Ross Ulbricht, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for creating the darknet market Silk Road. free.
Ulbricht is a freedom fighter to some, and a dangerous criminal to others. As the former know Ulbricht As stated in Forbes“A principled libertarian and cyperpunk like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto”.
Ulbricht had a theory: that violent drug cartels would have no chance of sustaining themselves in a free market environment where the state did not control drug use, because non-violent actions would simply out-demand violent ones. will surpass
Most who believe the latter, however, often base their opinion on claims that Ulbricht allegedly tried to hire a hitman on a former Silk Road administrator, on which bitcoins from the site was charged with embezzlement. While Ulbricht’s supporters are celebrating, critics are asking: Why would an online community so vehemently defend an attempted murderer?
So the controversies and outright corruption surrounding Ulbricht’s trial should not be forgotten.
Charges against Ulbricht
On February 5, 2015, a jury in the Southern District of New York Ulbricht found guilty Specifically for non-violent crimes, including multiple charges of drug distribution, computer hacking, conspiracy to operate a criminal enterprise, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The judge sentenced Ulbricht to two life terms and forty years without the possibility of parole — nearly double the sentence of violent Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Alleged murder for mercenary charges From a different caseFiled in Maryland in May 2013. The indictment alleges that, based on chat logs obtained from the Silk Road site, Ulbricht attempted to kill Curtis Green to steal bitcoins from the project.
As the chat logs read according to the indictment, Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), the alias given to Ulbricht, wrote to another Silk Road user who he believed was a drug kingpin capable of ordering a hitman:
“I’d like to beat him, [sic] He was then forced to send back the stolen bitcoins. [sic] Like sit him down at his computer and tell him to do it.”
A day later, the indictment said, the DPR allegedly changed his mind, writing: “Can you change the order of execution to torture?”
According to the indictment, the DPR said Green “was on the inside for a short time, and now that he’s been arrested, I’m afraid he’s going to release information,” reportedly adding that he’s “never seen a man before.” not killed, but in this case it is the right move.”
A few days later, $40,000 was deposited into the hitman’s account, and DPR asked for “proof of death” via video or photographs to send the rest of the payment.
On February 21, 2013, Kingpin informed DPR that Greene was dead—”they killed him this weekend,” he wrote, telling him he died of asphyxiation, and to destroy evidence. The body was completely destroyed.
Except the Kingpin wasn’t a Kingpin. It was DEA agent Carl Force who, as it would later turn out, liked to indulge in a little criminal enterprise himself when he got the chance.
A real robbery and a fake murder
During the investigation, Greene was cooperating with law enforcement, giving in to DEA agent Carl Force and Secret Service agent Shawn Bridges. Access to the Silk Road site.
During one of the law enforcement sessions on the Silk Road, a series of “large-scale thefts” occurred at the site, which would later be traced back to the bridges, which Convict for stealing $350,000 in Bitcoin at the time of the theft, or $800,000 at the time of his guilty plea.
The account in question received “no less than 20,000 bitcoins” operated by Bridge and in consultation with the force, according to complaint. Force, posing as drug kingpin “Noob”, then staged a fake hit and, together with Bridges, faked Green’s death.
Force proceeded to fake a “death from above” identity to extort $250,000 from DPR, saying: “I know you had something to do with it. [Green’s] Disappearance and death. Just wanted to let you know I’m coming for you. […] You are a dead man. Don’t think you can escape me.”
Bridges was sentenced to 24 months in prison to run consecutively to a 71-month sentence he received for a similar offense in 2015, while Force was sentenced to 78 months in prison. Information about the corrupt agents was never made available for use in Ulbricht’s defense.
Who’s Afraid of Pirate Roberts?
The Dread Pirate Roberts, the nickname given to Ulbricht, is taken from the 1973 novel “The Princess Bride” by William Goldman, representing an identity assumed by several characters. The identity of the Dread Pirate Roberts, as written by Goldman, is shared among the pirates to intimidate rivals, and released in secret.
During the public proceedings of the case, evidence emerged that the Silk Road DPR was not solely run by Ulbricht. In conversation with former friend Richard Bates, who helped set up the Silk Road site, Ulbricht. responded with “Glad that’s not my problem anymore” when informed of news coverage of the site.
During the trial, prosecutors tried Stop the rescue From questioning another law enforcement official, Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Jared Der-Yeghian, who believed that the DPR was actually Mark Capels—the former Mt. Gox CEO who was later convicted of falsifying Mt. Gox records and The exchange was convicted of aggravated assault. Millions of supplies
Der-Yeghian cited an exclusive interview with DPR in Forbes, in which the eponymous Silk Road operator said that “he didn’t actually build the Silk Road, but befriended its creator and later acquired the site from him. did.”
According to Der-Yeghian, DPR’s writing sounded too much like that of his suspect, Mark Capells – and Der-Yeghian isn’t the only one who has accused DPR of being like someone else. As former Dark Wallet developer Amir Taqi was told:
“Years ago, when I sent the message to Silk Road, I had a conversation with DPR – a very personal conversation where he was [talking] About how he hopes to one day struggle together for freedom from the outside. You know, there’s no need to hide his identity. a year [or] Two years later when I messaged that person – I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the same person. The tone was completely different. He had no recollection of earlier events, and his attitude towards me was a stark contrast to the pompous and verbose DPR of the early days. “
This argument was further supported by a pseudonymous Silk Road vendor, who stated that “there were ‘at least two other people – if not three’ – who were managing Silk Road.” Der-Yegiayan confirms this belief in an email ten days before Ulbricht’s arrest, Stating that “We contributed to the departure of the other two administrators.”
Silk Road employee Andrew Jones, who set up a ‘secret handshake’ with Ulbricht in 2012 to confirm his identity, did not believe the late DPR was even Ulbricht.
According to court documents, Jones contacted DPR for a book recommendation. would ask, to which the correct answer would be “anything by Rothbard”—an answer that the D.P.R. Not provided When asked a year later.
To add intellectual insult to operational injury, one c Logged into DPR account Six weeks after the arrest of Ulbricht, who was in federal custody at the time — who may have been corrupt agents who had administrative access to the site, or another DPR.
as the As stated by Green himself: “And everyone who says ‘were there many DPRs’, was right there – I was a DPR once. So if I was, who else was?”
Regarding murder-for-hire allegations, Green said that he did not believe that Ulbricht would have ordered him to carry out a hit. As Green said in 2017:
“Ross Ulbricht got a raw deal. There’s more to the Silk Road story than people know, and I can’t talk about it yet. I don’t believe Ross is dangerous or that ordering a hit is out of his character. is in. He should never have received this terrible punishment.”
To cut to the chase: yes, Ross Ulbricht drove the Silk Road. No, Ross Ulbricht was likely not the only person with access to the DPR account. Ross Ulbricht was never convicted of murder-for-hire charges. The case was dismissed with prejudice in 2018, meaning it could never be filed again.
We all know, we are all Dread Pirate Roberts.
