Sweet, sweet justice: Mt. Gox's Mark Karpeles accused of being the "real" DPR

Prepare to have your mind blown.

http://www.dailydot.com/crime/ross-ulbricht-silk-road-mark-karpales-fbi/

"You believed him [Mark Karpeles] to be the mastermind behind Silk Road, keeping it secure and operating?" Ulbricht defense attorney Dratel asked Der-Yeghiayan.

"I did," Der-Yeghiayan testified.

As the argument was unveiled, Ulbricht let out a rare beaming smile and turned to his parents. They nodded at one another, marking the most electric moment as there has been throughout the trial so far.


EDIT: There's more.

Redditor who was at the trial elaborates on the Baltimore deal and other issues: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2skgcr/i_was_at_the_ross_ulbricht_silk_road_trial_day_3/


Ars Technica published Karpeles' response: "I am not Dread Pirate Roberts. The investigation reached that conclusion already--this is why I am not the one sitting during the Silk Road trial, and I can only feel defense attorney Joshua Dratel trying everything he can to point the attention away from his client."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/mt-gox-founder-i-am-not-dread-pirate-roberts/


Comments


[77 Points] DarkNetTarget:

my gosh, this trial keeps getting more and more interesting each day.

I could see this becoming a fucking movie! Yesterday, I thought the defense was weak, but now I see that they got some good cards up their sleeve proving his innocence. Well done Ulbricht and Dratel. Well done.

And FUCK MTGOX


[38 Points] Hardcorish:

I don't think a top-selling novelist could write plot twists this good. Holy shit lol.


[35 Points] gwern:

Key excerpts:

To back them up, Homeland Security agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan testified that his two-year investigation into Silk Road led squarely to Karpeles, a self-proclaimed “hacker.”...“Lots of little things added up to [Karpeles],” Der-Yeghiayan testified. In a meeting with other Homeland Security agents, Der-Yeghiayan recalled saying that “we have built up quite a large amount of information that leads to this.” Der-Yeghiayan, however, was convinced that the investigation still had further to go before making an arrest and taking Karpeles to court. He advised other law enforcement agents against speaking to Karpeles about Silk Road, so as to not tip him off. At the time, there were investigations into several potential crimes that Karpeles had committed. Instead, other Homeland Security investigations into Karpeles, for separate and related crimes, led investigators to seize $2 million from Karpeles in May 2013, thus tipping Karpeles off that he was on the radar of the United States government. Although he was “upset” about the premature law enforcement contact, Der-Yeghiayan said he continued his investigation into Karpeles. “You believed him to be the mastermind behind Silk Road, keeping it secure and operating?” Ulbricht defense attorney Dratel asked Der-Yeghiayan. “I did,” Der-Yeghiayan testified...Der-Yeghiayan testified that his own investigation had found that Mutum Sigilum, a Karpeles holding company, had registered silkroadmarket.org as a means to publicize the site further...In the summer of 2013, a separate Baltimore-based Homeland Security investigation into Karpeles went to meet with the Karpeles's lawyers, explicitly against Der-Yeghiayan’s wishes. At this meeting, Karpeles’s lawyers brought up Silk Road and said that Karpeles was willing to give up the person he thought to be running Silk Road in order to gain immunity from other charges pending against him. Der-Yeghiayan said he was “upset” about the contact and says he wrote a lengthy memo about the problems in the investigation. Dratel says that it was only after this happened that Ulbricht was lured back into Silk Road, an entity he allegedly left behind two years prior, in order to be the “fall guy” who would ultimately take the charges that could leave him in prison for life.'


[28 Points] Coinivore:

It came out too that SilkRoadMarket.org was registered by a Karpeles held entity.


[27 Points] InfinitelyOutThere:

Mind=blown


[19 Points] obsidianchao:

God damn, Ross got a good lawyer.


[17 Points] don_crackavelli:

WOW! Good for Ross, this gets more and more illuminating each day. Karpeles is a fucking scumbag, he probably gave up Ross as the fall guy to avoid his stupid fraud charges. What a piece of shit rat.

P.S. FUCK MT.GOX!!!!!


[15 Points] MrGangGreen:

Hold onto your dicks ladies


[14 Points] myDNMburner:

something I saw from a redditor at the trial not yet mentioned elsewhere

Dratel showed that at a certain point, the forum and market for Silk Road were split from one another. Once the new Silk Road forum launched, the forum software running BitcoinTalk.org and the Silk Road Forum were identical. They both ran on MediaWiki, not a particularly popular forum platform. Furthermore, they both ran the same outdated version of MediaWiki. Not stellar evidence by itself, but in the context of other things, throws more evidence towards Karpeles.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2skgcr/i_was_at_the_ross_ulbricht_silk_road_trial_day_3/cnqdcia


[10 Points] zen_hank_hill:

not familiar with the actual amounts, but could seized SR bitcoins == 'lost' mtgox bitcoins?


[10 Points] Lost_my_fucking_mind:

Sounds like a good start for the defence. Hopefully the jurys not a bunch of old geezers who dont know jack about internet/computers


[9 Points] lordofdank:

They also revealed that Dr. Dre = Satoshi Nakamoto.


[9 Points] None:

[deleted]


[9 Points] AphoticBass:

WHY IS THIS NOT LIVE STREAMED?! would love to see the prosecution shitting themselves during testimony like this or the look on Ross' face


[9 Points] ciphersexual:

Does anyone else remember when Coachella/DOD linked Karpeles to Silk Road in one of his meth-fueled manifestos? Didn't he actually have "insider information?"

May have been on /r/silkroad.


[5 Points] This_Is_That_Moment:

THIS IS AWESOME! I hate that I am working right now. Thanks for sharing!


[6 Points] None:

Headline reads: "Watch out folks, DHS is randomly fingering."

