Casefile True Crime - Case 76: Silk Road (Part 3)

Episode Date: February 24, 2018

[Part 3 of 3] The investigation into The Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht heats to boiling point as Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI hone in on their suspect. Will Ulbricht’s attempts to create a new identity pay off and will his emergency plans succeed? --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Victoria Dieffenbacher For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-76-silk-road-part-3

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local Crisis Centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Ross Ulbricht had just put the last lines of his emergency list into action. Find place to live on Craigslist for cash and create new identity, name and backstory. He found a room to rent on Craigslist, paid cash and said his name was Joshua Terry. He gave his new roommates a backstory for Joshua, one that was very similar to his own.

He ordered fake IDs for his new identity from Silk Road, but those fake IDs were intercepted by Customs and Border Protection and today had passed them on to the Homeland Security Office in San Francisco. Now, two agents from Homeland Security were knocking on Ross's door. Ross froze when he saw the agents. He thought it could only mean one thing, but he managed to compose himself and open the door. The agents asked him to step outside, and Ross complied.

The agents showed him the fake IDs. Ross didn't utter a word, but he couldn't hide the fear on his face. It was shaking. This was it. His worst fears had come true. It was all over. They demanded to see his real ID. Ross handed it over and the agents did some checks.

But nothing flagged. The agents could see how nervous he was and they told him to settle down. They weren't going to arrest him over a few fake IDs, they just wanted information. Where did he get the IDs from? Ross still wasn't sure what was happening, were they trying to trick him? Did they know everything? The agents tried to put him at ease again. We don't want a formal statement or anything, you don't have to incriminate yourself.

Tell us in hypotheticals how we would go about getting some of these made up. Ross started to believe they had no idea who he really was. He loosened up. He told the agents that hypothetically anyone could go online to the dark web to a place called Silk Road and buy anything they wanted. The agents had no idea what Silk Road was. They weren't on any of the task forces. They weren't trying to make a case against Silk Road or the Dread Pirate Roberts.

They just wanted to know about the IDs. The agents believed everything checked out and asked Ross for a phone number in case they needed to get back in touch with him. He said he didn't have one, but he did give them a fake email address. Fractalformattoolmail.com The San Francisco Homeland Security agents thanked Ross and left it at that for the time being. Ross shut the door and let out a huge sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, July was proving to be a very busy month for Jared Duryagian, the Homeland Security Agent in Chicago. On July 14, the day after the Deconfliction meeting with all of the other agencies, Jared received a call from FBI agent Chris Tarbell from the Cybercrime Division. Although Tarbell wasn't present at the Deconfliction meeting, he watched Jared's presentation via video link and was impressed. Tarbell wanted to work with Jared. Tarbell explained to Jared that his Cybercrime team had the holy grail of the Silk Road

case, Silk Road Server, that they hadn't been working on the case for that long and they weren't sure where to start looking within the files. So they wanted Jared to fly to New York and work with them. Jared said he would love to, so long as he could still work on an important part of the case that he had developed. Jared was still working with the Silk Road seller accounts that he now had control of after identifying and arresting the original owners. Jared would take over the account and start striking up conversations with both buyers

and sellers. With this method, he began talking to a volunteer moderator on Silk Road that went by the name Cirrus. After a few weeks of chatting, Jared became friends with Cirrus and told her he wanted to send her a gift. Cirrus allowed the gesture and provided an address. The next thing Cirrus knew, agents from Homeland Security were raiding her house in Texas. During the raid, Jared introduced himself to Cirrus and gave her two options.

Either she give up her account and help the investigation or she would be charged. Cirrus chose to give up her account. Jared's plan was to become Cirrus. He interviewed her in depth, learning everything about what she did on Silk Road. When did she log on? When did she log out? How long was she online for per day? What was her writing style when she wrote messages and posted on the forums?

What did she post about? Jared bought the exact computer Cirrus had and installed all of the same programs she had. He didn't want to leave anything to chance. When he felt he had everything squared away, he logged on to Silk Road and it became Cirrus. Just after he logged on, Cirrus received a message from the Dread Pirate Roberts offering a paid moderator's job. But before he would put her on the payroll, he required a driver's license or passport.

Jared arranged a fake driver's license with the photograph of a female agent and sent the Dread Pirate Roberts the ID. It only took a few minutes for the Dread Pirate Roberts to respond and put Cirrus to work. It was a huge break in the investigation. By August, Jared was working in the Chicago Homeland Security Office by day and working as Cirrus, the Silk Road moderator by night. And it was at this time he was asked to fly to New York to assist the FBI cybercrime division. When he got to the FBI officers in New York, Agent Chris Tarbell showed Jared the computer

where they had reconstructed Silk Road from the files on the server. Jared stared at the computer and afterwards he stared at a nearby wall that had an 8 foot long piece of paper stuck on it. There were IP addresses written down on the paper with descriptions of where each IP address was located. As Jared kept his eyes on the paper, Tarbell explained to him some of the different IP addresses they had. One was a server for the chat clients of Silk Road, another was a server that stored the

bitcoins from the site, another was for the mastermind section of the site, which was Dread Pirate Roberts' section as the main administrator. As Tarbell continued explaining the numbers, Jared noticed the name Moby Tobi's in San Francisco. Tarbell explained that it was a cafe and someone had logged in and tried to erase a Silk Road server from there. Because of that, the FBI had a theory that the Dread Pirate Roberts either lived, had visited, or even possibly still lived in San Francisco and had used the cafe's Wi-Fi to

access Silk Road. Although as Tarbell explained to Jared, as quoted in the book American Kingpin by Nick Dilton, not much I can do with it, what am I going to do, send an FBI agent into a coffee shop in San Francisco and tell them to look for someone on a laptop. But they were still monitoring the cafe's internet traffic to see if they could find anything else. After this, Jared took a good look at the Silk Road offline version, or the reconstructed version that the FBI had made.

