Who is "Variety Jones"? - page 17. | Bitcointalksearch.org

AGD

legendary

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Keeper of the Private Key

Well, Ross had not just this journal, where I remember, he wrote it in preparation of a book or something, but he saved a lot of his chats, passwords, id's and more on his laptop. He was clearly not experienced in computer security and might have been an easy victim of VJ or Shaun Bridges penetrating his personal laptop and planting files.

edit1:
The journal starts earlier. The link I posted seems to be just an excerpt, you can find the complete journal in the exhibit list: http://antilop.cc/sr/files/2014_12_10_ULBRICHT_evidence_lists.pdf

Here is the full one:

http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456476-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-240B.pdf
http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456478-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-240C.pdf
http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/GX-240D.pdf

edit2:

Quote

January 1st 2012
Well, I'm choosing to write a journal for 2012. I imagine that some day I may have a story
written about my life, and it would be good to have a detailed account of it

edit3: He already had a megalomanic tendency back then (if he really wrote this journal - which I believe he did - at least until a certain time)

edit4: I would like to see this complete collection for example: http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/GX-215.pdf

S4VV4S

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Quote from: Eastfist on April 21, 2015, 04:19:32 PM

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 21, 2015, 12:34:59 PM

Quote from: AGD on April 21, 2015, 12:10:43 PM

The journal: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/

Now it looks like Ross really sold the site to VJ who took over his invented DPR moniker and made the interview. At this time the DEA was already close to Ross Ulbricht: They had his name one month later.
I am pretty sure we could find proof for this in the 1400 chat log pages.
The story could lead to Variety Jones taking over SR from Ross until it was closed by the feds and Ross arrested and later he organised the restart as SilkRoad2 as DPR again. He sucked out as much of BTC as he could get and then sold the site to Defcon who has been arrested short time later. Pure coincidence some would say....

That would actually make sense if VJ was an agent....
Sorry but after reading some (not all) of DPRs/cimons logs that is the impression I get.

Apart from that I cannot still understand WHY would anyone keep a "journal" of their illegal activities.

Too much confidence?
If he was hi-tech then he would know that NOTHING is safe.
So I doubt confidence was the reason.

It's just too convienient....

EDIT: Where's my manners?... Thanks for the link Cheesy

Will check out his journal when I get some time.

Bolded for emphasis.

Exsmactly, sounds like it was an attempted frame-up or just plain stupid. But if Ross was such a bad-ass drug dealer, again, it doesn't make a lick of sense to keep a journal UNLESS he was afraid of a bigger badder wolf, in this case Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges. If he didn't keep the journal, who knows, maybe they would have gotten away with it. Maybe it was a last ditch effort to take them down with him. He gets somekind of justice after all.

I say horseshit....
That journal is NOT Ross's.

First of all from what I have read from the link given to me the journal starts at 03/20/2013.
AFAIK SR started from ~~2012~~ 2011, so where's the rest of it?
Apart from that, there's MANY things in the journal that do not make sense so when I have some time I will break it down.

Once again this is horseshit!

Eastfist

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Quote from: S4VV4S on April 21, 2015, 12:34:59 PM

Quote from: AGD on April 21, 2015, 12:10:43 PM

The journal: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/

Now it looks like Ross really sold the site to VJ who took over his invented DPR moniker and made the interview. At this time the DEA was already close to Ross Ulbricht: They had his name one month later.
I am pretty sure we could find proof for this in the 1400 chat log pages.
The story could lead to Variety Jones taking over SR from Ross until it was closed by the feds and Ross arrested and later he organised the restart as SilkRoad2 as DPR again. He sucked out as much of BTC as he could get and then sold the site to Defcon who has been arrested short time later. Pure coincidence some would say....

That would actually make sense if VJ was an agent....
Sorry but after reading some (not all) of DPRs/cimons logs that is the impression I get.

Apart from that I cannot still understand WHY would anyone keep a "journal" of their illegal activities.

Too much confidence?
If he was hi-tech then he would know that NOTHING is safe.
So I doubt confidence was the reason.

It's just too convienient....

