flight between Israel and Brazil. Michael Phan, who is also an Israeli citizen, was residing in Israel at the time of his arrest. Tal Prihar has been extradited from France to the United States.

DeepDotWeb seizure

The defense for Tal prihar filed a motion for extension of the time to file pretrial motions because the case is complex. Saying:

The allegations are complex, cyber in nature, and international, and both defendant and his counsel need additional time to investigate them, review discovery materials, and discuss the case with an eye toward pretrial motions.

For these reasons, counsel respectfully requests additional time to evaluate and, if necessary, file pretrial motions until January 13, 2021.

In a second filing, the motion requesting an extension to file pretrial motions until January 13, 2021 was granted by a District Court Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The extradition of Tal Prihar’s to the United States, has happened and was referenced in court documents. It is unknown if Michael Phan has been extradited from Israel.