1 00:00:01,870 --> 00:00:08,230 In this episode of American Greed, Silk Road is an online illegal drug bazaar 2 00:00:08,230 --> 00:00:10,270 where millions of dollars change hands. 3 00:00:11,410 --> 00:00:16,010 And its mastermind is a shadowy figure hiding within a secret part of the 4 00:00:16,010 --> 00:00:18,270 internet called the Deep Web. 5 00:00:18,650 --> 00:00:22,250 If the creator was known and if it was above board, the guy would have been on 6 00:00:22,250 --> 00:00:23,250 the cover of Forbes. 7 00:00:23,410 --> 00:00:28,030 This webmaster claims to be an intellectual with high principles. 8 00:00:28,869 --> 00:00:32,130 But in reality, there's no honored among thieves. 9 00:00:32,750 --> 00:00:36,310 Scattered amongst all those mundane entries were his criminal activities, 10 00:00:36,450 --> 00:00:39,590 including ordering the killings of six different people. 11 00:00:40,190 --> 00:00:44,050 Ultimately, it's not only the leader of Silk Road who loses his way. 12 00:00:44,890 --> 00:00:48,910 It's the law enforcement officers sworn to bring him to justice. 13 00:00:50,110 --> 00:00:55,070 The DEA agents and the Secret Service guys who were ripping off at Silk Road 14 00:00:55,070 --> 00:00:56,310 were just in it for the money. 15 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:18,760 You want heroin, opium, cannabis, ecstasy, psychedelics, stimulants, 16 00:01:19,740 --> 00:01:24,760 And here they are. They're all listed in the light of day. It's unbelievable 17 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,940 because this whole thing makes you scratch your head and wonder. 18 00:01:28,140 --> 00:01:33,560 The website New York Senator Charles Schumer is describing is called Silk 19 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,300 an elaborate online drug marketplace available to anyone with an Internet 20 00:01:38,300 --> 00:01:39,300 connection. 21 00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:42,860 You can see that it was just like eBay or Etsy or something. 22 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:49,260 This was an easily usable and inviting kind of e -commerce site. 23 00:01:50,060 --> 00:01:55,980 Andy Greenberg is a senior head writer for Wired magazine, who follows Silk 24 00:01:55,980 --> 00:01:59,500 Road's development since shortly after its launch in 2011. 25 00:02:00,740 --> 00:02:07,660 There were precursors of MDMA and all kinds of marijuana and stimulants and 26 00:02:07,660 --> 00:02:08,660 acid. 27 00:02:09,449 --> 00:02:14,190 When Senator Schumer calls for law enforcement to shut down Silk Road in 28 00:02:14,190 --> 00:02:17,710 2011, it's much more easily said than done. 29 00:02:18,590 --> 00:02:23,730 As Greenberg describes, the difference between Silk Road and eBay, besides the 30 00:02:23,730 --> 00:02:28,470 products being sold, is that Silk Road can't be accessed through a Google 31 00:02:28,470 --> 00:02:30,170 or a typical Internet browser. 32 00:02:32,130 --> 00:02:34,870 Silk Road lives on a hidden part of the Internet. 33 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:40,080 often called the deep web, and can only be found using a particular type of 34 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:45,680 browser called Tor, which is specifically designed to hide the user's 35 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:52,240 This is the regular web via Chrome, and then this is the Tor browser. 36 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:53,720 It's almost identical. 37 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,140 The only difference is you can see that I think I'm in Germany. 38 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,960 Tor used to stand for the onion router, and it uses this process called onion 39 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:03,960 routing, 40 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:09,680 bundled up in layers of encryption, three layers in fact, and then bounced 41 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:15,620 around through three computers in this network of volunteer nodes all around 42 00:03:15,620 --> 00:03:16,599 world. 43 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,700 And that's what the Silk Road did. This was something that you could only visit 44 00:03:20,700 --> 00:03:25,360 using Tor, but the Silk Road itself also ran Tor so that nobody knew who ran the 45 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:31,520 site. The IP address of anyone buying or selling on Silk Road and the person 46 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:37,180 running it is completely disguised by Tor's system, making it almost 47 00:03:37,180 --> 00:03:38,960 for law enforcement to trace. 48 00:03:40,220 --> 00:03:45,100 The only method of payment accepted on Silk Road is the digital currency 49 00:03:45,100 --> 00:03:50,280 Bitcoin, which uses long alphanumeric keys to make transactions. 50 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:56,360 No usernames or identification are required, keeping the buyers and sellers 51 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:57,360 anonymous. 52 00:03:58,220 --> 00:04:00,580 It puts law enforcement in a quandary. 53 00:04:01,210 --> 00:04:04,470 This isn't a typical investigation of a narcotics ring. 54 00:04:06,570 --> 00:04:11,330 Joshua Behrman is a journalist who writes a feature on Silk Road for Wired 55 00:04:11,330 --> 00:04:16,910 magazine, and he notes that Silk Road is both open to the world, yet closed to 56 00:04:16,910 --> 00:04:18,510 the scrutiny of law enforcement. 