EDIT: Where's my manners?... Thanks for the link Cheesy

Will check out his journal when I get some time.

Bolded for emphasis.

Exsmactly, sounds like it was an attempted frame-up or just plain stupid. But if Ross was such a bad-ass drug dealer, again, it doesn't make a lick of sense to keep a journal UNLESS he was afraid of a bigger badder wolf, in this case Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges. If he didn't keep the journal, who knows, maybe they would have gotten away with it. Maybe it was a last ditch effort to take them down with him. He gets somekind of justice after all.

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Quote from: AGD on April 21, 2015, 12:10:43 PM

The journal: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/

Now it looks like Ross really sold the site to VJ who took over his invented DPR moniker and made the interview. At this time the DEA was already close to Ross Ulbricht: They had his name one month later.
I am pretty sure we could find proof for this in the 1400 chat log pages.
The story could lead to Variety Jones taking over SR from Ross until it was closed by the feds and Ross arrested and later he organised the restart as SilkRoad2 as DPR again. He sucked out as much of BTC as he could get and then sold the site to Defcon who has been arrested short time later. Pure coincidence some would say....

That would actually make sense if VJ was an agent....
Sorry but after reading some (not all) of DPRs/cimons logs that is the impression I get.

Apart from that I cannot still understand WHY would anyone keep a "journal" of their illegal activities.

Too much confidence?
If he was tech-savvy then he would know that NOTHING is safe.
So I doubt confidence was the reason.

It's just too convienient....

EDIT: Where's my manners?... Thanks for the link Cheesy

Will check out his journal when I get some time.

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

The journal: http://www.wired.com/2015/01/heres-secret-silk-road-journal-laptop-ross-ulbricht/

Now it looks like Ross really sold the site to VJ who took over his invented DPR moniker and made the interview. At this time the DEA was already close to Ross Ulbricht: They had his name one month later.
I am pretty sure we could find proof for this in the 1400 chat log pages.
The story could lead to Variety Jones taking over SR from Ross until it was closed by the feds and Ross arrested and later he organised the restart as SilkRoad2 as DPR again. He sucked out as much of BTC as he could get and then sold the site to Defcon who has been arrested short time later. Pure coincidence some would say....

Edit: To me it looks like Variety Jones aka Plural of Mongoose aka DreadPirateRoberts (from SR1 AND SR2!) is Thomas Clark. The one who had this dispute about icmag with Gypsy Nirvana (currently arrested in Manila - coincidence?) and as far as I can see it, he is still around.

S4VV4S

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Merit: 502

Quote from: AGD on April 21, 2015, 11:30:43 AM

I found something, that didn't really surprise me, but it's still very interesting:

The interview, that was made with "DPR" by Alan Greenberg was not made with Ross Ulbricht, but with Variety Jones:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-qa/

Quote

Q: Can you tell me anything about the original creator of the Silk Road? How did you meet? And did you acquire the Silk Road from him in a financial deal of some kind, or simply take over the project?

A: He was well compensated and happy with our arrangement. It was his idea to pass the torch in fact. We met through the site. I had discovered a big vulnerability in the way he had configured the main Bitcoin wallet that was being used to process all of the deposits and withdrawals on the site. At first he ignored me, but I persisted and gained his trust by helping him secure the wallet. From there we became close friends working on Silk Road together.

In Ross' journal it says exactly that, how Ross met VJ:

Quote

"Around this time, Variety Jones showed up. This was the biggest and strongest willed character I had met through the site thus far. He quickly proved to me that he had value by pointing out a major security hole in the site I was unaware of. It was an attack on bitcoind."

Yeap, I made the same observation here: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.11102748

But I do not have DPRs journals to go through and confirm.
(Where can I get them btw? Is it here: http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline - Sorry still going through the timeline Grin

)

The question(s) is:
Why was VJ in an interview on behalf of DPR?
Did he/she convince him to do it?

Also, I have read (can't remember where) that VJ aka cimon was not on DPRs payroll but the recent discoveries by elasticband clearly shows that VJ aka cimon did receive money from DPR on several occassions.

