This is a work in progress. Comments, additions and corrections welcome.
June 09, 2010, [POST] A Heroin Store (Thread subject of a subpoena)https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/a-heroin-store-175https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3900 (anonymous guest post)
February 2011 Silk Road is launched.
March 1, 2011 User “silkroad” advertises Silk Road on bitcointalk.org.https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=3984.0
June 2011 Chicago Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan starts investigating Silk Road.June 5, 2011 Senator Chuck Schumer calls for “crackdown” on Silk Road and use of Bitcoin.June 08, 2011, Silk Road Account for sale!https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/silk-road-account-13709
June 09, 2011 Bitcointalk user Silkroad posts: The journal was divided up into multiple files, neatly organized in different directories by year. Later iterations of the journal were organized by quarter, by month, and by week. The 2010 journal—before Silk Road was launched—came in the form of a long, literary rumination. By 2013, the journal had broken down into short, terse, daily logs of activity on Silk Road.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/01/22/the-dread-pirates-diary/#6ec000d542cfFebruary 4, 2015 Ross is found guilty on all counts.March 31, 2015 Corruption of Silk Road investigation revealed.
“The complete scope of what former SA’s Force and Bridges were able to accomplish with the illicit access they gained to the Silk Road website, and its impact on this case, has yet to be determined.” – Joshua Dratel, lead trial attorney
April 16, 2015 Dratel files motion for new trial (and this one too) based on the fact that AUSA Turner hid corrupt agent Bridges from the defense and the judge.April 27, 2015 Judge Forrest denies motion for new trial.May 26, 2015 Ross writes sentencing letter addressed to Judge Forrest pleading to leave him his old age.“Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however they individually saw fit.” – Ross in sentencing letter to Judge ForrestMay 29, 2015 Sentencing. Double life plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole, on five non-violent charges.https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-1074337June 9, 2015 Government issues a grand jury subpoena/gag order to Reason.com to turn over identities of people who commented on Ross’s sentence.June 18, 2015, Ex-U.S. federal Agents Charged With Bitcoin Theft to Plead Guiltyhttps://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/2015-06-18-ex-us-agent-charged-with-bitcoin-theft-to-plead-guilty-1093358https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-federal-agents-charged-bitcoin-money-laundering-and-wire-fraudJanuary 14, 2016 Appeal submitted to Second Circuit.Jan 28, 2016 Bridges arrested again trying to flee the country to avoid jail sentence.February 20, 2016 Edward Snowden publicly states that we should assume that the NSA was involved in gathering evidence in Ross’s case.March 15, 2016 Appeal brief joined by six amici:
National Association. of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Edward Snowden: NSA was involved in Silk Road investigation
Drug Policy Alliance — Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — JustLeadershipUSA — Former Federal Judge Nancy GertnerMay 15, 2016 SILK ROAD 3.0 – Back Online and Open For Businesshttps://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/silk-road-30-back-online-and-open-for-business-1473248
November 29, 2016 Tampering of evidence announced.“That my son — or anyone — would receive a life sentence based on such vulnerable evidence, especially when there is proof of corruption and tampering, is a travesty of justice.” – Lyn UlbrichtDecember 1, 2016 Log-in by Dread Pirate Roberts after Ross arrested announced.December 02, 2016, Free Ross-A-Thon Livestream for Silk Road Appeal Casehttps://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/free-ross-a-thon-livestream-for-silk-road-appeal-case-1700974 May 28, 2017 [SOLD] SILK ROAD .999 SILVER BITCOIN WALLEThttps://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sold-silk-road-999-silver-bitcoin-wallet-1936765
May 29, 2017 Appeal denied.July 14, 2017 Ross moved to USP Florence, CO, a maximum security penitentiary.July 31, 2017 Petition to Second Circuit to re-hear appeal filed.First Amendment violations at sentencing
Unconstitutional warrants
Warrantless surveillanceAugust 15, 2017,Secret Service agent, corrupted by Silk Road case, admits to second heisthttps://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/secret-service-agent-corrupted-by-silk-road-case-admits-to-second-heist-2092664August 29, 2017 Petition to re-hear denied by Second Circuit without comment.
November 04, 2017, [WTS] 1 BTC - Silk Road memorabilia! "Carl Mark Force IV" business card for sale !https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/wts-5-btc-silk-road-memorabilia-carl-mark-force-iv-business-card-2358801
November 08, 2017, Ex-agent in Silk Road probe gets more prison time for bitcoin theft.The initial theft was valued at $359,005 in 2015 but have been re-valued at $11.3 million in 2017.https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/2017-11-07-ex-agent-in-silk-road-probe-gets-more-prison-time-for-bitcoin-theft-2374117December 22, 2017 Defense led by Kannon Shanmugam files petition for Writ of Certiorari asking Supreme Court to review the decision of the lower courts.February 5, 2018 Petition for writ joined by the following amici (21 organizations):American Black Cross
Drug Policy Alliance — Law Enforcement Action Partnership
United States Supreme Court Building
Downsize DC Foundation — Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund — Gun Owners Foundation — Gun Owners of America — Restoring Liberty Action Committee
National Lawyers Guild — American Conservative Union Foundation Center for Criminal Justice Reform — FreedomWorks — Human Rights Defense Center — Judge Nancy Gertner — National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms — Partnership for Civil Justice Fund — People’s Law Office
Reason Foundation — Cato Institute — Competitive Enterprise Institute — R Street InstituteFebruary 5, 2018 Judge Forrest denies unopposed motion to extend deadline to submit newly-discovered evidence.