57 00:04:18,950 --> 00:04:22,810 So it's out in the open, but yet invisible. It would be sort of like if 58 00:04:22,810 --> 00:04:23,810 a drug deal. 59 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,700 on the corner, and it turns out they're a hologram and invisible, and you can't 60 00:04:27,700 --> 00:04:31,160 actually put your hands on them. So then on a grand scale, that's sort of what 61 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:35,440 the company was, too. It was out in the open, and its creator was very vocal, 62 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:36,560 but was unknown. 63 00:04:37,820 --> 00:04:42,260 He writes, I am Silk Road. The market, the person, the enterprise. 64 00:04:42,700 --> 00:04:44,520 Everything. I need a name. 65 00:04:44,940 --> 00:04:48,740 Drumroll, please. My name is Dread Pirate Roberts. 66 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:55,380 The name refers to the book and film The Princess Bride. 67 00:04:56,500 --> 00:04:59,420 I know who you are. Your cruelty reveals everything. 68 00:05:00,020 --> 00:05:03,140 You're the Dread Pirate Roberts. Admit it. We're fried. 69 00:05:04,020 --> 00:05:09,240 In the film, the name is passed from one person to the next, and the idea behind 70 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:12,060 the name means more than the person using it. 71 00:05:12,580 --> 00:05:17,280 And to users of Silk Road, the meaning behind the name is everything. 72 00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:21,320 The Silk Road was not some sort of cyber criminal scheme. 73 00:05:21,620 --> 00:05:27,620 It wasn't a kind of drug cartel or just a mere money -making narco market. It 74 00:05:27,620 --> 00:05:28,980 was a political movement. 75 00:05:29,220 --> 00:05:34,140 The Dread Pirate Roberts was this ideological figurehead who talked about 76 00:05:34,140 --> 00:05:37,900 embarking on this new era of human freedom. And I think that the people on 77 00:05:37,900 --> 00:05:39,260 site really bought into that. 78 00:05:39,520 --> 00:05:44,880 He was a hero for this community. He was a kind of leader of a revolution to 79 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,600 them. Some people have said that they came for the drug and they stayed for 80 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:51,140 revolution. It's a well -funded revolution. 81 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,040 The government estimates the site exchanges as much as $214 million worth 82 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,120 Bitcoin in just more than two years. 83 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,920 But former U .S. prosecutor Thomas Brown doesn't see the nobility. 84 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:11,900 I think the idea of calling Silk Road a revolution, I think, vastly overstates. 85 00:06:12,540 --> 00:06:17,180 What was actually going on? It was effectively a criminal speakeasy, really 86 00:06:17,180 --> 00:06:19,660 lowered the barriers to entry for illegal activity. 87 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,860 You could be a 12 -year -old, download the necessary software, go access Silk 88 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:27,320 Road and go buy yourself some heroin, which I don't really regard as a 89 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:28,800 worthwhile revolution, but that's just me. 90 00:06:29,980 --> 00:06:35,020 But Brown's opinion is going to matter greatly as law enforcement's primary 91 00:06:35,020 --> 00:06:37,040 becomes finding Mr. 92 00:06:37,280 --> 00:06:38,460 Dread Pirate Roberts. 93 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:42,000 Theoretically, he could be anywhere in the world. 94 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,840 Little do they know, he's right here in the USA. 95 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,320 When American Greed returns, 96 00:06:51,300 --> 00:06:56,580 Silk Road may say it stands against the drug war, but it ultimately can't avoid 97 00:06:56,580 --> 00:06:58,500 cartel -style violence. 98 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:03,220 As with so many revolutionaries, he became a tyrant very quickly. 99 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:05,420 We have to oppose the tyranny of the government. 100 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:07,180 And then here he is. 101 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,020 A year later, saying, well, we've got to kill this guy. 102 00:07:20,540 --> 00:07:24,500 Silk Road traffics hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the sale of 103 00:07:24,500 --> 00:07:26,260 narcotics and other contraband. 104 00:07:27,700 --> 00:07:31,580 Yet its leader is entirely unknown to the general public. 105 00:07:37,090 --> 00:07:41,530 Achieve scale with no marketing, you know, with just word of mouth and the 106 00:07:41,530 --> 00:07:44,350 quality of the service, which in fact was quite good. 107 00:07:44,870 --> 00:07:48,510 If the creator was known and if it was above board, the guy would have been 108 00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:50,090 like, you know, on the cover of Forbes. 109 00:07:51,030 --> 00:07:54,910 Strangely enough, in September 2013, he is. 110 00:07:55,550 --> 00:08:00,170 I became really determined to not to figure out who he was. 111 00:08:00,410 --> 00:08:03,250 I didn't think I could do that, but just to talk to him. 112 00:08:03,610 --> 00:08:07,190 Writing a piece for Forbes magazine, Greenberg gets his wish. 113 00:08:07,950 --> 00:08:12,910 The man law enforcement can't find spends five hours with Greenberg on an 114 00:08:12,910 --> 00:08:14,010 encrypted chat. 115 00:08:14,470 --> 00:08:20,650 He struck me as a very intelligent and highly idealistic guy who didn't seem to 116 00:08:20,650 --> 00:08:24,530 care too much about money but was incredibly ambitious in terms of what he 117 00:08:24,530 --> 00:08:28,310 building. We know he was making millions of dollars now, but he didn't change 118 00:08:28,310 --> 00:08:30,550 his lifestyle at all. And he told me that... 119 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:33,020 He had very simple tastes. 