Other than that, as I have mentioned before, DPR was VERY careless and I am surprised it took the feds so long to get him....

EDIT: BTW, did anyone notice that SR was busted shortly after that interview?

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

I found something, that didn't really surprise me, but it's still very interesting:

The interview, that was made with "DPR" by Alan Greenberg was not made with Ross Ulbricht, but with Variety Jones:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-qa/

Quote

Q: Can you tell me anything about the original creator of the Silk Road? How did you meet? And did you acquire the Silk Road from him in a financial deal of some kind, or simply take over the project?

A: He was well compensated and happy with our arrangement. It was his idea to pass the torch in fact. We met through the site. I had discovered a big vulnerability in the way he had configured the main Bitcoin wallet that was being used to process all of the deposits and withdrawals on the site. At first he ignored me, but I persisted and gained his trust by helping him secure the wallet. From there we became close friends working on Silk Road together.

In Ross' journal it says exactly that, how Ross met VJ:

Quote

"Around this time, Variety Jones showed up. This was the biggest and strongest willed character I had met through the site thus far. He quickly proved to me that he had value by pointing out a major security hole in the site I was unaware of. It was an attack on bitcoind."

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 18, 2015, 07:02:01 AM

OK, reading DPRs and VJs logs I can most certainly say that VJ was an agent....

Still reading so this claim might change....

EDIT: Who the f*ck is PatHenry?

This thing is giving me a headache to the point of where I do not wanna bother anymore...

PatHenry seems to be Inigo

17/10/2012 - User Inigo registers an account on SR forum.

and from https://drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261111

"In 2012, DPR was sent the Virginia driver's license of Andrew Michael Jones, a.k.a. inigo, the man he hired to manage message forums. He called himself "Patrick Henry" in one chat:"

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 18, 2015, 06:07:04 AM

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 04:47:45 AM

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 18, 2015, 02:50:07 AM

@elasticband, very interesting finds.

Where can I get those files?
The SR accounts I mean.

BTW did you guys notice the last entry on the last image?
It says payroll (sr2.0) ....

Apart from that, this goes to show that VJ aka cimon was getting paid by Ross.

Also, who is the hacker he kept paying?
And what for?

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

You can connect some, if not most of the payments with the timeline at http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline

For example this "op greenville" is dated while the "murder" of Curtis Green took place:

21/02/2013 - Undercover Agent tells DPR that The employee (Curtis Green) "died of asphyxiation/heart rupture" while being tortured and sends DPR a fake pic.

That day he spent 162000$ for "op greenville" (op like operation, like if he moved his ass somehow to make part of the op. lol . He sat on a couch at his home or at a library and tipped some stuff on his keyboard. Thats all)

-snip-

^^^ that makes sense

SR2 is refering to a big site update and not to the SR2 where Defcon got arrested.
Most of the files you'll find on http://antilop.cc/sr/ (scroll down)

Still trying to wrap my head around this.....

Observations:
1) DPR was stupid, actually a complete moron.
2) DPR fell under a thing called entrapment, as from what I have noticed most of his crew was agents.
Even the "kill" calls was enforced to him by the agents.
Seriously, if someone (actually more than one) told you that your life is in danger an not just yours, all your co-workers too by a "thug",
and all you have to do is give ME the green light to make it "disappear" what would you do?

Now, enough with that, I have much more reading to do but....

WHO IS DA?
http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456466-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-222.pdf

As for who is DA:
18/06/2011 - DigitalAlch registers an account on Silk Road forum.

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

OK, reading DPRs and VJs logs I can most certainly say that VJ was an agent....

Still reading so this claim might change....

EDIT: Who the f*ck is PatHenry?

This thing is giving me a headache to the point of where I do not wanna bother anymore...

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 04:47:45 AM

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 18, 2015, 02:50:07 AM

@elasticband, very interesting finds.

Where can I get those files?
The SR accounts I mean.

BTW did you guys notice the last entry on the last image?
It says payroll (sr2.0) ....

Apart from that, this goes to show that VJ aka cimon was getting paid by Ross.