It was essentially a site that looked exactly like Silk Road and had everything that Silk Road had, except that it wasn't live, it was just a clone they created using the server to assist their investigation. While Jared went through the Dread Pirate Roberts different chat logs, he found more chats between him and the DAA agent Carl Force, who was undercover on the site posing as Knob. Jared noticed that there was also now encrypted chats between them. Jared asked Tarbell if he thought Carl Force was trying to obstruct the investigation in some way.

Tarbell said he did feel that something was off about him. Then another visitor arrived at the cybercrime office. Gary Alford, the IRS agent who didn't speak up at the Deconfliction meeting regarding the early forum posts he had found about Silk Road from someone going by the username Altoid. Gary had found out that the forum user named Altoid had registered with email address Ross Ulbricht at gmail.com, but that was quickly deleted and replaced with a fake email address frosty at frosty.com. Gary didn't think that what he had found was important and he had given up trying to

find the Dread Pirate Roberts. He decided to stick to what he was supposed to do, follow the money. That's why he wanted to get a look at what was on Silk Road's server. Gary entered the office and took a look around, noticing the large piece of paper on the wall. Like Jared had, Gary also noticed the words, Moby Toby's San Francisco. He asked Tarbell about it and Tarbell told him the same story he had told Jared. Gary got a slight chill. He told Tarbell he was looking at someone who was living in San Francisco.

Tarbell's response didn't impress Gary. Tarbell couldn't have acted any less interested in what he had to say. Gary hated the attitude some of the other people on the case had. The fact that it was a competition, not a joint investigation. So he didn't say anything else. He didn't pass on the details of the guy he was looking at in San Francisco. If he had, Tarbell and Jared would have found out that the guy Gary was looking at in San Francisco was Ross Ulbricht.

It was around this time that Ross' ex-girlfriend Julia arranged to meet up with him. Ross didn't want to make any mistakes or mix her up in his fake Joshua Terry identity that he had created for his new roommates. So we rented another room in San Francisco and took her there. They spent the night together and the following day Julia went out to explore San Francisco. She returned early and when she entered the apartment she found Ross with his back to her staring at the computer. Staring at a page she thought she'd never see again.

Silk wrote. Ross didn't even hear Julia walk in. She took a moment before saying hi. Ross pressed the kill switch making his computer shut down instantly and said he was just catching up on some work. But Julia had seen all she needed to. Ross had obviously lied to her when he said he had given Silk right away and no longer had anything to do with it.

She flew back to Austin. Soon after that Ross thought it might be time to leave San Francisco and go back to Austin as well. Not specifically because of Julia but because too many things had happened while it was in San Francisco including that visit from Homeland Security. So we thought it was time to start somewhere fresh. While Ross was contemplating moving IRS investigator Gary Alfred couldn't get him off his mind. Could Ross be the dread pirate Roberts?

As detailed in the book American Kingpin Gary started talking to a DEA agent in the New York office about Ross. It wasn't the first time the agent had heard Gary's theory and he said you really think you're going to find him from a Google search. Gary nodded. I'm right. I'm sure of it. Gary asked the Homeland Security officer to run Ross Ulbrich's name.

He had done this before already but maybe now something new would come up or maybe they would find something they had missed previously. The Homeland Security agent ran Ross's name and told Gary that Ross had a travel record. He'd recently gone to Dominico which Gary found strange since Dominico and the Caribbean in general was a place well known for money laundering. Then the Homeland Security agent started to get a bit more excited. Well there's actually a hit on this guy from a few weeks ago. Gary listened intently as the Homeland Security agent read the report out loud.

Fake IDs had been confiscated by customs and agents from Homeland Security in San Francisco went to the house the IDs were addressed to. They spoke to a resident there by the name of Ross Ulbrich. The San Francisco agents noted that Ross's roommates knew him as Joshua Terry, not Ross Ulbrich. Ross paid for his room in cash. While living at 15th Avenue Ross had lived in Hickory Street in San Francisco's central area.

The agents notes read, Ulbrich generally refused to answer any questions but he volunteered that hypothetically anyone could go into a website named Silk Road on tour and purchase any drugs or IDs. A chill ran down Gary's spine. He ran to his supervisor's office and screamed, the Tim, the Tim. The supervisor asked Gary to calm down and explain what was going on. Gary did and the supervisor told him to call Seren Turner, the assistant US attorney that was working with FBI agent Chris Tarbell.