120 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:38,659 He enjoyed smoking a bowl of very nice marijuana at the end of a long work day, 121 00:08:38,740 --> 00:08:41,440 but he wasn't living in a mansion. 122 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,480 Then DPR drops a bombshell. 123 00:08:45,940 --> 00:08:51,020 He told me a story that he wasn't the creator of the Silk Road. The Dread 124 00:08:51,020 --> 00:08:55,920 Roberts I was speaking to had acquired it from the Silk Road's actual creator. 125 00:08:56,380 --> 00:08:59,720 It fits the Dread Pirate Roberts mythology perfectly. 126 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,220 that one DPR passes the title to the next. 127 00:09:04,060 --> 00:09:05,360 But is it true? 128 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:12,160 The person Greenberg chats with seems to think he'll always be one step ahead of 129 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:13,139 law enforcement. 130 00:09:13,140 --> 00:09:18,560 He totally felt that he was invincible. He, at least to me, said that he was 131 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:23,820 very confident that all of the three -letter agencies hunting him weren't 132 00:09:23,820 --> 00:09:24,820 any progress. 133 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:26,500 Or so he wishes. 134 00:09:27,790 --> 00:09:32,170 A task force in Baltimore is determined to get Dread Pirate Robert's hands off 135 00:09:32,170 --> 00:09:33,810 the keyboard and into cuffs. 136 00:09:34,730 --> 00:09:39,410 And to do so, they resort to a familiar tactic in investigating drug rings. 137 00:09:39,970 --> 00:09:41,710 The undercover agent. 138 00:09:42,890 --> 00:09:46,190 The DEA had an agent on the Silk Road, undercover. 139 00:09:46,810 --> 00:09:49,450 His name was Carl Forrest. He was out of the Baltimore office. 140 00:09:49,670 --> 00:09:55,350 And he creates this identity as a sort of fictional cartel 141 00:09:55,350 --> 00:10:00,460 middleman. whose identity on Silk Road was called Knob. 142 00:10:00,700 --> 00:10:04,060 As Knob, Special Agent Force makes an offer. 143 00:10:05,340 --> 00:10:09,100 Mr. Silk Road, I am a great admirer of your work. 144 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:11,200 Brilliant, utterly brilliant. 145 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:13,800 I will keep this short and to the point. 146 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:15,900 I want to buy the site. 147 00:10:16,900 --> 00:10:22,400 JPR rejects Knob's offer, but the two begin to communicate almost daily. 148 00:10:23,580 --> 00:10:27,040 And Knob's next offer, DPR accepts. 149 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:32,340 Knob tells DPR that he wants to unload a large quantity of cocaine. 150 00:10:33,860 --> 00:10:38,040 DPR arranges a sale that will be shipped through one of Silk Road's 151 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:44,160 administrators, Curtis Clark Green, who goes by the username Flush. 152 00:10:44,540 --> 00:10:48,420 When the drugs are delivered, Special Agent Force will be ready to pounce. 153 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:54,460 When the drugs were delivered, there the Baltimore task force was waiting to go 154 00:10:54,460 --> 00:11:00,560 in with a SWAT team, and they arrested Curtis Clark Green, and Curtis Clark 155 00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:04,300 Green immediately indicated that he wanted to cooperate with law 156 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:10,740 Katherine Hahn is an assistant U .S. attorney in San Francisco and lectures 157 00:11:10,740 --> 00:11:15,380 the Stanford University School of Law on cybercrime and cybercurrencies. 158 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:20,160 And she says things are about to get worse for Green. 159 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:25,960 A week after his arrest, he has a proper session with Special Agent Carl Force 160 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,280 and other members of the Baltimore Task Force. 161 00:11:29,020 --> 00:11:35,220 That night, 20 ,000 bitcoins suddenly go missing from accounts on Silk Road. 162 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:40,720 DPR solicits the help of a Silk Road lieutenant to find out how. 163 00:11:41,770 --> 00:11:45,810 Quickly, the two of them concluded it was Curtis Clark Green because it was 164 00:11:45,810 --> 00:11:51,750 Curtis Clark Green's username, credentials, and password that had been 165 00:11:51,750 --> 00:11:53,230 target each one of these vendors. 166 00:11:53,810 --> 00:11:59,370 So Green is now not only a potential snitch, he's a potential snitch who 167 00:11:59,370 --> 00:12:02,630 to have stolen $350 ,000 worth of Bitcoin. 168 00:12:03,770 --> 00:12:08,510 DPR wants an associate to make Green pay the ultimate price. 169 00:12:09,710 --> 00:12:14,950 He asked them to locate him, beat him up, try to get the money back. 170 00:12:16,270 --> 00:12:19,790 But that eventually turned into, I want you to find him and assassinate him. 171 00:12:20,670 --> 00:12:23,450 But in a twist that may save Green's life, 172 00:12:24,370 --> 00:12:28,750 DPR is asking the wrong guy to carry out the hit. 173 00:12:30,230 --> 00:12:35,590 Ironically, very ironically, I would say, he reached out to Knob, who, of 174 00:12:35,590 --> 00:12:37,110 course, was Karl Mark Forth. 