Courtroom drawing of Ross Ulbricht’s trial that commenced this past week. Source: Supplied
ROSS Ulbricht went on trial this week as the alleged mastermind of Silk Road — the notorious online marketplace for all things illegal.
Despite federal agents contending they caught the hacker “red handed”, trial proceedings have raised some interesting questions about the course of the investigation and revealed a surprising focus by police.
Long before authorities set their sights on Ulbricht, lead investigator Jared Deryeghiayan had spent the better part of 2012 and 2013 pursuing former MT Gox CEO, Mark Karpeles.
In response to cross-examination by the defence, the Department of Homeland Security agent confirmed he had sought a warrant to search Karpeles’ Gmail account based on “probable cause” that the Mt Gox owner had administered the Silk Road website in an effort to boost the price of bitcoin.
At the time Mr Karpeles was the CEO of the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world before it was robbed in what was by far the biggest scandal to hit the world of crypto-currencies since their popularisation.
The fall of Mt Gox brought with it widespread conspiracy theories and accusations against the embroiled CEO, Mark Karpeles. Source: AP
Further “evidence” cited by the investigation included Karpeles’ control of the website silkroadmarket.org, information received from a federal informant working with Karpeles, and Karpeles’ abilities as a programmer.
“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 a 2013 affidavit which was read aloud during proceedings.
Mr Karpeles has denied having anything to do with Silk Road.
This is probably going to be disappointing for you, but I am not and have never been Dread Pirate Roberts.
— Mark Karpeles (@MagicalTux) January 16, 2015 At this time it is unclear if Ulbricht’s defence is seeking to convince the jury that Karpeles was in fact Silk Road’s owner, or simply trying to raise doubts about the DHS’s investigative abilities.
But in an effort to shift blame from his client, Mr. Ulbricht’s lawyer Joshua Dratel, has reportedly argued that Ulbricht launched Silk Road as an “economic experiment,” and quickly passed control to others who later set up the founder as a “fall guy.”
While the trial continues the defendant’s legal woes are far from over as Ulbricht is also facing separate charges of conspiracy to hire a hit man to murder as many as six people in Baltimore, Maryland.
Supporters of Ross William Ulbricht hold signs during the jury selection for his trial outside of federal court in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015. Source: AP
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