Silk Road Case: Prosecution Reads Alleged Transcript of DPR Arranging 5 Murders 73
New submitter BenBoy points out an article at Wired about the most recent developments in the trial of Ross Ulbricht, alleged to be the man behind the Silk Road digital black market, going by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts. The prosecution has now rested its case, but one of their last presentations was a series of communications between DPR and a supposed member of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club in which he arranged for hitmen to kill five different people. Wired notes,
Ulbricht, who the prosecutors have sought to prove is that Dread Pirate Roberts, hasn't been charged with murder-for-hire in his Southern District of New York case, though he faces charges that include conspiracies to sell narcotics, launder money and more. (He does, however, face murder-for-hire charges in a separate case in Baltimore.) In fact, the prosecution admitted in court that the purported victims of the Silk Road killings were never found, and that Canadian police couldn't even locate records for anyone with their names. ... Even so, the prosecution took pains to read the entire conversation to the jury because it’s intended to show them the darkest side of the Silk Road’s short history.
If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement. Forbes has a detailed update on how the rest of the case has progressed, and Ars has a brief article on today's closing arguments.
Re: seventh (Score:2, Funny)
Windows 10!
Not really news (Score:4, Interesting)
From TFS: If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement.
Not really news, I seem to recall coming across mention of this (with regards to the Angels) back in the late 90's/early 00's. Not that criminals using codes or ciphers or various other means of obscuring or obfuscating their communications is exactly new in any form.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
plenty of H.A. are ex-military
Re: (Score:1)
plenty of H.A. are ex-military
So? That doesn't necessarily mean that they are all stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Not really news (Score:5, Funny)
They are there already there, Hells Angels MC So Cal. Since they are in your neighborhood, would you so kindly express to them that opinion about their masculinity and get back to us on their reactions and analysis of your point of view.
Re: (Score:2)
And make sure to leave the camera on for the entire discussion, so investigators have an easier time figuring out exactly what happened.
Unlike these rude people who made the investigators speculate: http://tech.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Recording HA intending to give the footage to law enforcement may not be a particular wise life choice.
Re: (Score:3)
So? Being in the military doesn't necessarily make you familiar with encryption, or communications, or related security issues.
Re: (Score:2)
never in the military, eh?
Yes, a veteran. (Score:2)
USN Submarine Service, 1981-1991.
Even less surprising .... (Score:2)
Even less surprising, considering that they're a registered corporation; with a big business in merchandising.
And most corporations use VPNs, etc.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11... [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:2)
From TFS: If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement.
Yes, that caught my eye as well. I regularly use encryption to send funny cat pictures to my mom. Doesn't mean I'm trying to shield my communications from law enforcement. Hint: I'm trying to circumvent Verizons' shitty spam filters. They simply won't deliver my emails unless I encrypt them.
Re:Not really news (Score:4, Interesting)
It should be obvious to anyone who's even the slightest bit acquainted with scammers. The first thing I did when reading the transcript? Laughed and laughed and laughed since it was so blindingly obvious that lucydrops, FriendlyChemist, and redandwhite were all the same person working a scam. Blackmail (ludicrous to begin with, my ass you have tons of vendors details) not working? "Hi, I'm authorized to contract hits for a major gang! Need some help with your blackmail problem? And of course I don't mind killing the roommates too! It will get you a bulk rate on your hits! Then we'll sell dirt cheap Hells Angel brand drugs and let everyone else benefit from my lack of concern about who I am with!"
Computer geek without the slightest clue how junkie hustlers work. Would bet anything asking DPR to front that alleged new vendor operation would have been the next step if not for the arrest. Funny stuff. Dudes own personal cash pinata, just keep whacking(!) for shiny bitcoin candy!
Pro-tip (Score:2)
If someone tells you they are a hitman, that always means they are an undercover agent.
Re: (Score:3)
Not in this case - given that there's no indication that LE agents was involved at all.
Re: (Score:2)
how so? given that how much of the case has progressed it wouldn't surprise me if the "hitmen" and the client were LEO. would explain the fake non-existent victims.
Re: (Score:2)
The most likely explanation was the whole thing was a scheme to extract money from DPR - which succeeded very well.
DPR will have to face another murder-for-hire case later on but there the hitman was LE and there really was a target. Don't you think it's strange if the one we are discussing was secretly an LE operation - an operation there was never any reason to deny involvement with?!? If anything it would strengthen the other case _and_ make the case of the current trial stronger.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
If someone tells you they are a hitman, that always means they are an undercover agent.
Not the one I'm talking to. He's just the dad of the 15 year old that desperately wants my ugly 30 year old friend to come to her house for passionate sex celebrating their true love after they met on #teens4olddudes on irc.LEONet.gov:6667. He asked her if she knew anyone who would murder people too. We're going to meet up with them later at their house, then I'll show you how real it is.
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone knows real hitmen call themselves 'cleaners'.
Re: (Score:2)
Or "house painters"
Nope (Score:2, Insightful)
If genuine, the transcript shows that members of the Hell's Angels organization are familiar with using encryption to shield their communications from law enforcement.
No it doesn't. Even if the transcript is genuine (there are no reasons to think it's not) we only know that someone suggested being a hells angels member.
There's a reason for presenting evidence even though there are no indications that anybody was killed as a result of the logged conversations (and money transfers) and this case not including a conspiracy to commit murder charge - it is to show that the DPR didn't hesitate to use violence to keep control of his criminal enterprise.
