Trial of The Dread Pirate Roberts.

[Cutz]

So I just watched this documentary called Deep Web, which studied the case and trial of Ross Ulbricht, the architect of a dark web vendor site called Silk Road which was highly used for illegal drugs. He used TOR and bitcoin to anonymously and untraceably set up the Ebay of Heroin, LSD, and so on. You can get the gist of the trial here.

There's a myriad of issues with this case. There's existential/philosophical morality questions about, if drug users and vendors have a safer, nonviolent marketplace, why is the government regulating free trade even of illicit substances, etc etc. There's a deeper, less relevant argument about the War on Drugs, and who benefits from the FBI and CIA having multi-million dollar budgets to combat "threats," which could actually be accelerating and escalating violence in the drug world. There's cyber-legality issues, akin to the Napster lawsuit in the late 90s/early 2000 about what responsibility the admin of a network holds for peer to peer user transactions. There's particularly debate surrounding privacy and online anonymity that this trial brings into focus.

The documentary I watched had a very biased viewpoint, which makes it hard to call a documentary, but they brought up some really damning points. First, the kid was initially charged with attempting contracts for murder, which painted him as a violent criminal in the media, and his bail was denied on account of danger to society due to his murder charges. Then months later, when he's indicted, the charges for contract murder were never levied. Then during his trial, the judge wouldn't force the prosecution to disclose witness names during discovery to his lawyers because Ulbricht might have them killed... a crime he again wasn't charged with. When his defense wanted to cross examine the LE officers that were involved in the undercover online operation to show a case that there might have been more than one user using the Dread Pirate Roberts moniker, which the one main agent did even believe, the judge threw it out. When the defense wanted to have technical experts testify that the anonymity of the web forced agencies to basically hack the kid's site in order to gather the evidence to bring him down, the judge said there was no technical evidence required for the case and denied their testimony.

All that could be really circumstantial, but it does show the prosecution and judge using pretty leveraged tactics with the case. But now, one of the officers will plead guilty to stealing over $800,000 worth of bitcoin. So if the officers involved were technically proficient and morally corrupt enough to steal 800k during the arrest, it really tells me that someone would be willing to acquire evidence illegally to drown this kid. They set him up in the media as a violent drug kingpin, and he didn't even sell an ounce of drugs from what I can tell. He did profit personally off commissions for the site, but the judge really made sure the prosecution's charges stuck. Now the dude's sentences to life in prison.

The judge even made a comment pertaining to the fact the he's not only a college graduate, but has a masters in science. “There must be no doubt that no one is above the law, no matter the education or the privileges. All stand equal before the law." And yet, the government agencies that hacked his website to copy and seize his servers in Icleland were swept under the rug. I'm not saying the kid is innocent, even if he does seem to be a rather morally upright individual. He profited from enabling illegal activity, and even he understood that he should be punished. My problem with it is that the government really bullied the shit out of this guy. I believe they broke their own laws with hacking and ignored the chain of evidence to convict their man, and I believe the judge was complicit in their wrongdoing. What's more, I think it's corruption like this that are going to give hackers incentive to bring it all crashing down.

[HairOfTheDog]

I haven't seen the documentary Cutz, but I'm interested in checking it out. The story has fascinated me since it first broke, for several reasons.

-The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies.


-I'm very familiar with the Glen Park Library where Ulbricht ^ was arrested. It would be an ideal location to conduct internet transactions without anyone ever looking over your shoulder. Comfortable and laid back and never filled to the brim like the main SF public library at the Civic Center.


-I figure, but am not sure, that the Laguna Street cafe where Ulbricht mostly managed the Silk Road on-line marketplace was Momi Toby's (pictured above). It's close to the Hickory Street apartment where Ulbricht was living with some other dudes in a small apartment and it has Wi-Fi (and excellent pulled pork).

-Ulbricht was inspired to develop a marketplace free from government intervention or awareness by his affiliation with Libertarian policy. I get that.

