Will a new identity save the Silk Road’s creator? (Part 3/3) | Forensic Files

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Ross Ulbricht - 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 Duras 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 rhasta wasn't sure what was happening were they trying to treat 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 just 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 to 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
fractal form at tor mail comm the San Francisco homeland security agents think for us and left it at that for the time
being ruff shut the door and to let out a huge sigh of relief meanwhile July was proving to be a very
busy month for Jarod der-yeghiayan 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 Cristobal from the cybercrime division
although Tarbell wasn't present at the deconfliction meeting he watched Jared's presentation via
videolink and was impressed Tarbell wanted to work with Jerrod Tarbell explained to Jerrod that he saw the
chrome team had the holy grail of the Silk Road case Silk Road server but 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 Jarrett 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 new agents from
Homeland Security were raiding her house in Texas during the raid jared introduced himself to Cirrus and gave
her two options they should 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 hub 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 onto Silk Road and it became Cirrus just after he logged on Cirrus received the message from the
Dread Pirate Roberts offering a paid moderators 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 a 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 there 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 offices in New York
agent Christabel 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 no me Toby'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 cafes Wi-Fi
to access Silk Road although as Tarbell explained to Jarrod as quoted in the book American kingpin by Nick Bilton 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 cafes Internet
traffic to see if they could find anything else after this Jarrod 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 was a life 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 DEA agent Carl Force who was undercover on the site posing his nob
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 to be our 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 calm 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 server gary entered the office and took a look
around noticing the large piece of paper on the wall like jared heard gary also noticed the words Nomi Toby's San
Francisco he asked Tarbell about it and Tarbell told him the same story he had told Jarrod 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 was a competition not a joint investigation so we 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 Jarrod
would have found out that the guy Gary was looking at in San Francisco was Ross Ulbricht it was around this time that
Ross's 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 he rented another room in
San Francisco and took her there they spent the night together in 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 man 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 Julie had seen all she needed to Ross
and obviously lied to her when he said he had given silk right away and to 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 Alford 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 Ulbricht name he had done this before already but maybe Neil something new would come up well 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 the mini Co which Gary found strange since Dominica and the Caribbean
in general was a place well known for money laundering then the homeland security agents
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 Ulbricht the San Francisco agents noted that Ross's roommates knew him as Joshua Terry not Ross Ulbricht
Ross paid for his room in cash before living at 15th Avenue Ross had lived in Hickory Street in San Francisco central
area the agents notes read Albrecht who 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 children down Gary spine he ran to his supervisors office and screamed it's him
it's him the supervisor asked Gary to come down and explain what was going on Gary did and the supervisor told him to
call sir internal the assistant US attorney that was working with FBI agent Chris Tarbell Gary called Turner and
started giving him an overexcited 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 Rene when he first moved to San
Francisco Turner punched it straight into Google Maps Turner said holy [ __ ] it's around
the corner from mommy Toby's cafe where we founded the IP address Turner immediately arranged a conference
call with Cristobal Jarod der-yeghiayan into Gary Alfred Gary started from the beginning elaborating on the Google
search had done that led him to the to forum posts from someone called out to it he then went on to say that the user
Altoid had originally registered with an email address Ross Ulbricht at gmail.com
but then deleted that address and entered a fake address frosty frosty calm 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 Fr Oeste why Gary was starting to get frustrated with the interruptions and said yes frosty with
that spelling what Tarbell answered because when we got the server from Iceland we saw that the
server ended 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 Garry Alfred 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 raw soul bricks every move their operation resulted in the other agencies
working on a case to immediately stand down the email 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 email he'd 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
ended 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 on
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 tone the Dread Pirate Roberts logged out
of Silk Road the agents had no doubt Ross Ulbricht was the men they were looking for they scheduled the arrest
that take place on October 1st 2013 agent Cristobal 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 realized there was a problem and he called Jarod der-yeghiayan to join him Jared was back in Chicago
