‘Silk Road’ Operator Charged in Bitcoin Drug Conspiracy
The operator of the “Silk Road Hidden Website” was charged with running a “sprawling black-market bazaar” where anonymous users paid Bitcoin digital currency for illegal drugs and phony identification documents.
U.S. prosecutors said Ross William Ulbricht, known on Silk Road as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” ran the site as “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet” from January 2011 to September 2013. He tried to have one user killed for attempting to extort money from the site, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court.
“The site has sought to make conducting illegal transactions on the Internet as easy and frictionless as shopping online at mainstream e-commerce websites,” the government said in a civil forfeiture complaint unsealed today. The site generated sales of about $1.2 billion and about $80 million in commissions for Silk Road, prosecutors said.
Ulbricht, 29, was charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The government seized the website and is seeking control of millions of dollars of Bitcoins held by Silk Road.
He was arrested yesterday in San Francisco and scheduled to appear this morning in federal court there, according to Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
The criminal case is U.S. v. Ulbricht, 13-mg-023287; the civil forfeiture case is U.S. v. Ulbricht, 13-cv-06919, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
Bitcoin Digital Currency
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
The U.S. government seized the Silk Road website and is seeking control of millions of dollars of Bitcoins held by Silk Road.
The U.S. government seized the Silk Road website and is seeking control of millions of dollars of Bitcoins held by Silk Road. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, talks about industry regulation, and trading of the virtual currency Bitcoin. He spoke with Bloomberg Television's Sara Eisen on Sept. 30. (Source: Bloomberg)
The Silk Road Website
Silk Road via Bloomberg
A screen shot shows drugs for sale on the website of the Silk Road, where users paid for items with Bitcoin digital currency in an online black marketplace.
A screen shot shows drugs for sale on the website of the Silk Road, where users paid for items with Bitcoin digital currency in an online black marketplace. Source: Silk Road via Bloomberg
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