Based only on my readings in the local news, Ulbricht's where he belongs. He wasn't just selling weed to anonymous buyers using Bitcoins as currency, but also LSD, heroin, and other deadly products/services. To me, it makes no difference that he did so and made a fortune (while living unassumingly like a lot of smart struggling San Francisco 20-somethings) on-line as opposed to trafficking via traditional off-line methods.

I don't personally think he was responsible for the overdose deaths associated with drugs purchased off the Silk Road site, but the testimony of the victims' loved ones hurt him a lot in sentencing, in my opinion.

Just like with an off-line criminal enterprise, LE can and does use undercover buyers and ops to sting crime bosses. There were dozens of them all over Silk Road buying illegal products/services left and right leading up to his bust. Just because he's young, smart, likable, attractive and coulda been very successful in a legit biz (IMO), doesn't make him any better or immune to consequences than a fat, greasy, old cartel boss.

My understanding is that he emailed one of the undercovers about a transaction and that's how they were finally able to get around the security wall and tumblers in the Silk Road architecture and trace/identify him using his Google email account (with Google's cooperation).

In terms of the alleged hits he procured to get rid of people who threatened to reveal his identity, I tend to believe it's true and that the charges were dropped because there were no identified dead victims. The Feds didn't need convictions on those hard-to-prove charges to make him a lifer anyway, given all of his other proven crimes for which prosecutors sought consecutive sentences.

I think Ulbright mighta been detached from the reality of what he was doing because it was anonymous, presumably untraceable, and he wasn't looking anybody in the eyes. However, I don't think it's impossible that the murder for hire allegations were false or trumped up to bolster the Feds' case, or to distract from some illegal LEOs' activity that went down during the investigation. Could be.

It's a really interesting case, but there are some technical aspects to it that are over my head.

I'm sure his attorneys are working hard towards an appeal.

[Cutz]

There was a reporter for WIRED that wanted to do a story on Silk Road, so he pestered DPR for months trying to get an interview. Eventually, another "dark web" marijuana site started marketing itself, so the reporter told DPR that either he needed an interview, or he was going to write the story on the other site. So DPR decided to do the interview. When the reporter asked why he'd started Silk Road, DPR responded that he hadn't, and much like the moniker is used in the film, the name had been passed on to him from the previous administrator/owner of the site. This was well before any legal trouble started. A few of the top vendors were interviewed by the doc crew with blacked out faces / voices, and the one guy said he didn't think Ross would ever put out a hit on someone, he wasn't that kinda person, but he could have seen one of the other DPRs doing it. The interviewer said, "wait, there were other DPRs?" and the vendor replied, "yeah, there were 2, or maybe even 3 other guys."

They started watching Ross because he'd made a post on a forums talking about Silk Road early on in the site's incarnation. The name he used linked to his google account somehow, so he became a person of interest. Then they found a shipment of fake ID's that he'd ordered to his craigslist APT where he was using a fake name with his roommates. So they were watching him closer after that. None of that would allow them to find his servers in Iceland where they got the data they needed. According to the LE that "found out" - it was broadcast by the Captcha image they were using for verification, but according to security experts, that's a load of BS and the log files don't show that at all.

As you said, I think he does deserve to be punished. When a 16 year old buys alcohol at a bar and then crashes his car and dies, both the bartender and the owner of the bar are responsible. I think Ross never sold drugs personally, but he owned the establishment and was wrong. Unfortunately, I think the only way to find out what he was doing was for LE to break the law themselves, which means they have no moral high ground to throw stones. But I think the gov't as a whole doubled down on their wrongdoing when the judge was what appears to be very biased.

[Duchess]

I don't like it at all when loved ones blame others for death of their person. The person is dead because of their own actions. Even in death they have their enablers.