still pretending to be Silk Road employee a 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 a Cirrus when
he landed in San Francisco as soon as Jared landed he met with agent Cristobal and two other men one of them was named
Brophy a special agent with the FBI in New York and in the other men was Thomas Keenan the computer scientists from the
FBI cybercrime division Keenan was there to take care of Russell 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 on to 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 into the fact the FBI needed Ross's 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 teams from New York that 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 won't part of the investigation they didn't know much about Ross or the Dread Pirate Roberts
and who 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 logs 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 art 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 locked 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 he outlined another concern DEA agent Carl force from Baltimore had phoned him and
demanded access to Silk Road 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 turbo 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 swattin 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 table l 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 agents are bill Jarod der-yeghiayan and Thomas
Keenan came up with a new point 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 Cirrus 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 hope you'd reappear there again they waited anxiously praying he would show up the
time was 1:00 p.m. 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 2:47 p.m. the Dread Pirate Roberts signed out of the chat Jarret
checked his battery level it was down to 18 percent since the Dread Pirate Roberts was no longer online Jared made
his way inside the Bello cafe to charge his computer the cafe was jammed packed with people the Jared managed to find an
open power point 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 noir 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 Kean and
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 Rossi in as well agents arbel 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 Thabo had given strict instructions to all of the other agents
present to wait for Jarrett 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 3:08 p.m. the Dread Pirate Roberts reconnected to the Silk Road staff chat Jarrett 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 jarred kept
looking at the screen waiting after one minute passed he tried again are you there
30 long seconds ticket by the Dread Pirate Roberts responded hey Jarrett talked how are you doing
the Dread Pirate Roberts answered on ok you Jarrod said good can you check out one of the flagged messages for me
Jarrod 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 that was
game over as only the Dread Pirate Roberts could access it another long minute passed before the
Dread Pirate Roberts he answered sure let me login 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 Ben 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 he 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 it 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 signaled to Chris Tarbell to go Tarbell gave the order
Paul Ross's laptop first and then make the arrest we hope you're enjoying today's episode
we'll be back shortly support for case file comes from audible who proudly presents West Cork this
year's first not-to-be-missed true-crime audio series here's what we know days before Christmas in 1996 so
fetus gone deployed ta was beaten to death outside her weekend home in the Irish countryside the tangled
investigation to find her killer shook a small Irish community to its core and consumed to the lives of those in its
path in to 21 years later the rest remains a mystery join the hunt for the truth in this original true crime audio
series free for a limited time only on audible listen now at audible.com slash West Cork this 13-part series will give
you unprecedented access to all the K players including an embattled prime suspect who has never been brought to
trial listen now at audible.com slash West Cork at 3:15 p.m. 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 [ __ ] you Tom Ian 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 we're FBI agents they took Ross by the
arms and screamed at him to stay still another agent and taken Ross's computer away from him while he was distracted by
the fake argument agent 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 versus Ross William ohlbrecht aka Dread Pirate Roberts aka DPO aka Silk Road Jaron 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 torture were open as well which showed the
conversation Jared had just been having with him through Cyrus's accountant Thomas Kean 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 car he moved his finger on the mousepad regularly so it was never out of
activity Keenan 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 10 hours the laptops contents
were backed up six times FBI agents conducted a thorough search of rasa'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 note sent cryptic they included different key
words and ideas for the rating system when the agents matched up these notes for several foreign posts from the Dread
Pirate Roberts discussing the new rating system every keyword matched news of the
arrests broke immediately the FBI announced that they believed Silk Road had turned over 1.2 billion dollars in
revenue with Ross alone pocketing 80 million dollars 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 those 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 Craigslist and paid for in 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 toll to
represent him he was offered a plate deal before the case went to trial plead guilty and served 10 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 10 years to life running a continual
