This article was originallypublished on Medium[1] in March 2020.
Summary
We review three enthralling criminal indictments in the United States, which were published between 2013 and 2015 and related to the Silk Road darknet market. Piecing together information hidden deep inside the documents, unrelated to the main criminal charges, was the incredible story of a series of apparent assassinations, which appear to have been staged.
At least one of the murders was staged by an undercover DEA agent. We interviewed the victim of this fake murder, Mr. Curtis Green.
Overview
In this piece, we focus not on the Silk Road darknet platform itself or the trial and conviction of Ross Ulbricht, the owner of the platform, but on three bombshell indictments which hit the Bitcoin community.
Two criminal indictments against Ulbricht (aka, Dread Pirate Roberts [DPR]) published in October 2013, one filed in the Southern District of New York and the other in Maryland and finally a March 2015 indictment against a DEA agent and secret service agent, who were investigating the case, Mr. Carl Mark Force and Mr. Shaun Bridges, respectively. The referenced documents can be found here:
- Southern District of New York Indictment against Ross Ulbricht[3]
- Maryland Indictment against Ross Ulbricht[4]
- Northern District of California Indictment against Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges[5]
We look at what appears to be something of a fascinating side drama hidden deep inside the documents: numerous, paid apparent assassinations. On closer inspection of the documents, it appears as if the assassinations may not have been actual murders after all, but scams perpetrated by various con artists in order to de-fraud money from