Gary called Turner and started giving him an over-excited explanation. Turner had to tell him to slow down. Gary told him everything he knew. Turner wasn't convinced but said it wouldn't hurt to check and to ask for Ross's address. Gary gave him the Hickory Street address where Ross had lived with his friend Renee when he first moved to San Francisco. Turner punched it straight into Google Maps. Turner said, holy shit, it's around the corner from Momitobi's cafe where we found

the IP address. Turner immediately arranged a conference call with Chris Tarbell, Jared Duyagian and Gary Alford. Gary started from the beginning, elaborating on the Google search he'd done that led him to the two forum posts from someone called Altoid. He then went on to say that the user Altoid had originally registered with an e-mail address RossUlbrich.gmail.com but then deleted that address and entered a fake address Frostyatfrosty.com. Tarbell stopped Gary.

What did you just say? Gary started explaining again until he got to the Frosty part and Tarbell interrupted him again. Frosty as in FROSTY. Gary was starting to get frustrated with the interruptions and said, yes, Frosty with that spelling, why? Tarbell answered. Because when we got the server from Iceland, we saw that the server and the computer that

belonged to the Dread Pirate Roberts were both called Frosty. The other men stayed silent on the line as it all sunk in. Gary Alford had found the Dread Pirate Roberts from a Google search. It took the agents a little over a week to set up an undercover surveillance team that would follow RossUlbrich's every move. Their operation resulted in the other agencies working on the case to immediately stand down. The e-mail that was sent to the Baltimore Task Force instructed them to cease all activity on the Silk Road case, including logging onto Silk Road, its forum, or any undercover accounts.

Carl Force panicked when he read the e-mail. He had heard rumors that the FBI might have found the Dread Pirate Roberts. But this confirmed it. He knew that if the FBI got into the Dread Pirate Roberts computer, that would be the end of him. They would be able to see all of the conversations between the two of them, including the conversations Carl deleted, and the encrypted conversations where he was selling information while pretending to be a corrupt agent named Kevin.

Carl immediately sent an encrypted message to the Dread Pirate Roberts, warning him that he had been identified and was about to be caught. He added in a threat that it was easy to get people in jail killed, and he had better delete all records of their conversations. The FBI kept Ross under surveillance for two weeks. They followed him every minute of the day. When he went out for a walk or spent time with friends or went to a cafe, they were watching. When Ross was seen on his laptop, the Dread Pirate Roberts was logged into Silk Road,

and when Ross closed his laptop, it was the exact same time the Dread Pirate Roberts logged out of Silk Road. The agents had no doubt Ross Ulbricht was the man they were looking for. They scheduled the arrest to take place on October 1st, 2013. Agent Chris Tarbell flew to San Francisco a few days prior to join the team on the ground and to make sure everything was ready. When Tarbell landed in San Francisco, he realised there was a problem, and he called Jared DuYagin to join him.

Jared was back in Chicago, still pretending to be Silk Road employee Cirrus. When he found out he was needed in San Francisco, he arranged for another Homeland Security agent to pose as Cirrus while he was on the plane. Jared then logged back in as Cirrus when he landed in San Francisco. As soon as Jared landed, he met with Agent Chris Tarbell and two other men. One of them was named Brophy, a special agent with the FBI in New York, and the other man was Thomas Keenan, the computer scientist from the FBI's Cybercrime Division. Keenan was there to take care of Ross' laptop after the arrest.

It was imperative that the laptop stayed open and powered on. Information like Ross posting on forums about Silk Road and logging onto his computer at the exact same time as the Dread Pirate Roberts logged onto Silk Road would be worth nothing without the contents of his computer. A lawyer could easily argue that was all nothing more than a coincidence. And the fact the FBI needed Ross' laptop to make a case was part of the problem Tarbell was now facing. Tarbell explained that the team responsible for the arrest wouldn't be the FBI team from

New York, it would be a local team from San Francisco. Although the FBI investigation was conducted in the New York office, when it came to arrests, there was a matter of jurisdiction that had to be respected. So because Ross was in San Francisco, the San Francisco team would make the arrest. The problem being, the San Francisco team weren't part of the investigation. They didn't know much about Ross or the Dread Pirate Roberts and weren't fully aware of the implications if they didn't get access to his laptop. All the San Francisco team knew was that Ross was considered extremely dangerous.

They had seen the chat locks from the server where he ordered the murders of Curtis Green, Friendly Chemist, Tony 76 and Tony's three partners. So because of that, the San Francisco team was going to arrest him with the assistance of a SWAT team. SWAT aren't known for entering places quietly and if Ross heard them coming, it would give him time to press the kill switch on his laptop, completely shutting it down. Meaning if his encryption was done right, it would be impossible for the FBI to get the evidence they needed.

They had to catch him with his laptop open while he was logged onto Silk Road. Tarbell explained he was trying to talk the local office out of using SWAT, but it wasn't going well. He then outlined another concern. DEA agent Carl Force from Baltimore had phoned him and demanded access to Silk Road's server. Tarbell told Carl he had to go through the proper channels and get authorization. Carl said he had authorization, but after a few questions from Tarbell, it was clear he didn't.

Both Tarbell and Jared agreed Carl Force looked more suspicious by the day. Their suspicions were correct. Carl had made that phone call only minutes after he sent the threatening message to the Dread Pirate Roberts about being able to have people killed in jail. Carl was trying to get access to the server to see if he could get rid of any incriminating evidence against him. The following day, October 1st, 2013, Agent Tarbell's request to make the arrest without SWAT was officially denied.

