Last updated: January 11, 2015 5:42 pm
The alleged online kingpin of a “black market bazaar” for drugs and hacker-for-hire services will face his accusers this week in a closely watched criminal trial that will stir the debate on privacy rights in the internet age.
Ross Ulbricht, a skinny 30 year old with a mess of brown hair, is accused, through a pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, of operating Silk Road, an underground criminal enterprise that generated $80m in commissions by serving as an online intermediary for the worldwide sale of illegal drugs, hacking services, fake identification documents and malware — software that spies on or disrupts computers.
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In the first of its kind, the case will both expose the workings of a virtual criminal underground and the messy intersection of government surveillance with online privacy. Silk Road was anonymous in its set-up, on the encrypted Tor browser, and through its methods of payment — bitcoins — the virtual currency.
Prosecutors allege when the website’s existence was threatened, Mr Ulbricht tried to arrange several murders by hitmen, although none is believed to have been carried out. One of the alleged targets had threatened to post online the names of Silk Road users, jeopardising the site because no one would use it if anonymity was lost.
Mr Ulbricht has denied he is Dread Pirate Roberts and has pleaded not guilty. (Dread Pirate Roberts is also the name of a fictional character in the movie The Princess Bride.) Before Silk Road was shut down by US authorities and more than $3m in bitcoins were seized in 2013, it was lauded by libertarians as a free marketplace outside the constraints of government control.
Mr Ulbricht faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted of one count of running a “continuing criminal enterprise”. He could face fewer years if convicted on the other six charges of distributing narcotics over the internet, narcotics trafficking and multiple counts of conspiracy.
Prosecutors are expected to rely on evidence seized through search warrants of Mr Ulbricht’s writing style, travel patterns and other information collected from forum postings, email accounts, computer servers and logs found on his laptop to prove that he is Dread Pirate Roberts. They are also expected to bolster their case with evidence collected by FBI agents who posed undercover to purchase illegal drugs and hacking services. Mr Ulbricht’s lawyers have said the information was illegally obtained.
The judge has already signalled some concern with the breadth of the government’s theory, which alleges Mr Ulbricht was in a conspiracy with all of the vendors on the website. But she said she would leave it to the jury to decide.
Mr Ulbricht’s family has raised $339,000 from online donations. According to his LinkedIn profile, which was cited in the criminal complaint, Mr Ulbricht said he was focused on “creating an economic simulation” designed to “give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force” by “institutions and governments”.
Authorities allege that manifested in Silk Road.
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