Slashdot Mirror
Silk Road Founder Indicted In New York
An anonymous reader sends this report from Wired:
"Federal authorities today announced a Grand Jury indictment against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder and owner of the underground drug emporium Silk Road. The indictment (PDF), in New York, includes one count for narcotics conspiracy, one count of running a criminal enterprise, one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and one count of money laundering, according to the indictment. It's the second indictment for the the 29-year-old, who was arrested last October in San Francisco. Ulbricht was previously charged in New York at the time of his arrest, but authorities had until December to obtain an indictment against him based on new evidence seized. They sought an extension of that time and announced the indictment today. Ulbricht had been previously indicted in Maryland on charges of conspiring to have a former administrator of Silk Road murdered in exchange for $80,000."
goes to jail. Nothing to see here.
This is up to the attorneys now.
I'm just a programmer with a bunch of advanced degrees in engineering and I know shit about the law.
Legal reasoning is beyond 1+1=2. I wish it were that easy but it requires subtleties that aren't taught in engineering school.
One count of doing something illegal, six more counts of doing things we made illegal just to catch people when we didn't find enough evidence.
.....fill in the blank with you....eventually.
The Slashdot beta has been indicted due to its extreme shittiness. The community here has convicted it of indeed being truly shitty. All that's left to do now is for those running Slashdot to clue in, and to put to death the stinking turd that we've come to know as the Slashdot beta project.
Let's face it, it's a failed software project. It's technologically inferior in every sense. The users who've been subjected to it generally hate it with a passion. It's a worse site than the existing one, which itself is worse than the one that preceded it. So the Slashdot beta isn't just bad, it's exceptionally horrible.
Failed software projects happen. When they happen, like we've had happen here with the Slashdot beta, the only sensible response is to kill the project completely. The earlier they're killed, the better. It's less wasteful that way.
If the beta goes live, I'm quite certain that it will destroy Slashdot as we know it today. It'll be a Digg v4-style mega-failure all over again. As history has shown, a web site remake as truly rancid as the Slashdot beta site is can and will drive away nearly all of the existing users.
I hope it doesn't come to that. Instead, I wish that the Slashdot crew would come to their senses, publicly admit that the beta site was a failure, cancel the project, throw away the code, and at least learn a lesson or two from the many mistakes of the beta. The sooner the better!
Seriously /. - fuck you! If I go to slashdot.org you redirect me to beta.slashdot.org. If I go to classic.slashdot.org, you redirect me to beta.slashdot.org. If I log in, you redirect me to beta.slashdot.org.
I freaking HATE beta.slashdot.org and I resent your pushing me into it! If I log in, and my preferences are set to classic, LET ME HAVE CLASSIC!
Maybe Hans Reiser can give him the name of his attorney.
You're not alone. I see these anti-Slashdot-beta posts so often now. I really hope that the Slashdot brass are seeing them, too, and hopefully realizing how much just about everyone hates this beta site.
Everything about the beta site is contrary to what typical Slashdot users want and will put up with. It's like it has been specifically designed to alienate as many existing users here as it possibly could. Maybe that would make some business sense, were it not for the fact that it does absolutely nothing to attract any new users.
While it could be argued that Slashdot has been stagnating, if not declining, for several years now, the beta site going live (if it happens) will surely just accelerate that process, rather than stop or reverse it. There are many of us who will be driven away if the beta site goes live. It truly is that unusable.
I hope that those in charge at Slashdot are just giving it a two-month trial period. Maybe at the end of February they'll be able to admit that the beta project is an utter failure, and they'll put an end to it. That's really the only viable option. The beta site has no future, regardless of whether it's because it's sensibly killed off by Slashdot management, or whether it's because it goes live and drives away all of the existing users.
Except he was specifically running the site to facilitate illegal drug sales. He was also taking a cut of the sales. That goes far beyond your absurd bullshit.
If you run a Nickleback fan forum, and someone posts child porn, you are not responsible for that.
If you create a web site expressly for anonymous selling, and you're well aware of people selling drugs on it, and taking a cut of those profits, then you are a conspirator to that crime.
In addition, GP said it has nothing to do with politics. If however, he was a dolt who could have been convicted for a far lesser crime years earlier, it does seem like politics that the authorities allowed and implicitly encouraged the growth of the enterprise. It is pure cyberwar-fear-mongering politics to nurture a criminal enterprise until the point it is really scary to the public (murder for hire), instead of just nipping the thing in the bud before it becomes a political fear-point. I see an entirely plausible aspect that this was a long term political stunt to bolster the authoritarian desire to get the public to fear those genius cyber masterminds. Create enough criminal enterprises like that, via the use of selective enforcement of 4th ammendment violating surveillance, and you can end up getting the public to fear the threat enough to normalize that level of privacy invading surveillance. It could well have been pure political cyber-fear-mongering politics. They chose to let the situation escalate.
one count for narcotics conspiracy, one count of running a criminal enterprise, one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and one count of money laundering,
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Seriously? Conspiracy to commit computer hacking? When did hacking become illegal?
If he really was guilty of that, to the point of being convictable, why didn't he get indicted with that?
He was indicted with that. RTFIndictment, it's on the page 5.
Also, your concept of entrapment is just a tad above "undercover cops can't lie if you ask them whether they are cops, or it's entrapment!".
PS: "they knew Silkroad's activities" != "they knew DPR's identity".
In order to show entrapment you have to make a judge or jury believe that if the government had not been involved, that the crime would not have occurred. There's no way this guy can make that case.
The timeline does not support your theory. By the time the feds got involved, Silk Road was already a very popular marketplace. They got access to the servers, and watched the site operate for about 4 months. That's very standard in drug ring cases. It would be stupid to arrest everyone involved the moment you know about it. The goal is to collect a mountain of evidence so that they can charge people with a bunch of crimes and make rock solid cases in court.