Also, who is the hacker he kept paying?
And what for?

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

You can connect some, if not most of the payments with the timeline at http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline

For example this "op greenville" is dated while the "murder" of Curtis Green took place:

21/02/2013 - Undercover Agent tells DPR that The employee (Curtis Green) "died of asphyxiation/heart rupture" while being tortured and sends DPR a fake pic.

That day he spent 162000$ for "op greenville" (op like operation, like if he moved his ass somehow to make part of the op. lol . He sat on a couch at his home or at a library and tipped some stuff on his keyboard. Thats all)

-snip-

^^^ that makes sense

SR2 is refering to a big site update and not to the SR2 where Defcon got arrested.
Most of the files you'll find on http://antilop.cc/sr/ (scroll down)

Still trying to wrap my head around this.....

Observations:
1) DPR was stupid, actually a complete moron.
2) DPR fell under a thing called entrapment, as from what I have noticed most of his crew was agents.
Even the "kill" calls was enforced to him by the agents.
Seriously, if someone (actually more than one) told you that your life is in danger an not just yours, all your co-workers too by a "thug",
and all you have to do is give ME the green light to make it "disappear" what would you do?

Now, enough with that, I have much more reading to do but....

WHO IS DA?
http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456466-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-222.pdf

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 18, 2015, 02:50:07 AM

@elasticband, very interesting finds.

Where can I get those files?
The SR accounts I mean.

BTW did you guys notice the last entry on the last image?
It says payroll (sr2.0) ....

Apart from that, this goes to show that VJ aka cimon was getting paid by Ross.

Also, who is the hacker he kept paying?
And what for?

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

You can connect some, if not most of the payments with the timeline at http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline

For example this "op greenville" is dated while the "murder" of Curtis Green took place:

21/02/2013 - Undercover Agent tells DPR that The employee (Curtis Green) "died of asphyxiation/heart rupture" while being tortured and sends DPR a fake pic.

That day he spent 162000$ for "op greenville" (op like operation, like if he moved his ass somehow to make part of the op. lol . He sat on a couch at his home or at a library and tipped some stuff on his keyboard. Thats all)

-snip-

^^^ that makes sense

SR2 is refering to a big site update and not to the SR2 where Defcon got arrested.
Most of the files you'll find on http://antilop.cc/sr/ (scroll down)

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

Quote from: elasticband on April 18, 2015, 04:15:13 AM

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

.......

Yes some of it is very easy to connect, but others not so much.

Like what was DPR investing in at that time period when he was receiving profits from investments?

what was the $10,000 to "slush" who is slush? is that french slush?

why so many payments to cimon?

why did SR have $2,000,000 held in MTGOX? profits upto that point don't even meet 1/4 of that, so they were holding escrow funds in MTGOX?

what is the "cimon debacle development" that cost $98,000, was that a payment for a hit?

where and whom did they buy FPGA's from?

why was cimon paid for FPGA's?

expense sheet - http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456480-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-250.pdf
why so many payments to the hacker?

so many questions.....

There are indeed a lot of open questions and it will be intersting to find out more.

FGPAs were probably used for mining and the "investment" could be the return from mining/trading

Oh, the Hacker payments are most likely connected to these DDdos attacks, SR was suffering.

elasticband

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Nighty Night Don't Let The Trolls Bite Nom Nom Nom

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

.......

Yes some of it is very easy to connect, but others not so much.

Like what was DPR investing in at that time period when he was receiving profits from investments?

what was the $10,000 to "slush" who is slush? is that french slush?

why so many payments to cimon?

why did SR have $2,000,000 held in MTGOX? profits upto that point don't even meet 1/4 of that, so they were holding escrow funds in MTGOX?

what is the "cimon debacle development" that cost $98,000, was that a payment for a hit?

where and whom did they buy FPGA's from?

why was cimon paid for FPGA's?

expense sheet - http://antilop.cc/sr/exhibits/253456480-Silk-Road-exhibits-GX-250.pdf
why so many payments to the hacker?

so many questions.....

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

@elasticband, very interesting finds.

Where can I get those files?
The SR accounts I mean.

