Target of Silk Road murder-for-hire plot tells his story

Ross Ulbricht paid an undercover agent to murder one of his Admins of Silk Road. Making money on the internet is serious business.

A key administrator who says he helped Ross Ulbricht run the Silk Road online drug empire appeared in a Baltimore courtroom yesterday. Forty-seven-year-old Curtis Clark Green, who went by the aliases "Flush" and "chronicpain" online, lives in a small town about an hour from Salt Lake City; he works at a nonprofit that helps people with learning disabilities, and he's a grandfather.

Green is also the admin who Ulbricht, operating online as Dread Pirate Roberts, allegedly tried to have killed.

He made his appearance in a Baltimore courtroom this morning and gave this statement telling his story to journalist Joshua Davis, who published it in his online magazine, Epic:

I was an employee of Silk Road from approximately November 2012 until January 2013. I got involved in SR because I was interested in Bitcoin and SR was the biggest market place for Bitcoin. I also had an interest in harm reduction related to drug use. Initially I just chatted on the forum, and that led to DPR [Dread Pirate Roberts] hiring me to work for SR. I was basically employed as a customer service rep, assisting people to use the site. I never used illegal drugs and I never intended to be directly involved in illegal drug deals.

In January 2013 federal agents stormed into my home and arrested me on drug charges. According to federal agents, DPR paid an undercover agent to murder me. The agents took photos as they faked my murder. I did not know the identity of DPR or any other user of SR. I never stole from DPR, SR or any SR users. On the advice of my attorney, I cannot give any further details, as I still face serious federal charges.

Green also submitted a list of facts he's stipulated to in court. He was paid a salary to work as a Silk Road admin, and his access allowed him to view all messages on the site, as well as Bitcoin accounts held by users—and by Dread Pirate Roberts.

He was ultimately busted when Dread Pirate Roberts told him to help out with a drug sale that was actually with an undercover agent. A US Postal Inspector delivered a kilogram of coc aine to his house, sold online for about $27,000. After that, he was arrested.

Link

Reading up on the whole case, the more it makes the FBI seem lucky not clever in taking down Silkroads.

The guy was greedy and stupid, it wasn't a fault of the technology but the people using it, what I do find funny is this push to sell it as TOR is unsecure...

reply to post by benrl

Isn't it important to be able to trust the entry and/or exist points on TOR?

roadgravel
reply to post by benrl

 

Isn't it important to be able to trust the entry and/or exist points on TOR?

The point is anonymity, and if you are smart you can control the level of risk you assume, even if compromised by a few nodes.

Unsecured Wifi/public wifi.

Dedicated Device (tor only)

Dead drops in the form of foreclosed housing or various other intermediaries.

Everything about this take down was down to the guy being a cheap idiot.


ETA:

Of course the above could be compromised by boots on the ground doing surveillance, but at the point they get that far you already messed up the above steps...

All of the above is pure speculation of course.

reply to post by benrl

I agree the the man blew the cover he needed.

As far as killing the admin, I wonder if it was to silence the man and cover that fact he had the guy do the deal. But then he would need to know the FBI already knew.

reply to post by roadgravel

I got involved in SR because I was interested in Bitcoin and SR was the biggest market place for Bitcoin. I also had an interest in harm reduction related to drug use.

Sure you did, and sure you did. And then you got busted for your actions, became a stoolie, and suddenly you are the good guy and everyone else is the bad guy.

Why do authorities enable these people?

his access allowed him to view all messages on the site,

Gonna be hard to deny knowledge of the illegal activities. Maybe he was naive enough to think working in a criminal enterprise was not going to be a crime. Seems a stretch.

Edit:

Plus actually doing a deal, for whatever reason, sinks it.

reply to post by roadgravel


Yea it was definitely luck, they didn't hack or crack tor... DPR screwed up and got lazy

I've been a customer and satisfied with purchases on both the old silk road and the new one so no issues there.
Of course I use an old laptop with no storage devices connected with liveCD boot and using city's public wifi anonymously and always use a drop box company like mail box etc


DPR deserved his takedown though wanting to kill flush was a bit stupid