Witness Identities Protected in Ulbricht Case for Fear of Retaliation
Silk Road orchestrator Ross Ulbricht faces trial in less than a month. He is facing charges of narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and computer fraud. The prosecution and judge have decided to keep confidential the names of the witnesses testifying against him, for fear of their safety. The prosecution made a request to New York district court judge Katherine Forrest to have certain names redacted from the full witness list to reduce the risk of "harm and intimidation." She has allowed the prosecution's witness list for this case to be kept secret until Friday, January 2, or the Friday....
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So the latest news in the Ulbricht case is being widely discussed on Reddit, and could be a potential game changer in the case's outcome. On day three of the trial, Ulbricht's defence team managed to draw out of a Department of Homeland Security witness that Mt Gox founder Mark Karpeles was the driving force behind the illegal marketplace Silk Road, and that Ulbricht gave up control of the site to Karpeles in its early days. From the stand, Jared DerYeghiayan, a witness from the United States Department of Homeland Security, said that the DHS had: a wealth of evidence to prove that....
A human rights organisation that works in Sri Lanka is now accepting bitcoin donations to protect the identities of supporters. The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, a London-based NGO that campaigns for "justice, human rights and reconciliation" in Sri Lanka, began taking bitcoin donations this week. So far, the NGO has received just over 1 BTC in donations. "There is a very real fear within Sri Lanka of retaliation by government forces if you are seen as working closely with international human rights organisations," said Fred Carver, the organisation's campaigns director.....
Soon to be on trial, alleged Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht is dealing with yet another rejection when it comes to his complex case. Most recently, Ulbricht - who federal officials suggest was known as "Dread Pirate Roberts" on the illicit Silk Road website - and his legal counsel suggested that the FBI's means of investigating Ulbricht was illegal and a breach of privacy rights, given the Bureau allegedly hacked his servers without proper warrants. Judge Katherine Forrest wasn't exactly having the defense, bringing up the point that Ulbricht hasn't admitted to own the servers. As such,....
"Deezletime" was a heroin dealer. He sold heroin to people using Ross Ulbricht's creation, the Silk Road, the first major "darknet market" which some argue was the first true use case for Bitcoin. He earned $60-70,000 per month. His real name is Michael Duch, and he was a key witness in the case against Ross Ulbricht, functionally as a way to describe to jurors how the site worked from the perspective of a dealer. Duch had no connection to Ulbricht outside of Ulbricht's identity as Dread Pirate Roberts, the site's administrator and thought leader. Some feel that Duch's real purpose in the....
You might know him as "Dread Pirate Roberts" or just DPR but his real name is supposedly Ross Ulbricht, and he is the alleged founder of the underground exchange Silk Road. Mr. Ulbricht is currently facing charges of drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering, and "continuing criminal enterprise." The FBI has claimed to have gained the IP address to a server hosting Silk Road. This server led to the connection and current case against Mr. Ulbricht, but the means as to how the FBI gained this information has been in question. Mr. Ulbricht's defenses have made arguments last week....