criminal enterprise commonly known as the kingpin Church which carried a sentence of 20 years to life they 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 have put together could lead to a sentence of 40 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 that hits allegedly took place the more they look into it the more it seemed that no murders ever
took place at all and Ross had paid a total of seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars for six murders that
were never committed but he thought they had he had received the pictures of what
he thought were dead people has proof the hits had taken place he just didn't realize 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 have all 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 Keenan and his associate found the password hidden in the rim of Russ's laptop the password was purple
orange beach that password unlocked everything on Ross's computer the FBI had at all
Ross hadn't been as careful as he thought Ross's trial started On January 13 2015 at 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 than the CEOs of large websites such as eBay and Craigslist should be considered
criminals as well they were painful it's all over the stairs of the federal courthouse with people rallying for Ross
leading the prosecution was sarin Turner the assistant US attorney who had worked
so closely with agent turbo or during the investigation he explained to the jury how all the technology worked and
he showed them the chat logs between the Dread Pirate Roberts 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 Roberts out of prison was ever caught because with the amount of money they were generating he would
be able to hire a small country - breaking me up but variety Jones wasn't coming to help when Joshua dray tells
turn came to present Ross aside the defense he used was that Ross wasn't the Dread Pirate Roberts he had given the
sight away Jay Tell admitted Ross was the creator of Silk Road but in November 2011 when Ross told his original
programmer Richard that he'd given the site away Jay tell claimed he had actually done it the site 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 Jay tell said the Dread Pirate Roberts
first appeared after Ross had already given the site 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
Roberts Ross had been hacked into the evidence planted the framing the book American kingpin by Nick Bilton
highlights some of the key arguments and quotes within the courtroom sir internal
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 defendants 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 defendants computer he knew
perfectly well what he was doing the whole time and you should find him guilty on all counts
Joshua trait L quote one of the fundamental principles in this case is the Dread Pirate Roberts
and mr. Albrecht cannot be the same person saving those chats does that sound like Dread Pirate Roberts 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 Ulbricht is not guilty on every count in
the indictment it was great Elle's argument that the FBI hadn't caught the Dread Pirate
Roberts 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 Ulbricht was found guilty before sentencing judge Katherine Forrest didn't have an easy Tolin she received a
huge amount of letters pleading to give Ross a life sentence the letter 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 the firsthand 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 in 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 the very public threat someone
published her home address and personal information online along with a comment that read [ __ ] this stupid [ __ ] I hope
some drug cartel that lost a lot of money with a seizure of the Silk Road will murder this lady and her entire
family the threat didn't stop judge Forrest from handing down Ross's 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 enforce those laws
in a manner that useful 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 Russ's 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 were 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 the 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 these capes 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 ohlbrecht who is the leader
of the criminal enterprise and the ohlbrecht who is known and loved what is clear is that people are very very
complex and you're one of them there is good in you mr. Albrecht I have no doubt
but there is also bad in what you did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric mr.
Albrecht it is my judgment delivered here now on behalf of our country that you were 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 he supporters and
especially his mother Lynn had created an ongoing campaign to free him as started almost as soon as Ross was
arrested the campaign carried the name free Ross and has an official website at free Ross org you know Lynn has uploaded
and shared everything related to the case she continues to speak out publicly about what she believes was an unfair
arrest and 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 to 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 Rossi 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-hire allegations two months after the bail hearing the
murder-for-hire charges were officially dropped the 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 equalled 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 Andre Assante
innopolis a Bitcoin expert and the other was Stephen pehlivan 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 Bellavance case the defense wanted him to explain how the FBI's version of
how they found Silk Road 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 bail oven
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 Christabel who had led Ross's arrest and their discovery of the Silk Road server
never took the stand furthermore there was an entire new revelation about Jarod der-yeghiayan investigation thirteen
days before the trial began the defense was provided with five thousand pages of
the investigation Jared had conducted within those pages Jared had actually named somebody else who he 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 the Ross Ulbricht was
arrested the defense wanted to explore this further and on the third day of the trial joshua trade tell Ross's lawyer