[HairOfTheDog]

As you said, I think he does deserve to be punished. When a 16 year old buys alcohol at a bar and then crashes his car and dies, both the bartender and the owner of the bar are responsible. I think Ross never sold drugs personally, but he owned the establishment and was wrong. Unfortunately, I think the only way to find out what he was doing was for LE to break the law themselves, which means they have no moral high ground to throw stones. But I think the gov't as a whole doubled down on their wrongdoing when the judge was what appears to be very biased.

A bar owner pushes a legal product/service via his/her employees to his/her customers. The bar owner is personally a seller of booze, whether it's served by bartenders or the owner himself.

Silk Road pushed illegal products/services between buyers/sellers via transactions enabled by himself and his administrators. So, like the bar owner, Ulbricht was in fact personally selling drugs and contraband, in my view. Unlike the bar owner, by simply owning the enterprise/establishment, Ulbricht was the head of a criminal network.

Trying to drum up business by linking Silk Road on other forums using his Google account was an asinine move by an otherwise very crafty dude.

Aside from the Bitcoin-thieving agent, I'm not clear what you think was done illegally by the government. I understood that they had probable cause and warrants to search the virtual premises (that's how I envision it). Hell, probable cause could be established just by visiting the Silk Road site.



Are you suggesting that the fact that the server was located in Iceland made the US warrants invalid?

I'll have to watch the documentary soon Cutz. I'm sure there are a lot of pieces that were not covered in the news stories I've read.

[Cutz]

It's illegal for the gov't to hack a website. There's no "searching of a virtual premises" that includes committing criminal activity that they've prosecuted other individuals for doing the exact same thing.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think there's still a lot of gray area when it comes to fourth amendment rights and forensic investigation boundaries in regards to cyberspace and electronic technologies Cutz.

Maybe you're right and the federal "hacking" was illegal. If so, Ulbricht has a good shot at being granted an appeal and a new trial could see the evidence gathered as a result of the hacking getting tossed; drastically reducing his time behind bars.

Will be interesting to see how it progresses.

[HairOfTheDog]

Another Silk Road Bust

Canadian Roger Thomas Clark is said to have been a key adviser for Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.

The US Department of Justice alleged that Mr Clark advised Ulbricht about the best way to run the site and how to evade the police. He has been arrested in Thailand.

The DoJ alleges that Mr Clark was a "high-ranking" operator on the Silk Road and was instrumental in helping Ulbricht run it. He gave advice about ways to improve the technology underpinning the site, boost sales and on the best way for Ulbricht to hide his real identity, said US authorities.

Mr Clark was paid "at least hundreds of thousands of dollars" for this advice, said the DoJ in a statement announcing the arrest. "Clark may have thought residing in Thailand would keep him out of reach of US authorities, but our international partnerships have proven him wrong," said FBI assistant director Diego Rodriguez.

On the site and in other underground forums, Mr Clark is believed to have used several nicknames including "Variety Jones, "VJ", "Cimon" and "Plural of Mongoose".

Extradition proceedings have been started against Mr Clark to transfer him from a jail in Thailand to the US. He faces charges of narcotics conspiracy and money laundering. If found guilty of both charges he could face 30 years in jail.

Story: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35025976

[HairOfTheDog]

In related news.....

This internet mystery appears to be solved.


Australian police have raided the Sydney home and office of a man named by technology websites as the creator of the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Federal police searched Craig Steven Wright's properties, but said the raid was about tax, not Bitcoin.



^ Mr Wright was named by Wired and Gizmodo as the creator of Bitcoin.

The founder of the currency is believed to hold about a million Bitcoins, which are reportedly worth about $400m at the current exchange rate.

The raid in Sydney came hours after Wired and Gizmodo claimed Mr Wright was probably the mysterious "Satoshi Nakamoto", a pseudonym used by Bitcoin's creator.

Their investigations were based on leaked emails, documents and web archives, including what was said to be a transcript of a meeting between Wright, a 44-year-old academic, and Australian tax officials.

Mr Wright is reported to have said: "I did my best to try and hide the fact that I've been running Bitcoin since 2009. By the end of this I think half the world is going to bloody know."

Story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35048309