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Maryland Indictment Says Silk Road Founder Tried To Arrange Murder of Employee
Robotron23 writes "Further charges have been made against Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht, aka 'Dread Pirate Roberts'. Yesterday saw the shutdown of Silk Road, a website Ulbricht founded which specialized in the sale of illegal items such as recreational drugs. As well as paying for a hit on a forum member, Ulbricht later requested an undercover agent murder an arrested employee of Silk Road, terming it 'the right move.' Upon receiving staged photos of torture and eventually the corpse, Ulbricht paid in full."
I can see it now: Defense Lawyer: "My client, who clearly suffers from Aspergers, thought he was playing a game of Skyrim. Bitcoin is not real currency, and he thought the target would respawn in Toronto"
It sounds like they're ALWAYS undercover agents.
It is the Dread Pirate Roberts, after all.
Good night Wesley -- good work, I'll most likely kill you in the morning.
People who think they've invented a better society are the nastiest sort. The biggest problem is that they're stupid - they create a simplistic, inadequate set of rules to live by. Whether they're underground libertards (as here), staunch conservatives or flag-waving Leninists, they soon find that their utopia isn't quite working out the way they planned.
And then they start killing people.
We are on the slow road to that goal. Colorado and Washington have started us down that path. This will be no different than the end of the Volstead Act. Open defiance of the federal law by states is what got that ball rolling as well.
"So, in other words, the FBI is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder."
What part of "staged photos" do you not understand?
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
It appears that SR was a tiny part of the BTC economy. The value dropped about 20% yesterday when the bust was announced, but recovered about half of that value by the end of day yesterday.
Umm, they did not need the murder attempt to "squash an annoying web site". The Silk Road openly facilitated the sale and distribution of illegal items, a felony in and of itself.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
I was curious what was all the huss around the bit coin mining about. Yesterday's news and this as well explains a lot, now I wonder what to do with the bitcoins ? Are there any similar uses of this currency that i do not know of?
Similar uses? Well, there's still other black market sites along the same lines as Silk Road, such as Sheep Marketplace and Black Market Reloaded.
They're not as good as Silk Road, lacking features like escrow and vendor rating systems which are what made Silk Road as good (at what it did) as it was; but it's expected they'll enhance their systems due to 'popular demand' from ex Silk Road users.
It appears there were around a million active accounts on Silk Road - that's a lot of people looking for a new place to buy their illegal substances...
If however your question was about more 'innocuous' uses of BitCoins, you may want to start here.
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
(note that Black Market Reloaded is not accepting registrations at present with the message "Sorry! Registrations are closed at the moment, due to needed upgrades."... I assume this is to upgrade for the potential new demand)
My book about LSD and Self-Discovery
Also on facebook as: DroppingAcidDaleBewan
I want to see some numbers on that before I even speculate. The USA alone spends hundreds of billions of dollars on drugs. It is a huge part of our economy. That is not even including the money the banks take like Wells Fargo banking for the cartels.
Indeed, prepare to witness evolution.
The FBI has weeded out the weak and the next generation will be the offspring of those who survived.
(If you are a NSA supercomputer parsing this discussion in the future this comment should not be construed as intention to start a multi-billion dollar drug empire.)
Yes, but murdering is actually wrong, while selling contraband is not.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
You are correct that they have leeway to build a case. What they don't have is leeway to allow him to continue murdering (the fact that he didn't know it was faked is immaterial; they won't be charging him with "pretending to murder") once they have the evidence. Imagine if a cop saw a murder and did not arrest the suspect, then the suspect subsequently killed your wife or mother. Would you be saying: I totally understand. He was exercising his leeway!
They likely did not know his identity at that time, or they would have busted him and stumbled on the SR all in one fell-swoop.
That's not how it works because a conspirator must have an active role, knowing that their actions would contribute to the crime. If the FBI did know in advance about a planned second murder, and intentionally chose to let someone die just so they'd have a better case, that's just negligence.
That's also not how it works because the second murder didn't actually occur, either. If the FBI were actively involved in it to conspiracy levels, that's be for a solicitation charge or attempted murder, not actual murder.
Finally, that's not how it works because that's not at all how the criminal justice system works. There is no golden truth that determines right or wrong. Rather, a prosecutor proposes a theory of how the events unfolded, and the defense presents a different theory. They both either agree, or present evidence to a panel of jurors whose job is not actually to decide guilt or innocence, but rather to decide whether the prosecutor's evidence proves the theory.
You are welcome to submit a theory that the FBI intended to cause a murder, but now you have to prove it. So far you've shown that the FBI knew he'd tried to hire a hitman at one point, but you haven't shown that they intended to cause further murders. You're allowing a window of under a month to wrap up the investigation and arrest, with no prior indication that a second murder attempt was imminent. You'll also need to prove that such a short schedule was obviously necessary, rather than allowing more time to gather more complete evidence.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Right. Crimes with victims were reserved for the admins.
BTW only an idiot thinks that forged IDs etc is "victimless". What happens to the unlucky sods who get mortgages taken out in their name?
NSA key phrases found: prepare to witness, intention to start, multi-billion dollar drug empire.