The local office explained that the Dread Pirate Roberts was considered dangerous and they wouldn't risk losing an agent over a laptop. Tarbell tried arguing that in this case the laptop was almost as important as the life of an agent, but they weren't having it. They were using SWAT and that was final. The arrest was scheduled to happen in Ross's apartment with the help of the SWAT team the following day, October 2nd, but Agent Tarbell, Jared Duyagin and Thomas Keenan came up with a new plan, one without SWAT.

The three of them were gathered outside a cafe called Bello, located about a five minute walk from Ross's apartment. They weren't the only agents there either, there were several agents spread out around the area in case Ross walked out of his apartment. Their new plan was to try and arrest Ross in a public area. They thought that if they could get Ross using public Wi-Fi and at the same time they could get Jared chatting with him while he was posing as Silk Road employee Sirius, then there would be no denying that Ross was the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Ross had visited the Bello Cafe only the day before, so they hoped he'd reappear there again. They waited anxiously, praying he would show up. The time was 1pm. Jared was watching the screen of his laptop, keeping an eye on the Dread Pirate Roberts, who was connected to the staff chat of Silk Road. But at 2.47pm, the Dread Pirate Roberts signed out of the chat. Jared checked his battery level, it was down to 18%.

Since the Dread Pirate Roberts was no longer online, Jared made his way inside the Bello Cafe to charge his computer. The cafe was gemmed packed with people, but Jared managed to find an open powerpoint, it was the only one available. He started charging his computer and was planning on ordering a coffee when Tarbell stormed into the cafe and told him Ross had left his apartment and was currently walking in their direction. Jared quickly removed his computer from the powerpoint, left the coffee shop and made his way across the street.

He sat on a bench next to computer scientist Thomas Keenan. Both agents pretended to be busy on their devices while they waited for an update on Ross's location. They soon got it. Ross turned up to the Bello Cafe, just as they had hoped. Jared watched as Ross entered the cafe and then cursed under his breath when Ross walked out only 30 seconds later. Jared knew why.

In chats with his employees, the Dread Pirate Roberts had instructed them never to access Silk Road in a place where someone could look over their shoulder. The cafe was packed, so it was too dangerous for Ross to log on. Ross turned right and kept going until he found the next available place that had Wi-Fi, the Glen Park Library. The moment Ross walked into the library, computer scientist Thomas Keenan followed him. He had been instructed to keep an eye on Ross's computer at all times, so he took up a position inside.

Undercover surveillance agents had already followed Ross in as well. Agent Tarbell sat down next to Jared outside the library. Jared was keeping a close eye on his laptop, waiting for the Dread Pirate Roberts to reconnect to the staff chat on Silk Road. Tarbell had given strict instructions to all of the other agents present to wait for Jared to get chatting with the Dread Pirate Roberts on the Silk Road employee chat before anyone made a move against him. Jared kept looking at the screen anxiously.

Minutes seemed like hours. Until finally, at 3.08pm, the Dread Pirate Roberts reconnected to the Silk Road staff chat. Jared took his opportunity, and using the Silk Road employee account of Cirrus that he had taken over, he typed, hi. But there was no response. Jared kept looking at the screen, waiting. After one minute passed, he tried again.

Are you there? 30 long seconds ticked by. The Dread Pirate Roberts responded, hey. Jared typed, how are you doing? The Dread Pirate Roberts answered, I'm okay. You? Jared said, good. Can you check out one of the flagged messages for me?

Jared knew that the Dread Pirate Roberts could only access the flagged messages from the main administrator section of Silk Road, otherwise known as the mastermind section. If they caught Ross in that part of the site, it was game over, as only the Dread Pirate Roberts could access it. Another long minute passed before the Dread Pirate Roberts answered, sure, let me log in. But before he logged in, he sent his test question, like he did with all of his employees. Only the Dread Pirate Roberts and the employee knew the answer to the question. It was a security measure to make sure it was really them.

If Jared gave the wrong answer, the Dread Pirate Roberts would shut down the account. The Dread Pirate Roberts typed, you did bitcoin exchange before you started working for me, right? The real cirrus had told Jared what the answer to the question was when Jared took over her account, but in this high pressure moment, he was struggling to remember it. Jared tentatively replied, yes, but just for a little bit. The Dread Pirate Roberts responded, not any more than that. Jared, no, I stopped because of the reporting requirements.

Sweat poured off Jared, time seemed to stand still. Had he gotten it right, or had he just blown the investigation? Jared seemed like an eternity before the Dread Pirate Roberts responded. Okay, which post? Jared knew this was it. The Dread Pirate Roberts was exactly where they needed him to be, in the mastermind section. He signalled to Chris Tarbell to go. Tarbell gave the order.

Call Ross' laptop first, and then make the arrest. At 3.15pm inside the library, Ross was staring at his computer when he heard a loud scream coming from behind him. The scream was from a woman. She yelled fuck you to a man standing by her side. Ross was startled and turned around to see what was going on. The man had his fist raised, and was about to punch the woman. But the punch never came.

Ross was confused and turned back to his laptop, but it wasn't there. The man and woman pretending to argue were FBI agents. They took Ross by the arms and screamed at him to stay still. Another agent had taken Ross' computer away from him while he was distracted by the fake argument. When Brophy appeared and handcuffed Ross, then he made him stand up and walk to the door of the library where Tarbell and Jared were waiting. Tarbell and Jared escorted Ross outside the library, and Ross asked what he was being

charged with. Tarbell held up a piece of paper. United States of America, first Ross William Ulbricht. A.K.A. Dread Pirate Roberts. A.K.A. DPR. A.K.A. Silk Road. Jared left Ross with Tarbell and returned to the library. He saw that Ross was logged into the main administrator section of Silk Road.