Yeah...that's not at all what I'm talking about.
Ross Ulbricht is arrogant, inexperienced and dumb, and he doesn't have a sufficiently strong moral foundation to operate a large anti-establishment enterprise. When arrested, he was using the Glen Park public library (in his home city of San Francisco, CA USA) WiFi viewing a Silk Road admin page he had titled "mastermind". This event shows his attitude toward himself and his level of caution. He was caught because he slipped-up on identity security, realized it, yet took no precautions, like leaving the country.
I'll provide personal story that gives some insight into my own attitude toward being cautious while at the screen: Of the last three times I was busted, once (for traffic warrant) occurred as I was biking away from the courthouse, but the other two times prior (one traffic and the other, I kid you not, for littering) I was sitting in front of the computer at home.
(||) Nehmo (||)
Heroin is even better, since it's a useful base for making other opiates.
In fact, other non-heroin based opiates are even more addictive, yet those are superscribed to people all the time.
I do not think that word means What you think it means
A drug-dealing, murderous pothead who made money from exploiting people. Hope they put him away for life.
you're giving the knuckleheads at the FBI way too much credit. I'd say it's more likely they didn't even realize it was a thing until a short while before they caught him. You're also giving the knucklehead charged way too much credit. He was dumb enough to get caught when viable, well documented methods of ensuring privacy and anonymity online should have been used. If pedophiles can trade pics online without getting caught, and terrorists can communicate securely online, then acting as an anonymous drug trade mediator should be possible as well. There was a defcon talk about the mistakes this guy made. I don't have it offhand but if some kind anon would be willing to link it, it's a very informative video.
...includes one count for narcotics conspiracy, one count of running a criminal enterprise, one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and one count of money laundering,...
So, from that little snippet, it seems our man is qualified to work at the following government agencies:
CIA
FBI
NSA
Or, he could just run for congress. Scratch that, it seems he'd be under-qualified.
I'm pretty sure running a Nickleback fan forum is the more serious of the two charges here so your example is moot.
If you create a web site expressly for anonymous selling, and you're well aware of people selling drugs on it, and taking a cut of those profits, then you are a conspirator to that crime.
Awesome! Current legal precedent in the US legal system is to charge that person 5 hours of profits and let them keep doing it. Seems legit to me
If you build a road, and people use it to distribute illegal drugs and you know it, and you collect tolls on the road use, they you are also a conspirator to that crime. Jail those who collect the tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike!
Them saying they were only investigating for that little amount of time is just plausible deniability for knowing about it and letting it escalate to what it became. Silk Road was around for YEARS. I remember people who even weren't computer savvy talking about it and using it. The only reason anything was done, was from all the complaints being made so now they need to uphold the good guy image. There's far worst nodes on the tor network.. child rape, animal torture / fighting rings, hit men for hire, snuff videos.. a lot of which is ran by cartels and other criminal organizations(Eastern Europe). This guy was an easy target to glorify themselves with. Don't get me wrong though, he deserved what he got.. but don't buy into their bullshit, it's just a show and a way for them to make a reasoning for all the data hoarding and bad NSA publicity.
No, it's not hard to add. But it often doesn't work! I'll add it, and yet usually still remain stuck on the beta site.
Besides, it's naive to think that it'll remain available if the beta site does go live at some point. Not that it does much good now, mind you, given how fucking broken it apparently is!
If it wasn't illegal, it wouldn't be a crime?
Wow judging a criminal matter by what appears in a slashdot summary? I just lost the hope I didn't realize I still had for humanity.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Dude, Ralph Fucking Wiggam just called you an idiot. Think about that. Ralph Wiggam is your intellectual superior.
The timeline does not support your theory. By the time the feds got involved, Silk Road was already a very popular marketplace. They got access to the servers, and watched the site operate for about 4 months. That's very standard in drug ring cases.
You know what else is apparently standard these days? Parallel Construction. You seem pretty sure of your timeline. If I were the defendent, I'd have my counsel ask many questions about that timeline.
What makes me extra suspicious is why I didn't see that charge in this article summary.
It's... It's in the article summary.
I mean, it's right there. In the summary.
Literally.
?no_beta=1
That does not mean that there are no substantial charges to make.
The book to throw at him should be heavy enough without having to soak it in crap you could basically charge everybody with.
But its at the end....do you really expect people to read the WHOLE summary
www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
Basically when anyone on the internet claims it is entrapment, they have no clue what they are talking about. Your post is the textbook example of that.
You should try reading more and spewing BS less.
Ross Ulbricht is not the founder of Silk Road. He is not the first Dread Pirate Roberts.
No. Criminal corporations are allowed to continue, since they can't be put in jail or legally executed. They also have the 'too big to' fail/jail excuse. Criminal persons are robbed and jailed.
Are you talking about HSBC? It was 5 weeks of profits, not 5 hours. At least get your basic facts right.
And HSBC was *not* a conspirator to money laundering. They did not follow the oversight regulations and allowed other people to launder money.
Actually, to show entrapment you have to make a judge or jury believe that the government induced the individual to commit the crime. Creating the opportunity to commit the crime isn't enough. Providing aid (as in, providing bomb-making materials) isn't enough.
Not entrapment:
Perp: I want to kill that guy.
Cop: Want to borrow my knife?
Perp: Hey, thanks, man.
Entrapment:
Perp: I hate that guy.
Cop: Me, too. I'll give you $1000 to kill him.
Perp: I dunno. Seems kind of extreme.
Cop: Come on. I'll give you $2000 to kill him.
Perp: Oh, all right. I could use the money.
The Beta Wars....
Even in the past !