started cross-examining Jared about his other suspect but he was stopped before he could really start Saren 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 any questioning
on Jared's other suspect all in all roses mum win 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 injustice had been far from served recently in an interview Ling gave with daily coined
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 frightened 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's 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 the 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's 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 defense was that
no proper warrants were granted before searching inside Ross's 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's computer he had 144 thousand bitcoins
worth close to around 20 million dollars at the time of his arrest these were optioned off by the US
government and by the time the option was hold the price of Bitcoin had gone up so they were able to get 50 million
the FBI also found a folder that contained all the process 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 men the FBI Homeland Security
in 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 he's still being held in Thailand awaiting extradition to the United States where he's expected to
face trial for narcotics trafficking in the money-laundering in total more than 100 people were arrested in 43 different
countries who are they the board or sold from Silk Road or worked for Silk Road Curtis green who Ross paid knob to kill
was facing up to 40 years in prison 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 hurts t-shirts and his writing and memoir about his time as a Silk Road employee as for Carl force the
Baltimore DEA agent who posed as not 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 I entered the IRS 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 made French made was another identity Carl had
created he had done it shortly before Ross's arrest under the French made 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 made account he signed off
using his real name Carl he realized this error and sent another message saying his real name was Carla but he
was fooling no one after investigating further they eventually uncovered all of the other encrypted and deleted messages
Carl had sent the Dread Pirate Roberts under his other account names of nob and Kevin in total from the fake murder hit
and the information he sold about the case Carl had pocketed seven hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars 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 Shawn
bridges who Carl had teamed up with at one point had stolen big coins as well Ross had been wrong all along he ordered
the hit on the wrong person Curtis Green wasn't the one who stole three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
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 three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
worth into an account with a fake business name bridges actually returned to Curtis as computer install 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 eight hundred thousand dollars he was given a sentence of close to six years
as for Gary Alfred who's Google searchers found the Dread Pirate Roberts 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
Christabel 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 wrote by Arlene Hornsby 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 relaxed
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 and then you saw it
let law-enforcement waste their time and resources whilst we make a statement to
the world that we will not only our 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 bross 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 a less punitive and more effective
methods of reducing the incidence 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 men to die in prison and judges must exercise that power only in a small number of cases
after the deepest thought into reflection although we might not have imposed the same sentence ourselves in
the first instance on the facts of this case our 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 their tax ceding life sucking violent sadistic war mongering oppressive machine ever again
how can you knew when you 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 nations 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 [Music] judge Katherine Forrest during the
sentencing of Ross Ulbricht aka the Dread Pirate Roberts on make this judgement mindful of the crimes that you
have committed and their needs for the severus 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 minimize 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 [Music] you [Music]

Case 76: Silk Road (Part 3)

[Part 3 of 3]

As the two agents walked towards the front door of 2260 Fifteenth Avenue, one of them pulled out the fake IDs to have another look before asking questions...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Victoria Dieffenbacher Production, scoring – Mike Migas Additional scoring – Andrew Joslyn

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://www.casefilepodcast.com/case-76-silk-road-part-3

Brief Summary

Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road, is arrested after a complex investigation by Homeland Security and the FBI, leading to his life sentence.

Key points

Ross's Identity Crisis. Ross creates a new identity, Joshua Terry, to hide from authorities.
The Agents Knock. Homeland Security agents confront Ross about his fake IDs, leading to a tense moment.
The Discovery of Silk Road. Julia discovers Ross's connection to Silk Road, raising suspicions about his true identity.
The Google Search Breakthrough. Gary Alford finds a crucial link to Ross through a Google search.
The Arrest of Ross Ulbricht. Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested in a library after a tense surveillance operation.
Trial and Sentencing. Ross's trial began in January 2015, leading to a controversial sentencing.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was all over; they demanded to see his real ID.

Ross's worst fears come true when agents confront him.

3:02WatchNov 20, 2018

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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