Topic: Who is "Variety Jones"? - page 6. (Read 47236 times)

So a few days ago after a million reverse image lookups tracing back fromm the original Atlantis calling card I land here  https://imgur.com/EWhi4 (http://pikdit.com/i/kirby-makes-toad-soup/) (kirby makes mushroom soup is the title of that fridge image that was originally posted 2012, but that got re-uploaded by who I assumed was cwt, or diamond or whomever the fuck he is. Anyway I email the addr on the image to warn them that they've been caught in the middle a serious shit storm, this was yesterday or the day before. Then I look a little closer that that other link, and where it leads, and VJ's name is all over it again (in 2012!!) (edit: vj text added later I think)

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6079753165?page=15
damn, some rand0... wait a second.
https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/nowkA-1580/hero/49261739        <--- look at the aliases
https://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6079753165?page=17  
Wheels within wheels...

(the profile was last updated on Sep 11, 2015 10:58 AM PDT)!!!!! Yet the forum post is from 2012. Smells very fucking motherfucking fishy.

I've posted this to pom, and I guess he can give his own theory, but I'm not in the business of extortion, so this is all going out now I know the images link all the way back to that diablo account and to VJ's own alias.

If I've fucked up with my reasoning now is the time to point it out

I honestly have no clue what. the. fuck. is going on, but it's been a hell of a dig, but I can't help but shaking the blaring fucking feeling I was meant to find all this. Like stumbling upon the cicada post -- that was probably not a cicada post, but it had all the hallmarks (blake quotes, ways of seeing quotes. It's like someone was desperate for some dipshit like me to pick up the thread down the neck of the goose and into its belly.)

Can someone with better detective skills than me tell me what the fuck is going on?


here are the other threads. Note the weird fucking title of the images, and understand why I'm erring on the side of a weird frame-up, kind of, I don't know:
https://imgur.com/UXw7h
https://imgur.com/XUU6H
https://imgur.com/NkJVf

Please remember that none of this is proof of anything. It is just linking photos down through history to an Alias (Variety Jones). PoM can't have known about any of this because if this was him why the fuck is it still all there??? What the fuck?

OK. Calm down you ginger-beer addled fuck.
Let's stick to facts and forget about speculation.
(Isn't that what Poirot always says? *looks at moustache*)
Date-wise the varietyjones 'hero' character was edited: "last-updated">Last updated on Sep 11, 2015 10:58 AM PDT
Motherboard published on: September 10, 2015 // 03:41 PM EST
so PDT mother published:   12:41:00pm PDT | Thursday, September 10, 2015
and Variety character edited:               Sep 11, 2015 10:58 AM PDT

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........... Either Diamond is a bit of a dopey slow on the uptake fuck, or POM panicked and rushed to implicate himself as quickly as he could (assuming the VJ character was edited (name changed?). Maybe that VJ tried to delete it.... why so late, so close, so.... ineffectual?

hmmmm. (Please don't kill me Diamond. I have so much to give.) Also it would help if someone into this shit could tell us if you can change a character's name? Maybe it's not possible? Maybe, I don't know shit about Diablo. Not really a gamer.

edit: Yes, you can delete characters, but not change their name. Factors in with the crumbs I followed that were put down over 2 months ago. So whoever was checking into that profile was check their handywork? Or am I overthinking this? Maybe VJ likes to implicate himself in shit for his own shits and giggles. Or's it's a double, tripple, about-turn bluff. No... that's dumb. But could diamond be this dumb? Hmmmmmm. *clears throat, inserts dick in wasps nest*. Diamond -- my password is what I think of you. *Clicks timer*. hint: Edward Snowden tweeted this 14 hrs ago: https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/

btw: This is a hall of mirrors, and I still don't know what to believe.

Has anyone posted "The Claw" video yet...?

There is a strong connection between PoM/VJ and the name Thomas Clark. Even if Thomas Clark is PoM's legal name, both Thomas and Clark are very common names so tracking him down would be significantly more difficult then tracking down someone by the name of say Ross Ulbricht.

I believe that Thomas Clark is more likely to be an alias, possibly with fake ID/Passports to back up this alias/identity. The fact is that VJ was much too security conscientious to allow his identity to leak as easily as it did. There is no doubt that VJ knew that there would be a high probability that he would be charged with conspiracy if Ross/DPR was ever caught. I am not saying these charges would be appropriate, but I am just saying that such charges shouldn't be any kind of a surprise to VJ.   