BTW did you guys notice the last entry on the last image?
It says payroll (sr2.0) ....

Apart from that, this goes to show that VJ aka cimon was getting paid by Ross.

Also, who is the hacker he kept paying?
And what for?

Quote from: AGD on April 18, 2015, 01:35:52 AM

You can connect some, if not most of the payments with the timeline at http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline

For example this "op greenville" is dated while the "murder" of Curtis Green took place:

21/02/2013 - Undercover Agent tells DPR that The employee (Curtis Green) "died of asphyxiation/heart rupture" while being tortured and sends DPR a fake pic.

That day he spent 162000$ for "op greenville" (op like operation, like if he moved his ass somehow to make part of the op. lol . He sat on a couch at his home or at a library and tipped some stuff on his keyboard. Thats all)

-snip-

^^^ that makes sense

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

You can connect some, if not most of the payments with the timeline at http://antilop.cc/sr/#timeline

For example this "op greenville" is dated while the "murder" of Curtis Green took place:

21/02/2013 - Undercover Agent tells DPR that The employee (Curtis Green) "died of asphyxiation/heart rupture" while being tortured and sends DPR a fake pic.

That day he spent 162000$ for "op greenville" (op like operation, like if he moved his ass somehow to make part of the op. lol . He sat on a couch at his home or at a library and tipped some stuff on his keyboard. Thats all)

edit: That 2 Mio USD "theft from MtGox" entry happening at the same time, when this happened:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/feds-reveal-the-search-warrant-that-seized-mt-gox-account/

Looks like there is much more connection between Silk Road and MtGox, than I thought...

elasticband

legendary

Activity: 1036

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Nighty Night Don't Let The Trolls Bite Nom Nom Nom

very interesting read, noticed some interesting expenses and profits whilst going over the "SR accounts"

In the first image, it kind of looks like SR was just getting milked for all it was worth at the end..... $2,000,000 mtgox theft........ no wonder whoever stopped accounting the profits and loss toward the end.

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

Quote from: S4VV4S on April 16, 2015, 03:47:30 AM

Quote from: AGD on April 16, 2015, 03:33:07 AM

After all these assassination plots and arrests, Ross was highly alerted and he had a good reason to start hiding his identity as much as possible. I think he discussed this with VJ and it is possible that VJ made that interview for Ross. Possible that it was VJ who started SR2 with the nick DPR2 or TheRealDreadPirateRoberts.

It is also possible, that VJ planted the journal on Ross computer.

Then it is also posible that VJ was an agent, hence never "found".

Also, the same shit happened in SR2: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/

Quote

An undercover Homeland Security agent was paid $32,189 worth of bitcoin for work the agent did for the site.

Its possible, but I find it unlikely that VJ was an agent. I find the theory of lamoustache, that VJ is PluralofMongoose aka Thomas Clark the most convincing as by now.

S4VV4S

hero member

Activity: 1582

Merit: 502

Quote from: AGD on April 16, 2015, 03:33:07 AM

After all these assassination plots and arrests, Ross was highly alerted and he had a good reason to start hiding his identity as much as possible. I think he discussed this with VJ and it is possible that VJ made that interview for Ross. Possible that it was VJ who started SR2 with the nick DPR2 or TheRealDreadPirateRoberts.

It is also possible, that VJ planted the journal on Ross computer.

Then it is also posible that VJ was an agent, hence never "found".

Also, the same shit happened in SR2: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/feds-seize-silk-road-2/

Quote

An undercover Homeland Security agent was paid $32,189 worth of bitcoin for work the agent did for the site.

AGD

legendary

Activity: 2070

Merit: 1164

Keeper of the Private Key

After all these assassination plots and arrests, Ross was highly alerted and he had a good reason to start hiding his identity as much as possible. I think he discussed this with VJ and it is possible that VJ made that interview for Ross. Possible that it was VJ who started SR2 with the nick DPR2 or TheRealDreadPirateRoberts.

It is also possible, that VJ planted the journal on Ross computer.

Topic: Who is "Variety Jones"? - page 17. (Read 47178 times)