Silk Road's Second-in-Command Gets 20 Years in Prison 39
Roger Thomas Clark, also known as Variety Jones, will spend much of the rest of his life in prison for his key role in building the world's first dark web drug market. Wired: Nearly ten years ago, the sprawling dark web drug market known as the Silk Road was torn offline in a law enforcement operation coordinated by the FBI, whose agents arrested that black market's boss, Ross Ulbricht, in a San Francisco library. It would take two years for Ulbricht's second-in-command -- an elusive figure known as Variety Jones -- to be tracked down and arrested in Thailand. Today, a decade after the Silk Road's demise, Clark has been sentenced to join his former boss in federal prison.
In a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, Roger Thomas Clark -- also known by his online handles including Variety Jones, Cimon and Plural of Mongoose -- was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for his role in building and running Silk Road. Clark, a 62-year-old Canadian national, will now likely spend much of the rest of his life incarcerated for helping to pioneer the anonymous, cryptocurrency-based model for online illegal sales of drugs and other contraband that still persists on the dark web today. The sentence is the maximum Clark faced in accordance with the plea agreement he made with prosecutors.
Clark "misguidedly turned his belief that drugs should be legal into material assistance for a criminal enterprise," Judge Sidney Stein said in his sentencing statement. "These beliefs crossed over into patently illegal behavior." Stein added that Clark was "clear-eyed and intentional" in his work as Ulbricht's "right-hand man" in the Silk Road's operations. "The sentence must reflect the vast criminal enterprise of which he was a leader," Stein said.
In a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, Roger Thomas Clark -- also known by his online handles including Variety Jones, Cimon and Plural of Mongoose -- was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for his role in building and running Silk Road. Clark, a 62-year-old Canadian national, will now likely spend much of the rest of his life incarcerated for helping to pioneer the anonymous, cryptocurrency-based model for online illegal sales of drugs and other contraband that still persists on the dark web today. The sentence is the maximum Clark faced in accordance with the plea agreement he made with prosecutors.
Clark "misguidedly turned his belief that drugs should be legal into material assistance for a criminal enterprise," Judge Sidney Stein said in his sentencing statement. "These beliefs crossed over into patently illegal behavior." Stein added that Clark was "clear-eyed and intentional" in his work as Ulbricht's "right-hand man" in the Silk Road's operations. "The sentence must reflect the vast criminal enterprise of which he was a leader," Stein said.
These guys are really not playing (Score:1)
I like the concept of dark web and fat F to the government and all that, but harsh sentences do make sense for anyone knowing distributing fentanyl which is equivalent to knowingly destroying lives. If you don't mind destroying someone else's life, then why should anyone care what happens to yours? What you do to others should be doable to yours, right? It isn't about freedom when we're talking about a highly addictive drug.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I like the concept of dark web and fat F to the government and all that, but harsh sentences do make sense for anyone knowing distributing fentanyl which is equivalent to knowingly destroying lives. If you don't mind destroying someone else's life, then why should anyone care what happens to yours? What you do to others should be doable to yours, right? It isn't about freedom when we're talking about a highly addictive drug.
And yet tobacco companies face no penalties for having a highly addictive drug. Because the government gets an insane amount of money through taxes. They finally legalized cannabis in a few places....and taxed it at an insane rate. Portland apparently legalized everything. It'll be legal everywhere soon.
They're getting a ton of prison time because the mafia^H^H^H^H^government didn't get their cut of the profits.
Re: (Score:2)
Tobacco companies have paid over $100 billion in fines to California alone. I would consider that a penalty.
https://oag.ca.gov/tobacco/litigation#:~:text=Tobacco%20companies%20have%20paid%20more,counties%20and%20four%20largest%20cities. [ca.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Tobacco companies have paid over $100 billion in fines to California alone. I would consider that a penalty.
They are still in the same business, so I would consider that a penalty that didn't accomplish much.
There's little point in even countering this (Score:3, Insightful)
But really, do you really think that addicts and addiction are caused by the presence of a substance?
Actual addicts switch addictions based on what is available. Even to things like rage, gambling, food, sex, whatever. The truth is though, that until you actually have to deal with an addict and watch the awful progress of the disease, you aren't going to get it.