175 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:40,140 In reality, an undercover DEA agent. 176 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:48,280 With Green and Carl Force's custody, the DEA agent sees an opportunity and 177 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:49,660 decides to play along. 178 00:12:50,500 --> 00:12:54,140 Apparently at Curtis Clark Green's home, they staged the hit. 179 00:12:54,380 --> 00:12:59,840 Special Agent Force, acting as Knob, sends gruesome pictures to DPR. 180 00:13:00,460 --> 00:13:06,240 Apparently satisfied, DPR pays Knob $80 ,000 for the murder. 181 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:08,540 It's a turning point for DPR. 182 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:13,680 The peaceful revolution of a utopian marketplace appears to be over. 183 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:17,080 He was getting hit by hackers. 184 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:21,120 The site was getting taken down by hackers. He was being extorted for 185 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:26,860 People were threatening to identify him, to identify his users. 186 00:13:27,500 --> 00:13:33,080 And he was constantly fighting off both them and the threat of every law 187 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:34,960 enforcement agency in the world. 188 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,520 was also hunting him and ready to put him in prison. 189 00:13:39,860 --> 00:13:46,180 According to the government, DPR orders as many as five other murders, though it 190 00:13:46,180 --> 00:13:48,240 appears none of them ever actually occur. 191 00:13:49,580 --> 00:13:53,380 Despite their descent into violence, DPR seems to be out of reach of law 192 00:13:53,380 --> 00:13:54,380 enforcement. 193 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:59,540 They know he runs an online drug marketplace, and they know he's 194 00:13:59,540 --> 00:14:01,660 ordered the murder of one of his employees. 195 00:14:03,370 --> 00:14:07,570 What they don't know is who in the world this person actually is. 196 00:14:09,410 --> 00:14:14,710 In the spring of 2013, New York's cybercrime unit gets involved. 197 00:14:16,230 --> 00:14:21,590 Instead of tracking the drugs like traditional narcotics investigations, 198 00:14:21,590 --> 00:14:22,590 track the site. 199 00:14:24,330 --> 00:14:27,370 Even though the website was hiding in plain sight, it still had to be hosted 200 00:14:27,370 --> 00:14:30,930 a physical server. So that physical server was located somewhere in the 201 00:14:31,090 --> 00:14:33,210 And someone has to maintain the server. 202 00:14:34,110 --> 00:14:39,470 Find the server the cybercrime unit believes, and they can find who operates 203 00:14:41,250 --> 00:14:46,710 When American Greed returns, law enforcement gets a lead on the dreaded 204 00:14:46,710 --> 00:14:47,710 Pirate Roberts. 205 00:14:49,130 --> 00:14:52,170 But could a fun -loving surfer and pacifist... 206 00:14:52,650 --> 00:14:53,990 really be the guy? 207 00:14:55,370 --> 00:15:01,170 When it was revealed that he was this 29 -year -old, good -looking Texan kid, it 208 00:15:01,170 --> 00:15:02,270 was pretty shocking to me. 209 00:15:11,170 --> 00:15:17,030 In an anonymous online community, sellers, buyers, and even Silk Road's 210 00:15:17,030 --> 00:15:20,650 mastermind could be anyone, anywhere. 211 00:15:21,740 --> 00:15:27,240 But while most agencies are looking for a person, the FBI Cybercrime Unit in New 212 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,360 York is looking for a machine. 213 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:32,880 The idea was if you find the server, you can hopefully find the person operating 214 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:36,740 it. Hopefully the person who's operating it is the same person who owns it, 215 00:15:36,780 --> 00:15:37,780 which would be DPR. 216 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:43,360 Even though Silk Road operates through the labyrinth of Tor, there are rumors 217 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:48,360 that the site's IP address sometimes leads and is visible to those who know 218 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:49,360 they're looking for. 219 00:15:49,580 --> 00:15:50,940 And at some point... 220 00:15:51,210 --> 00:15:53,350 The cybercrime unit catches a break. 221 00:15:53,610 --> 00:15:57,710 They located the server in Iceland, were able to go to Iceland and seize that 222 00:15:57,710 --> 00:16:01,830 server. With all of its communications, they could see every transaction that 223 00:16:01,830 --> 00:16:05,970 had ever happened, every message that had ever been sent through the Silk 224 00:16:05,970 --> 00:16:06,969 messaging system. 225 00:16:06,970 --> 00:16:11,470 One of the most crucial puzzle pieces the cybercrime unit lifts from the 226 00:16:11,470 --> 00:16:16,350 is the name of the computer DPR uses to access the site. 227 00:16:16,870 --> 00:16:19,190 There is a DRIP department out there. 