The Silk Road support page and Torch Hat were open as well, which showed the conversation Jared had just been having with him through Sirius' account. Thomas Keane and carefully carried the laptop out of the library and into a waiting vehicle. He had to make sure the laptop remained on at all times, so as he sat with it in the hour, he moved his finger on the mousepad regularly so it was never out of activity. Keane was driven to a special van that was a mobile computer forensics lab. He started going through Ross's laptop with another computer expert. One of the first things they did was look for any traps, like a kill switch.

The agents checked carefully, and over the next ten hours, the laptop's contents were backed up six times. FBI agents conducted a thorough search of Ross's apartment. They found two thumb drives on his bedside table and two pieces of paper in the garbage can, which showed that Ross had been designing a new rating system for Silk Road. The notes seemed cryptic. They included different keywords and ideas for the rating system. When the agents matched up these notes, there were several forum posts from the Dread Pirate

Roberts discussing the new rating system. Every keyword matched. News of the arrest broke immediately. The FBI announced that they believed Silk Road had turned over $1.2 billion in revenue, with Ross alone pocketing $80 million in commissions in the two years and ten months the site had been running. The story of the former Eagle Scout turned crime kingpin made headlines around the world. Rumors who were close to Ross couldn't believe it.

His family denied the allegations, saying Ross wasn't capable of doing what the FBI were alleging. His roommates in San Francisco, the place Ross found on Craig's list and paid foreign cash, got a shock when they saw the front page of the paper. Ross Ulbricht. He looks a lot like our old roommate, Joshua Terry. They had to do a double and triple take. It was him.

Ross hired lawyer Joshua J. Tell to represent him. He was offered a plea deal before the case went to trial. Plead guilty and served ten years to life. But he refused it. There were seven charges in total. Narcotics trafficking, distribution of narcotics by means of the internet, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics, which all carried a sentence of ten years to life. Being a continual criminal enterprise, commonly known as the kingpin charge, which carried

a sentence of twenty years to life. It could actually result in the death penalty if it was proven the person charged had committed murder. The remaining three charges were computer hacking, money laundering, and trafficking false documents. The three of those charges, if put together, could lead to a sentence of forty years to life. The one thing that Ross wasn't charged with was murder.

The charges were considered, since they found the chat logs where the Dread Pirate Roberts ordered hits on six different individuals, but they knew the hit on Curtis Green never actually happened. That had been faked. And when the FBI searched for the real identities of Friendly Chemist, Tony 76, and Tony's three partners, they couldn't find anything. No murders on their database matched to the dates and times the hits allegedly took place. The more they looked into it, the more it seemed that no murders ever took place at

all. And Ross had paid a total of $730,000, the six murders that were never committed. But he thought they had. He had received the pictures of what he thought were dead people as proof the hits had taken place. He just didn't realise they were faked. Ross had been found with his computer open on Silk Road, but he believed that's all the FBI had.

He had encrypted the rest of his files, his diary, his chat logs, the photographs of what he thought were dead bodies from the hits, and many other files. They were all encrypted with a password that Ross believed the FBI would never find. But Thomas Kiernan and his associate found the password hidden in the RAM of Ross's laptop. The password was Purple Orange Beach. That password unlocked everything on Ross's computer. The FBI had it all. Ross hadn't been as careful as he thought.

Ross's trial started on January 13, 2015. That lasted three weeks in total. Ross had a lot of people on his side. He didn't just have his family and friends, but many other people who subscribed to his beliefs and defended him, saying all he did was run a website. And if that was to be considered a crime, then the CEOs of large websites such as eBay and Craigslist should be considered criminals as well. There were pamphlets all over the stairs of the federal courthouse with people rallying

for Ross. Leading the prosecution was Seren Turner, the assistant US attorney who had worked so closely with Agent Tarber during the investigation. He explained to the jury how all of the technology worked, and he showed them the chat logs between the Dread Pirate Robots and several employees and users, including all the chats with Variety Jones. In one chat log, Variety Jones promised he would get the Dread Pirate Robots out of prison if he was ever caught, because with the amount of money they were generating, he would be

able to hire a small country to break him out. But Variety Jones wasn't coming to help. When Joshua Dratel's turn came to present Ross aside, the defense he used was that Ross wasn't the Dread Pirate Robots, he had given the side away. Dratel admitted Ross was the creator of Silk Road, but in November 2011, when Ross told his original programmer, Richard, that he'd given the side away, Dratel claimed he had actually done it. The side had proven to be too stressful, and he didn't want to have anything to do with

it anymore. After he gave it away, he headed to Australia with his sister and tried to forget about it. Dratel said the Dread Pirate Robots first appeared after Ross had already given the side away, so everything that happened after that had nothing to do with Ross, he had no knowledge of it. The evidence the FBI found on Ross's laptop was all planted by the real Dread Pirate Robots. Ross had been hacked, and the evidence planted to frame him. The book American Kingpin by Nick Bilton highlights some of the key arguments and quotes within

the courtroom. Serentona, quote. His conduct was brazenly illegal. He knew perfectly well what he was doing the whole time. He built it, he grew it, he operated it from top to bottom until the very end. And then there is the defendant's attempt to explain away mountains of evidence on his computer. It's a hacker, it's a virus, it's ludicrous.