You are correct in saying that the sentence that Ross received for the crimes the Government claimed he committed (in NY). This is assuming that the claims that Ross ordered the murder of multiple people is untrue, or that it is shown that Ross was coerced into ordering/paying for these murders (I somewhat believe that the later is true).

VJ would be well aware of the above fact, and my theory is that VJ may be potentially making up the story in order to discredit the testimony of anyone at the FBI who was involved in Ross's case, which would likely result in him being outright freed.

If you look at this post, more specifically the below part of it:
It seems that most of the "richest" wallets/addresses have been ruled out because transactions have been signed from their private keys since Ross was arrested. Although to be fair, it is possible received the 300k over several payments, possibly over time and never spendlinked the addresses together, although I find this somewhat unlikely.

I don't think this story would give the government any additional reason or motivation to go after VJ that it did not previously have. If the dox of VJ is accurate, then the government would have certainly have had it by now because they have the power of the warrant to search myPlanetGanga's servers and the server of his email provider/host.

It is possible that VJ thought that his OPSEC was good enough so that he would not be able to get caught after publishing his story, and it is also possible that his story would get the government to not go after him because any potential testimony against him is already tainted.

Although the chances of this appears to be nearly 0%, it is also possible that some script kiddy was able to hack PoM's account to "tell a good story", but if this is true, then a lot of research apparently would have had to have been done.

Was this actually VJ who was just trying to "tell a good story"? No, absolutely not.

I keep having outlandish ideas. Please, again, consider it all half-bakery.

The more I think about the VJ websites and the "games" in terms of extortion, the more sense they make. Clues are innuendo( or just cover), and ransoms are paid by passing electrum wallet restoration pass-phrases. Just a thought.

The edited atlantis picture on vj.com has a big red pantomime cross over it. It was either the picture that lead the extortionist to the rest of the "portfolio", later backed up to vj.com and https://imgur.com/user/0xCE5 (https://imgur.com/zqKHxlY) (interesting to check: https://www.reddit.com/user/0xCE5 <- less like clues, more like threats(but most likely a user account of the cicada 3301 people. Still weird factor times a billion.)).

Atlantis calling card posted to facebook on July 2, 2013

Atlantis sinks in September 20 2013

0xCE5 (https://imgur.com/zqKHxlY) gallery posted November 29 2013 (presumably as a hanging sword of Damocles)
Peeps in comment section complain that it isn't Original Content, and was actually the work of another user, who uploaded the pictures two months before (since vanished (for obv reasons)).

The 0xCE5 imgur profile points to varietyjones.com edit: 7-9 october varietyjones.com link removed

(intesting to note 0xCE5's last comment 10 days ago: "Pack behavior. Feels vulnerable, so chihuahua makes a tactical retreat. Master is behind them, so their backs are covered. Alert but comfy.")  edit: 7-9 october comment removed

So if this nonsense is the case, then the extortionist has been posing as variety jones. I guess if you want to have an identity that people can google and find the accusations of VJ extorting overgrow, and the fact that if you search hard enough you can easily pin the handle of vj upon pom and rtc, makes for a good identity to steal/scape goat. And what are the chances of a fed's patsy-pleasure-puppet ever being arrested? Of course things get awkward for the fuzz when PoM starts posting on myplanetanja.

Reason I'm not posting this on mpg is it's all just half-baked theories, and more suited to this thread. I guess we'll hear more the more gets uncovered.

edit: or the weirdest fucking game show in history: http://uncovering-cicada.wikia.com/wiki/November_2013_media_exposure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301

edit: new theory. Variety Jones is Thomas Pynchon, and this entire thing has been a mixed media paranoia installation.

edit: But who said anything about Atlantis being extorted? Tipped off, me thinks (kind counts as extortion I guess). Now nothing makes even more sense. Fuck. Aside from the fact that whomever posted that calling card had, either very poor opsec (very), or a very good measure of goosechasing pratts like me. They could have used any old picture from any old place. It's all a load of bollocks. Sends me back to my original theory that VJ knew something Ross didn't, and back to original fantasy that the crt relationshit began with atlantis (I originally assumed, from the vj website that the reason he knew shit was going down on SR was because it was he(and friend) who were running atlantis, and therefore he who was warned by crt. Better explanation than crt just appearing on torchat out of nowhere). VJ denies it of course, so I then tried to make Atlantis fit else-how. I should really extract my dick from this hornet's nest now.