228 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:24,820 who uses the username Frosty on a computer that he named Frosty. All the 229 00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:29,620 communications from the server are still referenced by anonymous usernames, but 230 00:16:29,620 --> 00:16:35,280 one key piece of information gives the FBI its best lead yet on a possible 231 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:42,220 location. One of the servers that we conducted a search on ended up giving an 232 00:16:42,220 --> 00:16:45,840 IP address that a user connected from San Francisco area. 233 00:16:47,310 --> 00:16:51,110 The IP address is from a cafe in Glen Park, San Francisco. 234 00:16:52,250 --> 00:16:58,070 So they know at some point DPR connected to the Silk Road server as Frosty at 235 00:16:58,070 --> 00:17:00,110 Frosty from this particular cafe. 236 00:17:01,130 --> 00:17:02,510 But that's all they know. 237 00:17:04,310 --> 00:17:09,010 Tom Kiernan is a former computer scientist with the FBI's Cyber Crime 238 00:17:09,490 --> 00:17:15,050 And he says even a cyber investigation can use an old -fashioned bulletin 239 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:18,859 It was the picture of DPR from The Princess Bride. 240 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:23,660 That was our top of it. You know, a little picture on the computer with the 241 00:17:23,660 --> 00:17:28,220 Frosty on it, pointing to DPR. We had the internet cafe with another hand 242 00:17:28,220 --> 00:17:29,740 line to DPR. 243 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:34,360 Every lead that came in, we'd take a little snapshot of it and throw it up. 244 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:38,320 But of course, there's still one piece missing from this puzzle. 245 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:41,080 Who is Dread Pirate Roberts? 246 00:17:42,090 --> 00:17:46,450 In the end, maybe Tor's anonymity leads to illumination. 247 00:17:46,750 --> 00:17:50,570 After all, even a hidden website needs a map. 248 00:17:51,310 --> 00:17:56,170 Somewhere on the real web, someone has to give you that Tor name. The idea was 249 00:17:56,170 --> 00:17:59,970 you're going to find it on the real web, somebody mentioning it in a post or 250 00:17:59,970 --> 00:18:01,850 another chat site or a blog. 251 00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:03,810 Sure enough. 252 00:18:04,250 --> 00:18:08,770 An IRS agent runs a simple Google search and finds someone advertising a new 253 00:18:08,770 --> 00:18:11,650 dark web drug marketplace in 2011. 254 00:18:13,010 --> 00:18:17,850 He had posted to try to drum up business for the site, to create buzz. 255 00:18:18,090 --> 00:18:20,670 Oh, look at this interesting site where drugs are for sale. 256 00:18:21,190 --> 00:18:24,170 The post is under the username Altoid. 257 00:18:25,010 --> 00:18:30,150 Searching other posts by Altoid, the agent finds that Altoid once went by the 258 00:18:30,150 --> 00:18:31,630 name Frosty. 259 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,040 It appears Altoid and Frosty are the same person. 260 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:41,320 And if this is the same Frosty accessing Silk Road, that person is Dread Pirate 261 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:42,320 Roberts. 262 00:18:42,740 --> 00:18:46,480 Continuing to search, the agent finds a possible real -world lead. 263 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:53,460 In a post by Altoid looking for programming advice, he asks that any 264 00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:59,280 be sent to the email address rossulbrick at gmail dot com. 265 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:05,440 That was a key piece that allowed us to make that connection or jump from a 266 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:07,500 virtual computer world to a physical world. 267 00:19:08,380 --> 00:19:13,520 Initial looks at Ross Ulbricht himself, however, make it hard to believe he 268 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,480 could be the guy behind a murderous drug empire. 269 00:19:17,860 --> 00:19:24,600 Ross grew up in Texas and was always a smart kid, super personable, was a 270 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,420 and was pretty built and was sexy and stuff. 271 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,060 So he was like a well -liked guy. 272 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:35,940 It may not seem like the typical profile of a drug kingpin, but the CEO of an 273 00:19:35,940 --> 00:19:36,940 Internet startup? 274 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:42,820 Maybe. In a way, he is, in fact, just like all of the other young 275 00:19:42,820 --> 00:19:44,300 millennial... 276 00:19:46,159 --> 00:19:53,060 very sort of educated millennials, especially from kind of the sciences, 277 00:19:53,060 --> 00:19:57,420 are kind of using their abilities and smarts to go try to make a billion 278 00:19:57,420 --> 00:19:58,420 in Silicon Valley. 279 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:03,940 I did line up from the beginning that he fit the criteria. His LinkedIn page had 280 00:20:03,940 --> 00:20:09,780 the same kind of lofty libertarian rhetoric that he was saying to me and 281 00:20:09,780 --> 00:20:10,780 on the Silk Road forums. 282 00:20:11,340 --> 00:20:12,980 The things that we found on the real net. 283 00:20:13,930 --> 00:20:16,850 and then some of the stuff that we found on the database to the server. Just 284 00:20:16,850 --> 00:20:20,750 enough to say, yeah, this looks pretty good. This is the same thought process. 285 00:20:20,830 --> 00:20:25,550 He has the same ideology about things, that this could be the right guy. 286 00:20:25,910 --> 00:20:26,910 The best news? 287 00:20:27,770 --> 00:20:31,930 Ross Ulbricht's last known address is in San Francisco, California. 288 00:20:32,430 --> 00:20:36,670 Once they had a name and a location, it was, let's get our plans together. 