The only person who ruins anyone's life is themselves, and the only way to change things for them is through their own personal action.
Re:There's little point in even countering this (Score:5, Insightful)
"The truth is though, that until you actually have to deal with an addict and watch the awful progress of the disease, you aren't going to get it."
I was brought up in a household of substance abusers. Tossing up your hands and giving up -- or worse, making it easier to feed their substance habit is not a workable solution. I first got high at 7 years old because my sister (13 years older than me) thought it would be funny.
Free range doesn't work for substance abusing humans. Chickens may thrive, but it kills the humans over time.
California (and Los Angeles in particular) have made getting and using pretty much any thing you want, from booze, to weed to Percocet, to coke to Michael Jacksons "warm milk". And we're killing over 6 people a day on our streets (unsheltered homeless). The vast majority either directly by OD or by long term abuse of drugs or alcohol. That's over 2000 a year -- JUST in Los Angeles -- and just the unsheltered homeless community -- the ultimate 'free range' for abuse.
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
California (and Los Angeles in particular) have made getting and using pretty much any thing you want, from booze, to weed to Percocet, to coke to Michael Jacksons "warm milk". And we're killing over 6 people a day on our streets (unsheltered homeless). The vast majority either directly by OD or by long term abuse of drugs or alcohol. That's over 2000 a year -- JUST in Los Angeles -- and just the unsheltered homeless community -- the ultimate 'free range' for abuse.
Seems to me this is the answer to the problem. Put drums of the stuff on every street corner. Those who are addicts will soon OD and those of us who are useful humans will ignore it. A self-solving problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Put drums of the stuff on every street corner.
That's not what Bender's suicide booth looks like at all.
Re: There's little point in even countering this (Score:5, Insightful)
How about if the addict is your parent, sibling, child, nephew, niece or partner?
Re: There's little point in even countering this (Score:4, Funny)
How about if the addict is your parent, sibling, child, nephew, niece or partner?
It's hard to see things of that nature from that high up on a horse.
Re: There's little point in even countering this (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
No need to feel sorry. I was born with a "gift". I can look at other people screw up and learn from their mistakes without needing to make that same mistakes myself. In that way, it's like winning the gene-pool super lotto.
I was the first in my family to finish high-school -- never mind go to college (did that too). I had to extract myself from my family. I raised my kids in the dark about how I grew up to break the 'cycle'. It looks like it's working so far. My son looks about ready to go to grad sc
Re: (Score:2)
It comes down to whether you believe the government has the right to make you healthy in spite of yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
It comes down to whether you believe the government has the right to make you healthy in spite of yourself.
That is an important theoretical question. However, in today's health care economy, there is another more important question: Should you be forced to pay the medical bills for someone who chooses to live in unhealthy ways? In our modern economy with pooled liability via health insurance (either governmental or private), liability is pooled, e.g., nonsmokers are forced to pay for care for smokers. There is no law to force this linkage (especially after the Republican lawmakers and courts gutted the ACA p
Re: (Score:2)
"It comes down to whether you believe the government has the right to make you healthy in spite of yourself."
Healthy? Or alive? We already regulate risky behavior. Helmets, seatbelts, speed limits, access to fireworks in most locations... I really don't want to list the litany of various government regulations regarding food, beverages, drugs, equipment....
The government clearly has the "right" to keep you from certain 'Darwin awards' -- but some may disagree it should.
What angers me is the rhetoric fro
Re:There's little point in even countering this (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno, your claim that "the only person who ruins anyone's life is themselves" sounds incorrect, and in a deep sense actually hardly ever correct if at all. Also knowing some shit about neurology, I will need a lot more evidence that all addicts are universally compatible with any sort of hormone releasing activity. I mean, that's likely true for SOME people .. but I don't think it's true for everyone. The problem with an addictive substance like fentanyl is that it causes measurable changes in brain functionality and architecture that result in you actively craving it more and more. If you watch an addict behave, it may sure seem like something they can overcome with mere willpower but once you understand brain function, such a notion is as ridiculous as claiming that only a weak minded person would snap their hand back when they accidentally touch a hot stove. Fact is that the changes in a brain can both cause extreme cravings and also blind your judgement. If you don't believe the brain can cloud judgement why is it only very rare that you can figure you during a dream that you're dreaming? If your sense of logic couldn't be suspended, it would be impossible dream even while asleep because you'd be like "this BS makes no sense" whenever anything weird happened in a dream. Due to malfunctions in the brain being able to cloud judgement and disrupt the thought processes involved in behavioral inhibition, a lot of actions you might think are voluntary are actually involuntary. It is the equivalent of decision making under duress -- something we always know is forgivable. You're only seeing the input and output so you don't understand that the processing is failing because of the chemical induced modification, not the other way around.