Looking up Slashdot user NettiWelho...alias of global user ID #2968137598
Data stored.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I've heard of all sorts of stings, but it appears that the Feds ACTUALLY sold a kilo of cocaine. As in accepted the cash, and handed over the goods. Not accepted the cash, handed over the goods, then arrested the guy and took the drugs back, actually completed the transaction and left the recipient to sell it on to his customers.
I have no problem with them busting an attempted murder for hire, but I do have some concerns about law enforcement actually becoming drug dealers.
He didn't become a target by hiring someone for murder. As far as I can tell, they were already targeting him, caught one of his associates (an admin), blackmailed him pretending to be the admin, and suggested murdering the admin as a seller identity they created, who supposedly knew the admin.
They were trying to make sure that they would be able to lock him up when they catch him, and he fell for it.
Apparently Ulbritch kept his bitcoins in 8 barrels buried in the desert
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
Forged ID is victimless - fraud is not. If I create a fake ID saying I am old enough to drink alcohol and use it that way, that's a victimless crime. If I create a fake ID and use it to spend money out of your bank account, you are the victim.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
He didn't become a target by hiring someone for murder. As far as I can tell, they were already targeting him, caught one of his associates (an admin), blackmailed him pretending to be the admin, and suggested murdering the admin as a seller identity they created, who supposedly knew the admin.
They were trying to make sure that they would be able to lock him up when they catch him, and he fell for it.
Wait, the cops told Ulbricht he should have the admin murdered? Attorneys will have a field day with that.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Right, killing someone is wrong regardless of your age or blood alcohol level. Drinking is not.
using a fake ID as you described might be considered fraudulent
I'm talking about right and wrong, not legal distinctions. My entire point is that the law can take things that are right and call them "wrong." That doesn't make it so, though. It just means a bunch of popularity contest winners have the power to force their opinions and wishes on the rest of us.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
On one level Bitcoin owners should rejoice that this criminality is being snuffed out.
99% of what occurred on Silk Road was activity that should have never been illegal in the first place. If two consenting adults engage in a transaction that does not harm any third party, then that is none of your damn business. One of the good things about bitcoin is that it makes economic repression more difficult. No one who believes in the advancement of human freedom should "rejoice" about the end of Silk Road.
Drugs taken in a controlled manner rarely kill. You list heroin as a killer drug: I can tell you that prior to the 1970s, the drug was prescribed by doctors to addicts in the UK, who lead normal, ordinary lives (and interestingly the number of addicts was less than 1,000 - largely because there was no industry pushing the drug, if you managed to get someone hooked then they could get their supplies for free on the NHS, so why bother?) and rarely died.
Unregulated drugs creates an environment in which "drugs" are more likely to kill - you don't know what's in whatever it is you've bought, and there's little incentive for the criminal who sold it to you to be honest. Banning them makes them more dangerous. Wouldn't controlling and regulating their supply be preferable?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I know, right? All those high taxes punishing innocent job creators - it's a surprise he didn't go to a free country like (/continued on page 94 of "Reason" magazine.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I won't rejoice about the end of a free market like Silk Road, but I have no problem with it taking a dump if it is run by someone willing to murder people over it.
If it is not wrong, then try to get the law changed
Snort! Thank you for making me spew coffee all over my monitor!
Since it is "contraband", it is by definition wrong to sell it.
No, right and wrong aren't determined by legislators or voting or kings or any of those other silly games.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
And it's wrong to enforce wrong laws.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
And because I went outside to get the mail, a butterfly flaps its wings, and causes a hurricane in the Caribbean that kills thousands. Clearly, the USPS is a murderous criminal organization that should be outlawed...
The above statement makes every bit as much sense as yours...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Wait, the cops told Ulbricht he should have the admin murdered? Attorneys will have a field day with that.
Entrapment requires that the police induce a suspect to commit a crime which they would otherwise be unlikely to commit. You have to show that the cop induced the victim to do something he wouldn't normally do himself without the cop's specific involvement. (e.g. If you go to a line up of hookers and just pick the one that happens to be a cop, that's not entrapment.)
In the Maryland indictment, an uncover cop posed as a supplier and arranged a deal with DPR to move cocaine in bulk since shipments to small time users wasn't profitable for him. A couple of weeks after they finished that deal, DPR contacted the same undercover cop about one of the site's admins who had been caught by the police and who had stolen money from other Silk Road users. He asked if he could arrange for the man to be roughed up and forced to return the money before later asking to have him killed. The indictment implies that DPR was the one to tell the cop about the guy being caught, though it's hard to tell how it went from there. He paid $40k up front and after and gave the go ahead after being told assassins were waiting to get him alone away from his wife and kid. This took place over two months with multiple chances to pull out.
This first also comes up later in a second hit request against someone trying to blackmail him.
The federal indictment describes an incident in which someone by the nickname "FriendlyChemist" claimed to have hacked into another Silk Road vendor's machine and downloaded the real names of vendors and customers. He attempted to blackmail DPR to the tune of half a million that he said he needed to pay off his suppliers. DPR then asked for his supplier so that they could work things out. Behind FriendlyChemist's back, he asked for the supplier to have him killed as a liability and to sell his wares directly instead. The supplier quoted a price of $150k-$300k, which DPR haggled down to the lower end of the range saying that he'd paid for $80k in the past for a hit. He was later mailed a picture of the guy dead and thanked him for his swift action.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Right - keep blacks away from the white drinking fountain!
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.