Great Thread! POM has posted his version of this story at myplanetganja. He is an old friend and I have no doubts about him getting heavily involved w/ SR. I also suspect that he was the original VJ as he certainly had the connections and access to that volume of seeds. His relationship with GypNir and his wife was significant.
I don't ever recall him being saavy enough to hack a website, but his personality and obviously gifted intellect, and some techy jargon, could have enabled him to gain any admins trust, especially if he had a surplus of inventory to enlarge the market.
Is he a victim? NO, he is known for his civil disobedience as a cannabis activist, and also known for an ongoing feud with GN. So mud has be slung for years, and no reputations have gone unblemished. Accusations and rumors of narcs and informants, underhanded business dealings, all draped by an army of trolls with multiple accounts shared amongst each other within various factions.
Is his story credible? HELL, I dunno.
I believe it to be true, but I also have a feeling that there is a lot more to this iceberg than meets the eye.

I am 99% sure, that PoM is Thomas Clark.
Now, it is still unclear, if his door/jail story is true or if this Diamond really exists. We also don't know if PoM really was VJ over the whole time. It is possible, that somebody else took over the VJ moniker. It is possible, that the chatlogs, that were found on Ross' computer, were tampered in a way to prepare his life sentence.

The first thing, that brought up the connection between VJ and PoM was in the chatlogs, where VJ made that PoM statement. This could have been an error of VJ (because he assumed, that Ross will not save his chatlogs), or the intention to put a false trail (maybe someone who knew PoM from back in the days"). After Motherboard was able to read VJ's emails it seems to be clear, that PoM was Variety Jones, at least at one point in time. Dunno if this could be part of that fake trail or how reliable these emails are. I didn't read them.

Fact is. that PoM is (at least) letting everybody think, that he was Variety Jones at one point, but at the same time he states, that he was not the "SR architect" that Motherboard called him. Wouldn't it be pretty idiotic to admit beeing the No. 2 of SR if you had nothing to do with it?

Another fact is, that Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life for crimes, that doesn't justify this punishment.

If I put this Diamond character into the story, then there are a lot of things, that start making sense to me. This means, if PoM has made up the story, he made it well researched, entertaining and credible (up to a certain point). I would still not understand the reason, why he would be putting himself in the spotlight of the authorities, esp. when facing a life sentence - just for a good story? GTFOH...

Do you think PoM *really* was incarcerated as he claims to have been, and do you believe that Thomas Clark is his *real* identity?

I personally find it hard to believe that VJ would be able to advise Ross while inside prison, although I really have zero expertise in the being in jail/prison field so I really cannot say this with a lot of authority. 

I really am not familiar enough with PoM and/or the myplanetganja scene to know one way or another if PoM and Charger shared accounts, although I have read in PoM's thread that they did/may have. I am not sure if someone in prison would be willing to give up their passwords that easily.
It is my understanding that a fake ID was really never hard to come by (and I assume the same would be true for a fake passport). In fact, fake ID's/Passports were sold on SR1 (Ross had even purchased some himself that were intercepted by Homeland Security), and AFAIK SR1 did not make it any easier to actually produce such fake IDs/Passports.

It is possible that Thomas Clark is an assumed alias that he assumed for when he was engaging in any kind of illegal activities, and that he is/has been in possession of a fake passport with the name Thomas Clark on it. I am not sure exactly how strongly the name Thomas Clark was associated with VJ/PoM, however if there were subtle clues that VJ/PoM is Thomas Clark is the same person then the fake identity theory may make more sense.