289 00:20:36,930 --> 00:20:38,450 We're flying out to San Fran. 290 00:20:39,130 --> 00:20:43,270 sit on the house and see if we can get enough to actually make this arrest. 291 00:20:44,350 --> 00:20:48,690 When American Greed returns, it appears to be an open and shut case. 292 00:20:49,310 --> 00:20:54,390 But if Ulbricht is able to shut his laptop, law enforcement's case could be 293 00:20:54,390 --> 00:20:56,110 locked in a virtual nightmare. 294 00:20:56,790 --> 00:21:01,730 As simple as hitting a key that would encrypt the entire hard drive and make 295 00:21:01,730 --> 00:21:05,870 very, very difficult, if not impossible, for law enforcement to ever recover 296 00:21:05,870 --> 00:21:06,870 evidence. 297 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:22,460 The FBI has a strong case linking Ross Ulbricht to Dread Pirate Roberts, but 298 00:21:22,460 --> 00:21:24,440 ultimately it's circumstantial. 299 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:29,820 To prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, they need to catch Ulbricht red 300 00:21:29,820 --> 00:21:30,820 -handed. 301 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:35,380 We want to see him logged in as DPR, not Frosty or any of these other names. He 302 00:21:35,380 --> 00:21:37,780 wanted him as DPR, as Dread Pirate Roberts. 303 00:21:38,620 --> 00:21:43,880 And we wanted to see that screen with his hand, you know, right on that 304 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,960 to say, hey, this is him, this is the guy. 305 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:50,020 Fortunately, they have a way of knowing when Ulbricht is logged in. 306 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,540 A high -level administrator on Silk Road with the username Siris has been 307 00:21:54,540 --> 00:21:55,960 arrested by Homeland Security. 308 00:21:56,500 --> 00:22:00,340 And Special Agent Jared Duryagian has taken over Siris' account. 309 00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:05,840 Acting as Siris, he chats online with DPR almost daily. 310 00:22:06,540 --> 00:22:10,220 We wanted Special Agent Jerry Yegan to get into a conversation with DPR like he 311 00:22:10,220 --> 00:22:15,600 had in the past hundreds of times and make him actually log into the Silk Road 312 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:21,900 site so we could see him at the keyboard with the screen there. I mean, it's 313 00:22:21,900 --> 00:22:25,040 crazy thinking at the time, but we wanted the screen there and the chat. 314 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,260 that was the goal from the moment that we got off the plane. 315 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:33,860 When the FBI sees DPR logged in with Yegan, they could simply bust down 316 00:22:33,860 --> 00:22:35,680 Ulbrich's door and take the laptop. 317 00:22:36,620 --> 00:22:39,580 But in cyber cases, it's not that simple. 318 00:22:40,020 --> 00:22:43,140 As soon as the bureau comes in the morning, we're pretty loud when we come 319 00:22:43,140 --> 00:22:44,140 the place. 320 00:22:44,220 --> 00:22:48,400 You know something's happening, and the laptop's closed. We believe that the 321 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:49,440 laptop's going to be encrypted. 322 00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,380 It's going to be a brick, and not going to be able to get any information off 323 00:22:53,380 --> 00:22:54,380 it. 324 00:22:54,500 --> 00:23:00,600 But from the Silk Road server, they know that DPR often logs in using Wi -Fi 325 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,180 from a cafe in Glen Park. 326 00:23:02,780 --> 00:23:04,920 If they can make the arrest in public... 327 00:23:05,370 --> 00:23:08,030 They may be able to get the laptop before it can be encrypted. 328 00:23:08,990 --> 00:23:12,890 On October 1, 2013, they get their chance. 329 00:23:13,370 --> 00:23:15,030 We gathered by the cafe. 330 00:23:15,310 --> 00:23:20,390 We finally get a call that Ross is leaving his residence, and he's got his 331 00:23:20,390 --> 00:23:24,430 backpack on. He pokes his head in one of the cafes, and then there's no place to 332 00:23:24,430 --> 00:23:28,250 sit down or anything, and then continues on right next door to the library. 333 00:23:29,090 --> 00:23:33,270 Ulbricht sits down at a table in the science fiction section and opens his 334 00:23:33,270 --> 00:23:34,270 laptop. 335 00:23:34,780 --> 00:23:41,140 Agent Juergen logs in, he starts a chat with DPR, and he gets him to open up his 336 00:23:41,140 --> 00:23:46,480 browser to the actual site, and that's when, you know, everything just went in 337 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,280 little bit of slow motion there for a couple of seconds. 338 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:54,060 Two undercover agents walk behind Ulbricht and fake a domestic dispute. 339 00:23:54,660 --> 00:23:58,580 They start yelling at each other, cursing at each other, and Ross is like, 340 00:23:58,580 --> 00:24:01,480 know, just looking, turns around real quick to see what's going on. 341 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,160 And that's when I have a special agent on the other side of him on the same 342 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:06,720 table that grabbed the laptop. 