Re: There's little point in even countering this (Score:4, Interesting)
This isnâ(TM)t accurate either. In most cases, addiction is just the most extreme symptom of a highly dysfunctional family. In some cases, addicts can find their way out (often putting in stark boundaries with that dysfunctional family), but I have never seen it happen solely through their own personal efforts. I have also never seen it hastened or delayed due to availability of dope.
Re: (Score:2)
> The only person who ruins anyone's life is themselves
There are hospitals, emergency rooms, and graves full of people who had their lives ruined by someone else, so you got that bit wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
harsh sentences do make sense for anyone knowing distributing fentanyl which is equivalent to knowingly destroying lives
I disagree. It makes sentence if you knowingly distribute fentanyl and represent it as something else, certainly, that's straight up murder. It makes sense if you distribute it without even knowing for yourself exactly what it is you are distributing it, that's criminal negligence, and its friend negligent homicide as would likely be the case.
But if I want fentanyl, I should be able to o
20 years on a plea... (Score:1)
I get the arguments that Ross Ulbricht contracted murder-for-hire (which turned out to be DEA agents snaring a trap, no one was actually killed) so he deserves it, but what did Variety Jones do that brings him to the level of mafiosos and hitmen?
Re:20 years on a plea... (Score:4, Insightful)
If I'm not mistaken, Ross Ulbricht was offered a plea deal for a mere ten years and instead went to trial. Getting a 20 year maximum on a plea, especially for a 62-year old, is draconian.
I get the arguments that Ross Ulbricht contracted murder-for-hire (which turned out to be DEA agents snaring a trap, no one was actually killed) so he deserves it, but what did Variety Jones do that brings him to the level of mafiosos and hitmen?
I think it seems justified given from Ulnricht's journal, Clark was his most important advisor on almost every aspect of the Silk Road including:
"Clark was pivotal in key moments of the the Silk Road’s history—including a particularly dark incident when he and Ulbricht resorted to violence, which loomed large in Clark’s sentencing. Clark played a crucial role in convincing Ulbricht that it was necessary to commission the murder of one of his employees who he believed had betrayed him and stolen bitcoins from the market. “At what point in time do we decide we’ve had enough of someones shit and terminate them?” Clark wrote to Ulbricht at one point following the discovery of the theft, as recorded in chat logs that were recovered from Ulbricht's computer after his arrest. “We’re playing with big money with serious people, and that’s the world they live in.
After Ulbricht agreed to have the staffer killed—in a bizarre turn, his death was instead faked by US federal agents investigating the Silk Road— Clark told Ulbricht that he had made the right move. "If you had balked, I would have seriously re-considered our relationship," he wrote. “We’re playing for keeps, this just drives it home. I’m perfectly comfortable with the decision, and I’ll sleep like a lamb tonight, and every night hereafter.”"
Re: (Score:1)
That said, there's mafioso who have killed many [wikipedia.org] who have been released and now have a YouTube channel. And, folks that said they would "kill e
Re: (Score:2)
That's not to say I agree, I don't believe the DoJ should be in the business of making an example out individuals. And I don't necessarily agree with either sentence. The US has some often draconian (or inconsistent) sentencing in general.
Don't use real name [important] (Score:1)
Do smart crime! (Score:2)
Found a bank, religion or political party! These never get punished for anything, no matter what evil they do.
Wasted opportunity to improve Canadian security! (Score:2)
If you have someone whose Canadian, who has shown an impressive and expert knowledge of implementing proactive digital landscapes that exceed current capabilities, why not hire them on? This could have been a golden o
Wow (Score:1)
Bitcoin? (Score:2)