Dark web kingdom operator sentenced to 16 years as leading marketplace falls

Alan Bill, a 33-year-old man from Slovakia, has been sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison for his involvement in an illicit marketplace operation called Kingdom Market.

In January 2026, Bill pleaded guilty to his involvement in Kingdom Market, a dark web marketplace that operated from March 2021 to December 2023.

For a long time, Kingdom Market was one of the leading criminal platforms on the dark web. The platform offered all sorts of illegal products, including narcotics, stolen financial information, fake IDs, counterfeit currencies, and malicious software. Users made their purchases via cryptocurrency and anonymous accounts.

The suspect helped create forum pages for Kingdom Market and post on behalf of the platform. He also admitted that he mediated in some transactions and that he received cryptocurrency from a wallet associated with Kingdom Market.

Bill was arrested on December 15th, 2023, at Newark Liberty International Airport. When he was detained, he had devices on him that proved his involvement with Kingdom Market.

As part of his plea, Bill admitted to the prosecutor that he assisted others in “maintaining or operating Kingdom by providing or procuring web-administration services.”

He also agreed to forfeit five different types of cryptocurrency, as well as the Kingdommarket.live and Kingdommarket.so domains, which have been shut down by authorities.

“It’s hard to even imagine the amount of misery that the defendant’s actions have caused,” US District Judge Cristian M. Stevens said after sentencing Bill to 200 months in prison.

“Alan Bill helped run a darknet market that sold stolen identity and financial information, counterfeit currency, and illegal drugs, including bogus prescription drugs containing fentanyl. This sentence should send a message that serious crimes will be punished harshly, no matter where they occur or how hidden they appear to be,” US Attorney Thomas C. Albus said regarding the sentencing of Bill.

“Life is a series of good and bad choices. Mr. Bill made a bad choice to start a darknet marketplace that sold misery in the form of illegal drugs, stolen financial information, and fake or stolen identification documents,” IRS-Criminal Investigation St. Louis Special Agent in Charge William Steenson said.

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