Evidence, Chatlogs, Pictures, And more from the SR trial with Ross Ulbricht

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/how-to-build-a-clandestine-drug-lab-images-from-the-silk-road-trial/

Interesting. In my opinion the money laundering AND hacking conspiracy charges should be dropped, as he was only allegedly hosting someone elses services on his website.


Comments


[3 Points] None:

@ /u/freerossplox

Unfortunately they can't drop those charges as Ross knowingly took a commission on the hacking and money laundering services as well as everything else hosted on his site.

There's no point in being in denial about this. Ross is going to prison for a very long time and there's nothing that any of us can do about it other than accept it and move on.

It's no longer "allegedly" there's several mountains of evidence, and worse - had the defense witnesses not been pushed forward at the very last minute by Dratel (who knew the rules about the risks of doing that), on cross questioning by the prosecution they'd have only sank Ross even further unless they were willing to perjure themselves.

Ross was a guy who saw being DPR and launching/running SR as a calculated risk after reading one too many Libertarian fanfic books and thinking there was no way that he'd ever get caught because he was too smart and if he did reasonable doubt would save him in a court of law.

(He wrote on the forums once that 'Alongside Night' was the book which gave him the idea for SR and was his lightbulb moment and YES it was a great idea just poor execution, er, if you'll pardon the phrase. REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alongside_Night).

However, don't fall for the oft-touted idea that this is the same as a harmless little 'free market' experiment and Ross being found guilty and facing 30 years in mandatory minimums is like the owner of ebay or craigslist suddenly being slapped with a whole poke of Federal charges and going to prison until they are old men.

It's not, because legal websites such as craigslist/ebay/youtube et al have safe harbor laws that protect them from misuse of their sites (Dart v. Craiglist is the oft-cited example of the communication decency act). REF: https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230/cases/dart-v-craigslist-inc

The bigger issue now the trial is over and Ross was found guilty in less than 3.5 hours is persuading Ross to come clean to his mother so the Ulbrichts can accept what's happened and get on with their lives and their retirement. And them firing that crook Dratel like, tomorrow, and then not pushing ahead with a doomed appeal which will wind up as farcical as Ulbricht's trial and the frankly ridiculous defense Dratel argued is equally as important.

For a more reasoned argument than I could ever make see here :->

https://medium.com/@nweaver/the-final-voyage-of-the-dread-pirate-ulbricht-25bac1b7bae

EDIT: Christ just saw Ross's mom is saying he WOULD HAVE testified, but he was strongly advised not to. Holy hell, maybe its not all Dratel's fault and Ross was a horrifically bad/difficult client.

Imagine him being ass rammed by the prosecution on the stand? how would he explain all the bitcoin, the chat logs, the fake IDs? the diary? the Dominican citizenship application? the testimony of Rich Bates? The list goes on and on and on and on.......


[3 Points] gwern:

If you want the full evidence set, grab the torrent.


[2 Points] Duke____Silver:

I find it hilarious that in the screenshots, the username is FBINY.


[2 Points] queryox1:

Did you see the image of all the drugs that a "vendor" has taken and sent to ross as proof he was legit?

Maybe this was the Feds trying to gain his trust as NOD, I mean, who the fuck has a whiteboard in their house?


[1 Points] genericmetahub:

He DOES look so stinkin cute these days!!

It's a shame. ;(


[1 Points] freerossplox:

And I wonder what his obsession with frosty is haha. His login on linux was frosty, the forum email he changed quickly was frosty@frosty, one of the SR logins was frosty.


[1 Points] None:

How do I encrypt my laptop so it becomes a "brick" when I shut it?


[1 Points] None:

Fascinating!

Who did all of the accounts belong to that we see logged in in the screenshots?

And they seized 3,600 packages before they busted it, god damnit that's a hell of a lot its amazing nobody cottoned on that something was badly wrong

And lastly, that PIC of the drugs next to a white board, I'd bet any money that was taken in the room of a customs office or police evidence room. Not a snowballs chance that was a vendor


[1 Points] freerossplox:

@ /u/Deathrow558 I believe the other accounts you see were the undercover agents's accounts, that either made orders through the site, or tried to get an in with ross. He should of been one deep, and been a lot less trusting.


[0 Points] freerossplox:

@/u/fart_knockers Thank you for your response. I did not look at it that way. I guess your right he did knowingly receive a commission on this stuff. Whats sad is IF they had caught ross and if he had time to close his computer there would of been reasonable doubt in this case. but unfortunately he was played on the other side by cirrus (undercover who was chatting with him at the time) and was caught while logged in as DPR. What a mess this whole case is. Poor ross, he had a great idea that will thrive for many years to come. He just is gonna be the first to pay the price for it.