Perhaps .... (Score:3)
But I've also read a fair bit of commentary (mostly from libertarian types who see some red flags about government taking Silk Road down), claiming the murder for hire claims are completely fabricated by the Feds, in order to get a stronger conviction.
That would seem to be a possibility worth considering, at the very least. (It's not too difficult to see some parallels in the lengths they've gone to, trying to punish Kim DotCom as severely as possible.)
Personally, I maintain that, really, the only big issue
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, people use the USPS to receive illegal goods in the mail? Isn't that stupid. Not only is it a federal offense to mail illegal goods through the USPS, but they have the right to open your packages. Isn't that like the easiest way to get caught dealing drugs? I mean, the package has your name on it, or it least your address. What are you going to do, say you're holding it for a friend?
Impressive emails (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The entrance exam for the Hells Angels involves the commission of a Felony in front of at least two members. This is how they keep LE out of their organization.
HA used to control much of the meth production/distribution business in the western US until the Fed's gutted their leadership in the 90's though a well placed undercover that was able to get close to the leadership without joining. They even made a movie about him staring Charlie Sheen that's a pretty good movie though it went straight to tape/dvd.
Re: (Score:2)
Regardless of how LE feels about following the law if they commit a felony whilst undercover they can kiss any prosecution of anyone other than the agent goodbye, especially if there are witnesses (hence the 2 independent witness requirement).
Law enforcement can commit misdemeanors and minor crimes while engaged in undercover work but they cannot commit felonies. The typical situation would be to deny the felony took place but with two witnesses they will have a hard time convincing anyone of that. Keep in
Re:Impressive emails (Score:4, Insightful)
Say what you like about Hell's Angels, but they're clearly not uneducated
Being intelligent and educated is not in itself proof of moral superiority; indeed, many of the most atrocious individuals throughout history have been highly educated and very intelligent. Just like having a 'faith' or believing in a cause does not make you a better person; in fact, recent reearch has shown that terrorism and similar crimes are most often morally motivated - ie. these are people who have thought about things and made a moral choice about what they are doing.
I am not anti-intellectual, but I think it is important to understand this. On one hand, academic education is not enough - we must include moral education as well; but on the other hand, we must also break the religious monopoly on morality. Good morality makes excellent sense from a logical point of view, in that it pro-social; religion at best makes no difference, but is more likely to make people less moral because it can legitimise an 'us vs them' view on the world.
Existence of hitman? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm curious, has anyone ran the conversations from FriendlyChemist and Redandwhite through one of those grammar analyzing programs to see the likelihood that they're the same person? It looks fairly likely that DPR may have been scammed by someone wholly unconnected to the trial. $650k is quite a lot to make just sending a few emails around.
Also it should be possible to trace both bitcoin wallets and see if there's any overlap between them.
Re:Existence of hitman? (Score:4, Informative)
nope. nobody believes that any murders happened.
it's just to paint DPR as a bad guy to the jury. nothing else. why claim it in charges then? because the US justice system is full of bullshit and making up charges and then using those as threat to settle to lesser charges. what you're guilty of is then somewhere in the middle, perhaps.
Re: (Score:2)
They're not charging him with the "murders". The government used it in their closing arguments as evidence towards his character, just as how his defense will deny up and down that he's DPR in their closing.
Re: (Score:2)
...never mind
"Ulbricht's own lawyer admitted during opening statements that his client created the site. "There's no dispute it was used to sell drugs," said Turner. 'There's no dispute when the defendant was arrested, he was logged in as Dread Pirate Roberts.'"
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, it's like someone on trial for murder, who has a lawyer that says "now, I'm not saying my client didn't murder the victim but someone else could have done it too, amiright?"
Re: (Score:2)
I'm surprised "Redandwhite" offered to accept a 6-digit payment in bitcoins just like that, as his first ever payment. That should throw up big red FAKE flags to anyone.
Sheesh! I thought Reiser had a bad defense... (Score:1)
When this weak sauce is all you can come up with for a defense, why, oh why, would you not plead out?
"I made the site, but I left (but came back just in time for the FBI to catch me.)" Yeah, that's really going to sway a jury.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They might not have offered him a deal, or he might've been too stupid to take it. The prosecution apparently accused him of thinking he's too smart to be convicted (speaking of Hans Reiser...), and Ars Technica had an Op-Ed speculating that he might not be taking the advice of his lawyer as much as he should be - or his lawyer isn't doing a good job.
Reading Ars Technica's great day-by-day coverage of the trial, I think the prosecution has probably done a great job of tying up all the evidence in a beautifu
Re: (Score:2)
As a follow up, I saw something today after the verdict was announced that quoted his attorney; apparently the pre-trial negotiations didn't offer anything meaningful in terms of a reduced sentence if he were to plead guilty, so they didn't take it.
Totally out of his league (Score:2)
Everything from the trial just reinforces my first impressions that Ulbricht was attempting to operate a site for which he simply didn't have the skill set. The 'murder' plot was an incredibly obvious scam to separate him from his cash. I'm astonished that any reasonably intelligent person would be taken by it. His op security was appalling. If the might of the DEA, and whatever other three letter agencies they can rope in, is hunting you then you need to be a lot more careful than he was. Having a full loc
I'm talking 'bout balls deep! (Score:2)
Has the government had anyone by the balls as the do Ulbricht, I don't think so. It just keeps getting worse for this guy. I'm pretty sure they'll probably throw some child-porn charges in there for good measure. This guy is fucked, fucked, fucked. And will get fucked (in prison)!