I don't think that VJ is law enforcement because there was at least one US senator publicly calling for SR's dismantle over a year before it was finally brought down, and it was my understanding that VJ actually made it more difficult for Ross to get caught after this public call and that Ross was doing very (supposedly) doing very illegal activity as of when this public call was made. 
It has been claimed that PoM is not behing ths varietyjones.com website, so any information found there is likely not a direct source.
It could be a number of things, but based on the donation link, I would not be surprised if it is someone trying to make some money off of their research.
He was able to board flights when SR1 was taken down because his dox was (apparently) not in Ross's possession when he was arrested (it is my understanding that the dox of all the moderators were on his laptop and not the SR servers). The other moderators were able to get arrested/charged because their identity was fairly easy to determine from their dox (plus I am sure that the DOJ was able to trace the bitcoin from their payments from SR to where ever they cashed out to further confirm their identity).
The FBI does not come out looking good even before last week. The way the found Ross was sketchy at best, and more likely was done by doing something illegal/unconstitutional. Also in the process of bringing down SR1, they had at least two agents act extremely unethically, and potentially encouraged Ross to commit several crimes that he will get charged with.

Are you serious? Would she be stating the opposite in case she knew there is a wallet?
I'm not saying there is a wallet though. Unfortunately, it seems that Ross was keeping everything on that damn laptop.

http://www.coindesk.com/rogue-fbi-agent-searching-for-lost-bitcoin-silk-road-advisor-alleges/

That's how things turn out now. VICE doxxed Thomas Clark beginning this month. Bravo.
Why the hell did I know this name since early March???

First mentioning of the connection VJ-PoM was made in this thread on March 2 2015:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.10632762


A lot of people knew about his court appearance against Gypsy Nirvana which lead to the dox of PoM beeing Thomas Clark, back when it happened, so it was pretty easy for an official to find him simply by searching for his real name in passengers lists etc.
As we know, the FBI had access to the NSA bulk database, so if this Mr. Diamond really exists, he would have an easy job to find out whatever he wants about almost everybody in this panopticum called planet earth.

This complete story is as shady as 5 guys smoking pot in a closed car. I can't wait for somebody open that doors ....

"Also I find it strange that diamond/-cwt was able to so easily DOX VJ despite so little information being available about him, and the lack of any trace of his RL identity. "

Your words. Not anyone else's. It's interesting though. Assuming Charger and "VJ" shared accounts (they did), it follows they shared passwords. There are whisperings around the camp-fire that charger/shebang (Wattier) is in prison. It would then make sense that anyone with federal ballbag inclinations might have easy access to said shared password. It would then follow and fit that if said fantasy is true, then Motherboard has been gypped by a fed. It may also be true that VJ himself is a rogue asset and his story is actually just a carrier for some kind of threat/subtext/whatnot (put on another layer of tinfoil).

Otherwise this entire motherboard thing was a big coincidence, and possibly a catalyst for VJ's 'revelations'. Hmmf.

But the fact still stands. Why is R T Clark still home and free... OR IS HE? (Aaand I've run out of tinfoil).

Another mystery is varietyjones.com et.al. Someone is clearly trying to frame Atlantis on PoM. In those incriminating photos the power-plugs are American. Shortly after noticing this (it was the big pic of the desk+window) I went to re-check and found that picture had been cropped -- or I've just forgotten the directory the original picture is in (ginger beer affects your memory). Either way (I believe) those pictures are not PoM's truly. So it is possible varietyjones.com is being run by Diamond as a honeypot (say cheese!). PoM mentioned Atlantis folks being blackmailed by Diamond. So it is possible these photos are part of that blackmail package and are being used as mud/disinformation.

I find it very fucking fishy that VJ has very little to say about the website (and I want to believe (Fuck the FBI)). He holds that it is the work of some kind of merry prankster. I guess it sounds stupid, but it also seems too big to ignore. Either the person who made the site knew motherboard was going to open the can, and thought it would help the mud campaign, or, for some fucking dumb reason VJ shat on his own front doorstep, and when discovered, slowly backed away and pointed at Diamond. I don't know what to believe *sobs, and crawls up into a ball* *wails*

How was he able to board a flight two days before SR went down, and 'three' times after that? Why are the authorities stumped into silence? I get the feeling this all came out in the open, not through a threat to Rosses old folks, but from a threat to VJ. I hope I am wrong, and that this Diamond character gets ousted, and that VJ gets a deal.... Just getting the vague, sick feeling.

One thing is certain. In all of these very half-baked scenarios the FBI consistently comes across as a conga-line of unprincipled, backstabbing, politically warped, slightly evolved chimpanzee's from hell. Also: stop extorting people (*whispers* it gives them a genuine reason to fucking exist). There. Everything is fixed and you can all go home now.