343 00:24:07,580 --> 00:24:12,200 That's when I came out from my little position and walked around and grabbed 344 00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:13,200 laptop from her. 345 00:24:13,260 --> 00:24:17,700 But I'm watching on the corner of my eyes as one of the New York agents that 346 00:24:17,700 --> 00:24:23,260 were down there with actually put hands on. And Ross, he didn't fight. I think 347 00:24:23,260 --> 00:24:25,280 he knew what was going on after that. 348 00:24:26,100 --> 00:24:30,600 The first thing Kiernan sees on the laptop, the name Frosty. 349 00:24:31,150 --> 00:24:35,090 This appears to be the laptop that's been running Silk Road for more than two 350 00:24:35,090 --> 00:24:41,150 years. In a computer crime case, you're 99 .99 % sure. But once you have that 351 00:24:41,150 --> 00:24:47,910 last piece there, this is him. There's no way it's anybody else. 352 00:24:47,970 --> 00:24:50,670 This is the guy that they've been after for two years. 353 00:24:51,210 --> 00:24:55,370 Perhaps most importantly, they have the laptop and all the information it 354 00:24:55,370 --> 00:25:00,450 contains, including chats and a diary that Ulbricht allegedly kept, detailing 355 00:25:00,450 --> 00:25:04,090 every step of creating and maintaining Silk Road. 356 00:25:04,390 --> 00:25:07,510 That laptop that Ross Ulbricht had was a treasure trove of information. 357 00:25:08,490 --> 00:25:11,150 I don't know if you've ever seen the television show The Wire, but there's a 358 00:25:11,150 --> 00:25:13,170 famous quote from that, never keep notes on a conspiracy. 359 00:25:13,630 --> 00:25:18,510 And Russell Albrecht kept notes on everything, including ordering the 360 00:25:18,510 --> 00:25:22,450 of six different people. I mean, there are organized crime figures who don't go 361 00:25:22,450 --> 00:25:23,289 that far. 362 00:25:23,290 --> 00:25:28,170 There was certainly an element of pride in keeping this journal and logbook. I 363 00:25:28,170 --> 00:25:31,810 mean, he wrote in one entry that he thought that his story would be told 364 00:25:31,810 --> 00:25:36,290 someday, and he wanted it to be comprehensive to include his thoughts. 365 00:25:36,810 --> 00:25:38,010 throughout the whole narrative. 366 00:25:38,590 --> 00:25:43,330 But that's generally not a good idea, to keep this detailed log of everything 367 00:25:43,330 --> 00:25:45,810 you're doing when you're running this massive illegal conspiracy. 368 00:25:47,690 --> 00:25:52,750 But the conspiracy contained within Ulbricht's laptop isn't limited to just 369 00:25:52,910 --> 00:25:55,610 much to law enforcement's surprise. 370 00:25:56,890 --> 00:25:59,950 I was in the middle of an investigation of another case. 371 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:06,140 And I had a lawyer representing a third -party witness in. And at the conclusion 372 00:26:06,140 --> 00:26:12,100 of our meeting, he pulled me aside and said that he thought that we had a rogue 373 00:26:12,100 --> 00:26:14,720 agent, I believe were the words he used, on our payroll. 374 00:26:15,660 --> 00:26:21,160 The lawyer represents a Bitcoin currency exchange in Europe. And he tells Hahn 375 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,100 that this agent has some wires crossed. 376 00:26:24,670 --> 00:26:28,310 I've been a federal prosecutor for over a decade, and I consider the federal 377 00:26:28,310 --> 00:26:30,910 agents I work with heroes, quite literally. 378 00:26:31,410 --> 00:26:35,850 But I felt like we could do a really quick check, and it would be easily put 379 00:26:35,850 --> 00:26:40,050 bed, mostly really for the agent. I was thinking, I don't want to have this 380 00:26:40,050 --> 00:26:45,010 guy's name being smeared around, so let's put this to bed so that we can 381 00:26:45,010 --> 00:26:46,590 this attorney you've got it wrong. 382 00:26:46,970 --> 00:26:52,490 But the attorney doesn't have it wrong. The agent in question, DEA Special Agent 383 00:26:52,490 --> 00:26:53,970 Carl Mark Forth. 384 00:26:54,170 --> 00:26:55,750 a .k .a. Knob. 385 00:26:55,950 --> 00:27:00,870 And Force has been using his undercover identity to his own advantage. 386 00:27:01,630 --> 00:27:06,570 In one gambit, Knob claims to have an insider in the Department of Justice who 387 00:27:06,570 --> 00:27:10,010 is willing to sell information on the Silk Road investigation. 388 00:27:10,770 --> 00:27:16,810 According to Force's official reports, DPR never accepts the offer, and payment 389 00:27:16,810 --> 00:27:17,709 is never made. 390 00:27:17,710 --> 00:27:21,210 But DPR's chats tell a different story. 391 00:27:22,270 --> 00:27:26,990 One of the messages that DPR sent to Carl said, hey, I sent you the money you 392 00:27:26,990 --> 00:27:28,510 asked for, the 525 coins. 393 00:27:29,010 --> 00:27:33,430 What I ended up doing, as IRS agents do, is I started following the money. 394 00:27:33,850 --> 00:27:37,890 Back then, criminals were operating under the impression that Bitcoin was an 395 00:27:37,890 --> 00:27:41,550 untraceable currency and law enforcement would never be able to figure this out. 396 00:27:41,710 --> 00:27:46,390 Well, when you fast forward to 2014, 2015, I was no longer the kid. 397 00:27:46,970 --> 00:27:51,750 Typically, even with the new technology, law enforcement still wouldn't be able 398 00:27:51,750 --> 00:27:54,830 to discover the person behind a Bitcoin wallet or key. 399 00:27:55,150 --> 00:27:59,430 But it can trace transactions from one Bitcoin wallet to the next. 400 00:27:59,650 --> 00:28:03,470 And thanks to the whistleblowing attorney, Gambarian knows that the final 401 00:28:03,470 --> 00:28:05,730 account is controlled by Carl Force. 402 00:28:06,170 --> 00:28:12,530 We could see these four transactions come out of Russell Briggs' account, DPR 403 00:28:12,530 --> 00:28:13,570 account on Silk Road. 404 00:28:13,830 --> 00:28:14,970 And then... 405 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:20,440 Old movement you see right here, that's actually Carl laundering those Bitcoins. 