There were no little elves that put all of that evidence on the defendant's computer. He knew perfectly well what he was doing the whole time, and you should find him guilty on all counts. Joshua Dratel, quote. One of the fundamental principles in this case is that Dread Pirate Robots and Mr. Albrecht cannot be the same person. Saving those chats, does that sound like Dread Pirate Robots? You have to actually enable the chats to be saved, keeping a journal like that and then

saving it on your laptop. A little too convenient. There are a lot of blinking neon signs in this case that have been created to incriminate Mr. Albrecht. It's not the same person, the internet is not what it seems. You can create an entire fiction. I'm confident in deliberations, you will reach only one conclusion. Ross Albrecht is not guilty on every count in the indictment.

It was Dratel's argument that the FBI hadn't caught the Dread Pirate Robots, so they settled on Ross because they needed to catch someone. He even hinted that the authorities had something to do with the frame, as they were under pressure to solve the case. But the jury didn't buy it. Ross Albrecht was found guilty. Before sentencing, Judge Catherine Forrest didn't have an easy time. She received a huge amount of letters pleading to give Ross a light sentence.

The letters spoke of his character and how he was such an incredible person and a role model. Ross himself wrote a letter to the judge saying that he now understood first hand that jail was a hard place to live, but what hurt him the most was the pain he was causing his family. He also mentioned that when he started Silk Road, he had been naive and he now regretted his actions. He ended the letter with, I've had my youth and I know you must take away my middle years,

but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker. It wasn't just messages of support for Ross that the judge received. She also received a very public threat. Someone published her home address and personal information online, along with a comment that read,

Fuck this stupid bitch, I hope some drug cartel that lost a lot of money with the seizure of the Silk Road will murder this lady and her entire family. The threat didn't stop Judge Forrest from handing down Ross' sentence on May 29, 2015. Quote, You were the captain of the ship as the Dread Pirate Roberts, and you made your own laws and you enforced those laws in the manner that you saw fit. It was in fact a carefully planned life's work, it was your opus. You wanted it to be your legacy, and it is.

After that, she addressed a point Ross' lawyer had raised. He presented a research paper to the court about drug distribution, suggesting that Silk Road could be better for society, because it would reduce violence, and it would also encourage the sale of better quality drugs. Judge Forrest, quote, No drug dealer from the Bronx selling meth or heroin or crack has ever made this kind of argument to the court. It is a privileged argument, you are no better a person than any other drug dealer, and your

education does not give you a special place of privilege in our criminal justice system. Then, she addressed the murders for hire that Ross had ordered. She stated that although no bodies were found, it didn't really matter, because Ross had paid for the murders, and he had gotten photographs of what he thought were dead bodies, so as far as Ross was concerned, those murders did happen. This is a heated point of contention, Ross never faced trial for the murders, so the argument is, they should never have been mentioned in his case. The prosecution and the judge were using the murders for hire to make the case against

Ross look much worse, but that's not what he was charged with. Judge Forrest finished with, quote, There is no reason for me to make a choice between these two people that I see that are on display. The Albrecht who is the leader of the criminal enterprise, and the Albrecht who is known and loved. What is clear is that people are very, very complex, and you are one of them. There is good in you Mr Albrecht, I have no doubt, but there is also bad, and what you

did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric. Mr Albrecht, it is my judgement delivered here, now, on behalf of our country, that you are sentenced to a period of life imprisonment in the federal system. There is no parole, and you shall serve your life in prison. Nobody was able to believe the sentence given to Ross, it was actually above and beyond what the prosecution requested. His supporters, and especially his mother Lynn, had created an ongoing campaign to free him that started almost as soon as Ross was arrested.

The campaign carried the name Free Ross, and has an official website at freeross.org. In it, Lynn has uploaded and shared everything related to the case. She continues to speak out publicly about what she believes was an unfair arrest, an unfair trial, and a severely excessive sentence. From the moment Ross was arrested on October 1st 2013, the government acted poorly and suspiciously in the eyes of Ross's supporters. For starters, after his arrest, he was kept in solitary confinement for six weeks, and neither Ross nor his family were informed as to why.

He was only permitted to leave solitary confinement during his bail hearing. Various members of his family and supporters offered every economic resource they had, including their own homes, to bail Ross out. They also wrote a lot of letters to the judge about his good character, but it was all in vain. Ross wasn't given bail because he was considered a dangerous individual due to the murder for higher allegations. Two months after the bail hearing, the murder for higher charges were officially dropped,

but bail was still denied. In preparation for the trial, more problems arose. Ross was given permission by the court to help his attorneys review the evidence against him. However, the evidence against him equaled six terabytes, or 2.5 billion single-spaced pages, and for long periods of time, he was not given either a laptop or software to review the evidence. In the trial itself, two important witnesses from the defense weren't allowed to take