Rather brilliant cross examination depicting Karpeles as a money-laundering, racketeering FUCKHEAD.

Karpeles deserves more than a little finger bang.


[7 Points] Fillyhaze:

Jesus. I need to get some popcorn.


[6 Points] Axaq:

This is fucking brilliant.

And FUCK MTGOX


[6 Points] sharpshooter789:

This is an unexpected development, but I can't say I'm too surprised.

The http://silkroadmarket.org domain appears to be the most interesting part. The way back machine shows that that domain goes back to at least march 3, 2011 and was used initially as a guide to the site. Later, it was used to provide updates. Karples or whoever owned the domain did not appear to renew the domain since after a year it was used as a parking service.

edit: this development gives credence to Ross's story about him handing control over after a couple of months.


[3 Points] sharpshooter789:

Just found a wired article that has a little more detail.

In an August 2013 affidavit written by Deryeghiayan and read aloud by Ulbricht’s defense attorney Joshua Dratel, the agent cited evidence that included Karpeles’ purported control of the website silkroadmarket.org, information received from a federal informant working with Karpeles, and Karpeles’ profile as a programmer and bitcoin mogul. “I believe this evidence shows Karpeles controlled silkroadmarket.org and the tuxtele.com website and hosted them both at IP addresses he controlled,” Deryeghiayan wrote in 2013. In his affidavit, he went on to cite Karpeles’ Linkedin page, and to argue that Tokyo-based Karpeles was “well suited to [create] an e-commerce website such as the Silk Road underground website.”

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/dhs-believed-mt-gox-ceo-might-silk-roads-secret-mastermind/

I couldn't find anything on way back machine about tuxtele.com, but is more evidence that he was the owner of silkroadmarket.org domain. Like I mentioned in my other post that domain goes back to 2011.

edit: another relevant exert from the article.

According to Deryeghiayan, his suspicions about Karpeles began when he started to analyze bitcoin accounts in April 2012. By July of that year, he “believed he had a good target” in Karpeles.

while Karpeles’ English skills didn’t match the public writings of the Dread Pirate Roberts, Deryeghiayan confirmed in response to Dratel’s questions that he suspected Karpeles’ Mt. Gox staffer Ashley Barr had served as something like Karpeles’ ghostwriter, “a person who shared some of the same viewpoints…who was working for him.”

edit 2: yet another exert.

Dratel also cited an internal email Deryeghiayan had sent in which he posited that the author of the Dread Pirate Roberts’ writing had changed in April 2012.


[6 Points] greatoctober:

This is like Tom Robinson from To Kill a Mockingbird being exonerated while OJ simpson is taken to death row in his place


[4 Points] 2chainzvoice:

Starting to get interesting.


[2 Points] gibraltarcrackrock:

It still seems like there is a lot of damning evidence against Ross here and not much more than admitted suspicion of Karpeles involvement. Ross's journal for one, as well as his personal bitcoin wallet.


[4 Points] myDNMburner:

I also thought this old deepdot article was more interesting now. It mentions fed investigations of mtgox in Baltimore and the coins being connected.

http://www.deepdotweb.com/2014/01/13/last-year-mt-gox-seizures-linked-to-silk-road-in-fed-testimonies/


[3 Points] cardevitoraphicticia:

I thought this was well understood after the raid early last year. Anyway, the third leg to fall is going to be that crazy Christian bitcoin guild owner. From what I remember in the early days, he teamed up with MtGox to clear transactions on the down-low. ...can't remember his name at the moment.


[3 Points] badassmthrfkr:

The Homeland Security agent’s theory was that Karpeles, as owner of Mt. Gox, held an enormous amount of Bitcoin. He used Silk Road to leverage that price and raise it, which it did by several hundred times over during the course of Silk Road’s lifespan. Bitcoin was worth around $2 at Silk Road's launch and hit as high as $290 by 2013.

How did he do that? I realize Silkroad created more demand for Bitcoin, but by that much?


[2 Points] synikal12:

HOOOOLLLY HOLY HOLY boys we have ourself a good DEFENSE here!

But seriously I can't wait to see how this plays out..


[2 Points] None:

https://twitter.com/MagicalTux/status/555892860654862337


[1 Points] None:

I just blew my mind up.


[1 Points] l0rdishtar:

If fully proven I believe we've got Reasonable Doubt three days in.


[1 Points] None:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/15/exclusive-bitcoin-tycoon-mark-karpeles-denies-being-dread-pirate-roberts.html


[1 Points] Febbraio2468:

I think I just crapped my pants in surprise, this blows my mind and my colon.


[1 Points] None:

http://tonyhb.com/mark-karpeles-and-the-bitcoin-empire


[1 Points] deepdot:

Always imagined him more as a Defcon kind of guy


[1 Points] None:

sweet, sweet reasonable doubt


[1 Points] NotGCHQBro:

If you weren't already interested as fuck in this trial, then you now should fucking be #TeamRossAndDratel


[1 Points] sellingdrugsprivate:

when was btc and sr both invented? anyone believe that satoshi and dpr are the same person?


[1 Points] sozzZ:

Brings a tear to my eye


[1 Points] None:

Holy shit, what an interesting case.


[1 Points] SuperHero180:

Where did Mark Karpeles get the money to buy Mt. Gox from the guy he took it over from McCaleb? He seemed to come out of nowhere.


[0 Points] twigburst:

Fucking rat race.... Egangsters who don't know how this shit works shouldn't be breaking the law at all. You get busted, you keep your mouth shut. Not a hard concept. If everyone ratted the whole system would go to shit overnight. Fucking amateurs...


[-2 Points] R4ID:

holy fucking shit....seriously like HOLY FUCKING SHIT.....GUYSHOLYFUCKINGSHIT