Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for founding the darknet market Silk Road, is released.
Ulbricht is a freedom fighter to some and a dangerous criminal to others. The former knows that Ulbricht has been described by Forbes magazine as “a principled liberal and cypherpunk in the same vein as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto.”
Ulbricht has a theory that violent drug cartels cannot survive in a free market environment where the state does not control substance use because nonviolent activity simply outweighs violent activity based on demand. there were.
However, most of those who believe the latter often base their opinion on claims that Ulbricht allegedly tried to hire a hitman for a former Silk Road administrator accused of embezzling Bitcoin from the site. While Ulbricht's supporters celebrated, critics asked: “Why would the online community so fervently defend an attempted murderer?”
Therefore, the controversy surrounding Ulbricht's prosecution and the blatant corruption should not be forgotten.
Accusation against Ulbricht
On February 5, 2015, a jury in the Southern District of New York convicted Ulbricht of only non-violent crimes, including several charges including drug distribution, computer hacking, conspiracy to operate a criminal enterprise, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. I put it down.
The judge sentenced Ulbricht to two life sentences plus 40 years without the possibility of parole, nearly twice the sentence given to violent Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. It's double.
The commission murder charge stems from a separate case filed in Maryland in May 2013. The indictment alleges, based on chat logs obtained from the Silk Road site, that Ulbricht tried to kill Curtis Green for stealing Bitcoin from the project.
According to the indictment, as described in chat logs, Ulbricht, alias Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), allegedly followed another Silk Road user who he believed was a drug lord who could command hitmen. I am writing a letter like.
“I'd like to punch him, but [sic] He was then forced to send back the stolen bitcoins. [sic] For example, sit him at the computer and let him do it. ”
The next day, the indictment says, DPR changed his mind and wrote, “Can I change my order for execution instead of torture?”
According to the indictment, DPR said Greene “had been inside for some time, but now that he's been arrested, we're worried he might give out information,” adding, “Although he's never killed anyone before, , but in this case this is the correct action.
A few days later, $40,000 was transferred to the hitman's account, and DPR required a video or photographic “proof of death” in order to send the remaining payment.
On February 21, 2013, Kingpin informed DPR that Green had died. “They murdered him this weekend,” he wrote, adding that Greene was suffocated and his body was completely destroyed to erase any evidence.
Except Kingpin wasn't Kingpin. DEA agent Karl Force, it would later be revealed, liked to engage in petty criminal activity himself whenever the opportunity presented itself.
real theft and fake murder
During the course of the investigation, Green cooperated with law enforcement and granted access to the Silk Road site to DEA Agent Carl Force and Secret Service Agent Sean Bridges.
During one of the law enforcement sessions at Silk Road, a series of “major thefts” occurred on the site that would later be traced back to Bridges, who at the time of the theft had $350,000 in Bitcoin, or At the time, he pleaded guilty to stealing $800,000 in Bitcoin. At the time of his guilty plea.
The account in question was run by Bridges and received “at least 20,000 Bitcoin” in consultation with Force, according to the complaint. Force posed as drug lord “Nobu,” orchestrated a fake hit, and worked with Bridges to fake Greene's death.
Force went on to create a false identity, “Death From Above,'' and extort $250,000 from DPR, stating: “I know you had something to do with it.” [Green’s] disappearance and death. I just wanted to let you know that I'm here for you. […] you are dead Don't think you can escape me. ”
Mr Bridges was sentenced to 24 months in prison, which is consecutive to the 71 months he received for a similar offense in 2015, and Mr Force was sentenced to 78 months in prison. Information about corrupt agents was never used in Ulbricht's defense.
Who is the Dread Pirate Roberts?
Ulbricht's pen name, Dread Pirate Roberts, is taken from William Goldman's 1973 novel The Princess Bride, which depicts the assumed identities of several characters. The identity of the Dread Pirate Roberts, Goldman wrote, is shared and secretly passed down among pirates to intimidate their enemies.
During the public proceedings in this case, evidence grew that the Silk Road DPR was not run solely by Ulbricht. In a conversation with Richard Bates, a former friend who helped Ulbricht launch the Silk Road site, Ulbricht responded, “I'm glad it's not my problem anymore,” upon learning of the reports about the site.
During the trial, prosecutors tried to stop the defense from questioning another law enforcement official, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Jared Der Yeghiyan, who DPR was in fact questioning. (former Mt.Gox CEO who was later convicted). He was accused of falsifying Mt. Gox's records and inflating the exchange's supply by tens of millions.
Der Yegiayan mentions an exclusive interview with DPR in Forbes magazine, in which the pseudonymous Silk Road operator “did not actually create the Silk Road, but became friends with its creator and later I bought the site from him.”
According to Der-Yeghiayan, DPR's writing is very similar to that of suspect Mark Capeles, and Der-Yeghiayan is not alone in claiming that DPR sounds like a different person. Former dark wallet developer Amir Taaki says:
“Years ago, when I sent a message to Silk Road, I had a conversation with DPR, and he had a very personal conversation. [talking] About how I hope someday we can go out and fight for freedom together. There's no need to hide his true identity. 1 year [or] Two years later, when I messaged the man, I'm sure it wasn't the same man. His tone was completely different. He had no memory of previous events and his attitude towards me was in stark contrast to the enthusiastic and loquacious DPR of his early years. ”
This argument was further supported by a pseudonymous Silk Road vendor who said, “There were 'at least two, if not three people' who were managing the Silk Road.” Der-Yeghiayan corroborated this idea with an email 10 days before Ulbricht's arrest in which he said, “We helped the other two administrators escape.”
Silk Road official Andrew Jones also signed a “secret handshake” to confirm Mr Ulbricht's identity in 2012, but did not believe the late DPR was Mr Ulbricht.
According to court documents, Jones asked DPR for book recommendations, to which the correct answer was “anything by Rothbard,” but DPR did not respond when asked a year later.
To add further intellectual insult to the operational damage, someone logged into DPR's account six weeks after Ulbricht's arrest, and while he was in federal custody at the time, gained administrative access to the site. It could have been the corrupt operatives they had or all the other DPRs. together.
As Green himself stated, “And for all of you who say, 'Was there more than one DPR?' Absolutely there was. I used to be a DPR. So if I were, what other DPR? Who was there?”
Regarding the murder-for-commission charge, Green said he did not believe Ulbricht ordered him to be hit. Green said in 2017:
“Ross Ulbricht made a terrible deal. There's more to the story of the Silk Road than people know and we can't talk about it yet. I don't think Ross is a dangerous person. “I don't and I don't think it's in his character to order a hit.” He should never have subjected anyone to such a horrific sentence. ”
To cut to the chase, yes, Ross Ulbricht ran the Silk Road. No, Ross Ulbricht is probably not the only one with access to the DPR account. Ross Ulbricht was never convicted of commission murder. The case was dismissed with prejudice in 2018, meaning it could never be filed again.
As far as we know, we're all Dread Pirate Roberts.