the stand. One of them was Andreas Antonopoulos, a Bitcoin expert, and the other was Steven Bellowan, a computer networking and security expert from Columbia University. Both men are very well known in their fields. The defense wanted Antonopoulos to give a real and clear view of how Bitcoin works, since it's a complicated matter, and it was likely few of the jurors, if any, had any idea about it. In Bellowan's case, the defense wanted him to explain how the FBI's version of how they

found Silk Road's server sounded a bit too good to be true. The FBI's version was challenged by various security experts, and the defense wanted to explore further. But neither Antonopoulos nor Bellowan were allowed to testify. The judge stated both witnesses were unnecessary. But the government was allowed to call their Bitcoin expert, one who worked as a consultant for the FBI, and was paid to take the stand. Chris Tarbell, who had led Ross's arrest and the discovery of the Silk Road server, never

took the stand. Furthermore, there was an entire new revelation about Jared Duyagin's investigation. Thirteen days before the trial began, the defense was provided with 5,000 pages of the investigation Jared had conducted. In those pages, Jared had actually named somebody else who we thought could be the Dread Pirate Roberts. This other suspect was around Ross's age, had operated as a Bitcoin launderer, had a computer programming background, was a computer systems developer, and had operated different

websites, including Bitcoin Talk, the forum where one of the first posts promoting Silk Road appeared. Other agents had spoken to this suspect, and he allegedly offered to give them the name of the real Dread Pirate Roberts if they left him alone. There was a few weeks later that Ross Ulbricht was arrested. The defense wanted to explore this further, and on the third day of the trial, Joshua Traitell, Ross's lawyer, started cross-examining Jared about his other suspect. But he was stopped before he could really start.

Seren Turner from the prosecution objected to any line of questioning that led down the path of another Dread Pirate Roberts. He argued that the whole point of the trial was that Ross was the Dread Pirate Roberts. The court was adjourned for a couple of days to enable a decision to be made. When the trial resumed, the judge agreed with the prosecution and banned any questioning on Jared's other suspect. All in all, Ross's mum, Lynn, states that the government conducted a very controlled narrative before, throughout, and after the trial.

She said the facts presented were very carefully selected to tell the story the government wanted to tell, and justice had been far from served. Recently, in an interview Lynn gave with DailyCoin.org, she said this about the justice system. Quote, I have been absolutely shocked at how I've seen it operate in this case, and of course in many others. And so I had my eyes opened over and over again. And I feel like what I've seen is so really concerning and frightening that everyone

should care, because our justice system is so broken. And so our constitutional protections are being eroded, and there's so much unfairness that it really is shocking. And I've become a lot more skeptical and a lot more outraged. Not only for Ross, but for so many. Ross was actually sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without parole, and was given 40 years on top as well. What Lynn and Ross' supporters consider most unfair is that the sentencing is based primarily

on the fact that he ran Silk Road. Hence, he's taking the blame for all of the crimes others committed inside Silk Road. Consider his sentence to infamous serial killer and cult leader Charles Manson. Manson and other members of the Manson family at least were able to apply for parole. Ross will never have that chance. Ross' computer contained a large amount of evidence, but to this day, some question if all that evidence truly belonged to him. Some still firmly believe he was framed by the real Dread Pirate Roberts.

And there are others who feel that even if all the evidence was his, it was obtained illegally. One of the main points made by the defence was that no proper warrants were granted before searching inside Ross' computer, which was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. However, the judge ruled that there were proper warrants in place, and his Fourth Amendment rights were not infringed. The appeal judges agreed with the trial judge on this point. Apart from the chat logs of the Dread Pirate Roberts, his personal diary, and catching

Ross red-handed in the mastermind section of Silk Road, they also found a lot of money on Ross' computer. He had 144,000 bitcoins, worth close to around $20 million at the time of his arrest. These were auctioned off by the US government, and by the time the auction was held, the price of bitcoin had gone up, so they were able to get $50 million. The FBI also found a folder that contained all of Ross' employee IDs that he kept as part of his security measures. One of those IDs belonged to Roger Thomas Clark, a 54-year-old Canadian man.

The FBI, Homeland Security, and the DEA believe Roger Thomas Clark is Variety Jones. They tracked him down hiding out in a hotel room in Thailand. He was arrested, and is still being held in Thailand awaiting extradition to the United States, where he is expected to face trial for narcotics trafficking and money laundering. In total, more than 100 people were arrested in 43 different countries who had either bored or sold from Silk Road, or worked for Silk Road. Curtis Green, who Ross paid a nob to kill, was facing up to 40 years imprisonment. However, the judge took into account that Curtis was tortured and had a murder faked

by government officials, so he gave him a sentence of time served. Curtis now sells Silk Road hats, t-shirts, and is writing a memoir about his time as a Silk Road employee. As for Carl Force, the Baltimore DEA agent who posed as nob on Silk Road, he was given an award for his work on the case. Carl even thought about going in the same direction as Curtis and contacted book publishers and studios in Hollywood. He wanted to sell the story of the DEA agent who helped bring down Silk Road.

But it wasn't long before things started falling apart for Carl. The FBI and the IRS had been tracing the bitcoins that had entered and left Silk Road. They found that some bitcoins went straight into an account owned by Carl Force. They started an undercover investigation on him, and they began finding other things. They found especially incriminating messages to the Dread Pirate Roberts from someone under the pseudonym, French Maid. French Maid was another identity Carl had created. He had done it shortly before Ross' arrest.