Judge Forrest denies motion for her to recuse herself.March 7, 2018 Defense Attorney Paul Grant files petition for Writ Of Mandamus to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.March 20, 2018 Defense led by Kannon Shanmugam files reply to government in support of Supreme Court cert petition.
Silkroad personalities:Silkroad Founder: DPR:
Silkroad 1 = Ross Ulbricht
Silkroad 2 = SilkRoad 1 user StExo and / or SilkRoad 1 user Defcon = Blake Benthall
Silkroad 3 = ?
Dread Pirate Roberts 2 once made the fatal mistake early on during Silk Road 2 of signing a message with St.Exo’s PGP key.. DPR2 quickly realized his mistake and edited his post.
Ross Ulbricht used a real photograph of himself for a fake ID to rent servers.
He stated in his linkedin profile: that he was ‘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’.
In March 2012, a user registered on the coding Q&A site Stack Overflow with Ulbricht’s email address and the username 'Ross Ulbricht'. He then proceeded to post the question “How can I connect to a Tor hidden service using curl in php?”
He sought contacts in courier firms, presumably to work out how to best ship things from his international multimillion dollar drugs marketplace, on Google+, where his real name, real face and real YouTube profile were visible
- Altoid mentions Silk Road:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.42670 (deleted the original message but his quote is still there)
- Altoid identifies as Ross Ulbricht:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.568744.
The real IP of the silk road server was emitted via a lighthttpd config error
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/the-incredibly-simple-story-of-how-the-govt-googled-ross-ulbricht/
Defcon (Blake Benthall) he registered the silk road 2.0 servers with the email address
[email protected]https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/fbi-arrests-blake-defcon-benthall-alleged-operator-of-silk-road-2-0/
Mentor: Variety Jones (allegedly - Roger Thomas Clark) (Alt: Cimon, Plural of Mongoose)
Who is "Variety Jones"?Moderators:
Andrew Michael Jones - Inigo - USA
Gary Davis – Libertas - Ireland
Peter Phillip Nash - Samesamebutdifferent (Chief moderator) - Australia (Alts = Batman73, Symmetry, and Anonymousaashit)
Site admin chronicpain (Alt:Flush) , the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot, was identified in 2013 as Curtis Clark Green.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2013/11/08/meet-the-silk-road-employee-that-the-dread-pirate-roberts-allegedly-tried-to-murder/#427ad601412cBrian Richard Farrell = Silk Road 2.0. administrator called “DoctorClu”.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/hand-man-silk-road-2-0-creator-arrested-feds-article-1.2086750Mike Wattier = Smed, or Smedley (Alt:Charger)
Steven Lloyd Sadler & Jenna White = Nod (USA) (Alt: PaythePiper (bought from another user), Poundsign)
Peter Ward, = PlutoPete (UK)
Cei William Owens = Johnny Alpha (UK)
But, although DPR was technically the head of Silk Road, chat logs found in the accessed email account show that Variety Jones and Smed were a real driving force behind the projects and Silk Road more generally. The pair discussed ideas and plans with each other, rather than simply reporting to DPR.
Smed, using his alternate handle, spoke with Variety Jones about developments to the site, such as adding bulk transactions and updates to the forums.
When it came to those discussions, it was as if Variety Jones was Smed's boss, not DPR. "What timeframe do you envision?" Smed asked Variety Jones of one project.
Variety Jones also appears to have funded large parts of Smed's work and expenses. "10k, 36k, 20k, that rounds up nicely to 90, and we'll cover all of your travel expenses for the trip, how does that sound," Variety Jones writes to Smed.
Arrests page
Main source:
https://freeross.org/case-timeline/ A large part of the timeline was obtained from this site and only slightly modified.
Other sources:
https://antilop.cc/sr/https://allthingsvice.com/2015/05/27/silk-road-from-the-inside-moderator-ssbd-tells-his-story/https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/silk-road-trail-of-1132989btc-310600https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/silk-road-anonymous-marketplace-feedback-requested-3984https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/the-most-iconic-bitcointalk-threads-history-on-bitcointalk-4322078https://www.wired.com/2015/12/variety-jones-alleged-silk-road-mentor-arrested-in-thailand/https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/silk-road-3-blake-benthall/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pgajmv/these-are-the-two-forgotten-architects-of-the-silk-roadThis is a work in progress. Comments, additions and corrections welcome.