Well the fact that he was "wanted" by immigration was not known (AFAIK), and I suspect that the size of various bounties for capture/arrest are somewhat public information.

The DOJ has arrested every SR1 moderator except those who were working officially in law enforcement except for VJ (I don't think VJ was a mod, however his involvement was probably great enough so that the DOJ would have charged him with something, probably conspiracy). If it would *really* be that easy to find VJ then I would have thought the DOJ would have done so by now.


I doubt this

Well guess what , he aint getting shit . Ross is going to stay his whole life in jail and his mother already stated in different interviews .. that there is no hidden wallet , and no hidden BTC out there , at least not something she is aware of .
But seems like his parents are doing there best to get him out of there , his mother also spoke about couple of corrupt FBI agents http://freeross.org/donate-now-2/

Or, it could be that VJ is Diamond who has somehow managed to steal the wallet before the SR shutdown, and is now trying to get the password from Ross.

The fact, that VJ is PoM is Thomas Clark, was known, even long before LaMoustache's research or Motherboards super duper doxxing. His affinity for Thailand was also no secret and if somebody really wanted to find him, it was possible with some deeper investigation.

Hmmm, it is possible that the 300,000 BTC is from the sale of SR1 although I am not sure I believe that it was sold. It was also no secret that SR was the target of law enforcement, so I think it would be a very bad idea to be within "a mile" of running SR after selling it, or really even be in any kind of communication with the new owner.

Another inconsistency in POM/VJ's story is that he most likely gave more then enough information for him to get DOX'ed but he had claimed that his identity would not be revealed in the beginning of the story. Also I find it strange that diamond/-cwt was able to so easily DOX VJ despite so little information being available about him, and the lack of any trace of his RL identity.

My speculation is that the story is meant to be something that might be able to generate "reasonable doubt" in Ross's case.

Maybe Ross was telling the truth about beeing tricked back into the site after he had sold it. The 300k BTC could be the money from the guy who bought SR from Ross and took over the DPR moniker. It was very easy for a leading FBI officer to tamper all chatlogs, to make sure Ross gets a life sentence.
PoM's story is somewhat inconsistent in some parts and IF he was making this story up for whatever reason, he should think about what could happen, when some organized guys from Mexico start brainstorming about how to extract 75MioUSD from a guy in jail...

I am not intimately familiar with all of the details regarding Variety Jones, so those who have been looking into him for longer may feel these may be stupid questions.

Is the PGP key that "Plural of Mongoose" from myPlanetGanga is signing from in some way associated with VJ?

Is "Plural of Mongoose" somehow associated with VJ? (I assume that it is somewhat known/assumed they are one in the same)

---

This one is more for speculation: Where exactly did this 300,000BTC come from? It is my understanding that there was a spreadsheet found on Ross's computer with a rough accounting of SR1's profit/losses that roughly matched the amount of BTC seized from the SR1 servers and Ross's laptop.

This 300,000BTC claimed amount is roughly 10x larger then the sum of the amounts seized from SR1, and it is not easy to hide that much BTC that is associated with a DNM, so if these coins are somehow associated with SR1 then I would have thought that someone would have said something about them by now.

Sure it is possible that these would be Ross's personal BTC, however this would open up an even larger can of worms. The low price going back to July 2010 was $0.06, and 300,000BTC would be worth roughly $18,000 at that price, however it was reported that Ross invested ~$25,000 to start Silk Road, and I really can't see him investing that much in bitcoin compared to how much he invested in starting Silk Road.

Also the post bubble 2013 low price was roughly $76, which would value the 300kBTC at roughly $22.8 million. I understand that Ross was running SR1 because of his libertarian political views, but he was also running it as a for profit enterprise, which would make little sense to me if he had a separate stash of 300kBTC somewhere - although given sufficient amounts of time, SR1 would likely have been profitable in the long run, however IIRC it was roughly $2,000,000 in the red as of when Ross was arrested because of losses and extortion payments.

I am not saying what was written is untrue, however the 300,000BTC claimed encrypted wallet creates more questions then that guy's post answers.....

I received an email back from Ms. Ulbricht and they are aware of the posts made in regards to their safety.