Under the French Maid account, Carl told the Dread Pirate Roberts he had information he would want to hear. For that information, Carl asked for $100,000, and Ross paid it. But Carl made a big error. In the messages under the French Maid account, he signed off using his real name, Carl. He realized his error and sent another message saying his real name was Carl, but he was fooling no one. After investigating further, they eventually uncovered all of the other encrypted and deleted

messages Carl had sent to the Dread Pirate Roberts under his other account names of Knob and Kevin. In total, from the fake murder hit and the information he sold about the case, Carl had pocketed $757,000. Carl surrendered and pled guilty to the charges. He was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison. He wasn't the only one involved in the investigation who was up to no good either. Secret Service Agent Sean Bridges, who Carl had teamed up with at one point, had stolen

Bitcoins as well. Ross had been wrong all along. He ordered a hit on the wrong person. Curtis Green wasn't the one who stole $350,000 worth of Bitcoins from him. It was Sean Bridges who stole them. During the arrest of Curtis Green, Bridges saw that Curtis had access to many users' Bitcoins. When no one was watching, Bridges redirected $350,000 worth into an account with a fake

business name. Bridges actually returned to Curtis' computer and stole even more money after that. The FBI eventually found that these missing Bitcoins pointed to Bridges, so they started an undercover investigation on him as well. Bridges found out about the investigation and he had a fake passport and a bulletproof vest on him when he was arrested trying to leave the country. Bridges pled guilty to the charges. In total, he had stolen over $800,000.

He was given a sentence of close to six years. As for Gary Alfred, whose Google searches found the Dread Pirate Robert, he still works for the IRS. And after the Silk Road case, he was given an award which he keeps on his desk. It reads, the Sherlock Holmes of cyberspace. FBI agent Chris Tarbell left the FBI after someone posted all of his personal information online in retaliation for his work on the case. His home address and his children's school address were posted.

He now works for a cyber consultancy company where he assists the government and businesses on cyber-related crimes. On November 6, 2013, just one month after Ross's arrest, Silk Road 2.0 opened for business. A moderator from the original Silk Road site posted the following announcement, taken from the book Silk Road by Eileen Ormsby. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce our new home. As I've always stated, even with Silk Road itself, you should act at all times as though any site or marketplace you visit has been compromised from the very beginning.

That is the only way to ensure that you do not become lax with your security. Do not fall into a false sense of security at any time on any site. Do not get comfortable. When you get comfortable, you get confident. When you get confident, you get cocky. And when you get cocky, you get caught. With the necessary security warnings out of the way, I look forward to seeing you all over on the new site.

Let law enforcement waste their time and resources, whilst we make a statement to the world that we will not allow jackbooted government thugs trample our freedom. We are born free, yet moments later we are shackled by the rule of law. It is time, once again, to break free of those shackles. In the beginning, Silk Road 2.0 was the answer for all those who missed the original Silk Road. There were even some of the same moderators, but it didn't last long. Some of the moderators were arrested, and Silk Road 2.0 was shut down.

Then Silk Road 3.0 appeared. A number of other black market websites also appeared under various names, but there are those who feel these sites are nothing more than scams or law enforcement traps. In May 2017, Ross lost an appeal against his life sentence. One of the judges on the three-judge panel said this, quote, Reasonable people may and do disagree about the social utility of harsh sentences for the distribution of controlled substances, or even of criminal prohibition of their sale and use at all.

It is very possible that at some future point we will come to regard these policies as tragic mistakes and adopt less punitive and more effective methods of reducing the incidents and costs of drug use. At this point in our history, however, the democratically elected representatives of the people have opted for a policy of prohibition, backed by severe punishment. Courts have the power to condemn a young man to die in prison, and judges must exercise that power only in a small number of cases, after the deepest thought and reflection. Although we might not have imposed the same sentence ourselves in the first instance,

on the facts of this case, a life sentence was within the range of permissible decisions. In March 2012, Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts, wrote the following post on the Silk Road forums. Someday we could be a shining beacon of hope for the oppressed people of the world, just as so many oppressed and violated souls have found refuge here already. Will it happen overnight? No. Will it happen in a lifetime?

I don't know. Is it worth fighting for until my last breath? Of course. Once you've seen what's possible, how can you do otherwise? How can you plug yourself into the tax-eating, life-sucking, violent, sadistic, warmongering, oppressive machine ever again? How can you kneel when you've felt the power of your own legs, felt them stretch and flex as you learn to walk and think as a free person?

I would rather live my life in rags now than in golden chains. And now we can have both. Now it is profitable to throw off one's chains, with amazing crypto technology reducing the risk of doing so dramatically. How many niches have yet to be filled in the world of anonymous online markets? The opportunity to prosper and take part in a revolution of epic proportions is at our fingertips. Judge Catherine Forrest, during the sentencing of Ross Ulbricht, aka the Dread Pirate Roberts.

I make this judgment mindful of the crimes that you have committed and the needs for the severest possible penalty to be imposed. There must be no doubt that lawlessness will not be tolerated. 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. There must be no doubt that you cannot run a massive criminal enterprise, and because it occurred over the internet, minimise the crime committed on that basis. For those considering stepping into your shoes, carrying some flag, some misguided flag, or

doing something similar. They need to understand very clearly, and without equivocation, that if you break the law this way, there will be very, very severe consequences.