406 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:24,820 But at the end of the day, it still gets deposited into pretty much one unique 407 00:28:24,820 --> 00:28:26,920 deposit into his account for 525 Bitcoin. 408 00:28:27,300 --> 00:28:31,880 At the time, 525 Bitcoin is worth about $50 ,000. 409 00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:37,580 But little does law enforcement know, they're only scratching the surface. 410 00:28:39,790 --> 00:28:44,490 When American Greed returns, agent Karl Mark Force gets creative. 411 00:28:44,730 --> 00:28:46,410 And he's not the only one. 412 00:28:46,890 --> 00:28:50,430 In the end, the greediest people in this story, I don't think, are the Dread 413 00:28:50,430 --> 00:28:53,810 Pirate Roberts or the administrators of Silk Road, but the law enforcement 414 00:28:53,810 --> 00:28:55,930 agents who saw the Silk Road as an ATM. 415 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:08,180 Assistant U .S. Attorney Catherine Hahn and IRS Special Agent Tigran Gambarian 416 00:29:08,180 --> 00:29:14,140 know that DEA agent Karl Mark Force has squeezed DPR for money once. 417 00:29:14,500 --> 00:29:16,160 Maybe he's done it before. 418 00:29:16,820 --> 00:29:22,600 Looking through Silk Road's chat logs, Gambarian finds a remarkable clue. A 419 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:28,260 mistake made under the username FrenchMaid, offering information to DPR 420 00:29:28,260 --> 00:29:32,960 price. I went back on Silk Road and read through the chat logs and saw that 421 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,960 French made contact to DPR and tried to provide him some information. 422 00:29:38,180 --> 00:29:40,300 And sure enough, the first message is signed Carl. 423 00:29:41,940 --> 00:29:46,280 As much as you try to be careful, even when you're trying to commit crime, 424 00:29:46,460 --> 00:29:47,460 sometimes you slip. 425 00:29:47,900 --> 00:29:50,720 I would like to think I would never have done that if I was in that situation, 426 00:29:50,900 --> 00:29:51,900 but you never know. 427 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,960 Tracking the Bitcoin, they end up in a familiar place. 428 00:29:57,390 --> 00:30:02,310 Indeed, we saw from the Silk Road servers there was an approximately $100 429 00:30:02,310 --> 00:30:08,290 payment from Silk Road servers to accounts we associated with Karl 430 00:30:08,550 --> 00:30:11,410 And it was like, boom, that's the cherry on top. 431 00:30:11,990 --> 00:30:14,350 Really, what more do you need at that point? 432 00:30:15,170 --> 00:30:20,710 Eventually, Hahn and Gamberian linked force to multiple extortion efforts on 433 00:30:20,710 --> 00:30:22,090 and other thefts. 434 00:30:22,380 --> 00:30:27,960 and track more than $700 ,000 from Silk Road paid into Force's accounts. 435 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:32,920 Then a new thought occurs to them. 436 00:30:33,460 --> 00:30:37,620 Force is part of the team that arrests Silk Road administrator Curtis Clark 437 00:30:37,620 --> 00:30:44,300 Green in January of 2013, who was almost immediately accused of stealing 20 438 00:30:44,300 --> 00:30:49,720 ,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road vendors. Could Force have been involved in that 439 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:54,780 well? Curtis Clark Green had throughout the entire time maintained his 440 00:30:54,780 --> 00:30:59,980 innocence. He had insisted that he did not steal those Bitcoins. Now, I've been 441 00:30:59,980 --> 00:31:03,940 in a number of proffers where criminal defendants lie, so it was not 442 00:31:03,940 --> 00:31:07,340 inconceivable, I'm sure, that Curtis Clark Green was simply not telling the 443 00:31:07,340 --> 00:31:09,200 truth, and he really had taken those Bitcoins. 444 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,340 But Hahn and Gamberian have their doubts. 445 00:31:13,260 --> 00:31:19,500 The proper session lasted two days in Utah, and so day one was on January 446 00:31:19,500 --> 00:31:21,040 and this was back in 2013. 447 00:31:21,540 --> 00:31:26,440 The theft occurred that evening, January 25th. It just did not make sense to me 448 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,560 that as much law enforcement attention as was on Green at the time, that Green 449 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,680 was the one who stole that money. If it's not Green and his account was used 450 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:35,000 the theft, then who? 451 00:31:35,380 --> 00:31:40,440 The inclination is to believe that Carl Force is responsible, but the facts 452 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,040 don't seem to bear it out. 453 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,760 A lot of people on our task force just assumed if there was money missing from 454 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:51,820 the Silk Road, I'm sure it was Karl Mark Force who took it because he's done all 455 00:31:51,820 --> 00:31:52,779 of these other things. 456 00:31:52,780 --> 00:31:57,940 But I have to say that, in particular, Special Agent Tigran Gambarian really 457 00:31:57,940 --> 00:32:03,720 came to me and said, this is a different pattern that we're seeing here because 458 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,920 it doesn't match the pattern that we know Force was using. 459 00:32:07,660 --> 00:32:12,320 Hahn calls an expert on digital currency at the Secret Service named Sean 460 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,540 Bridges to see what she can learn. 461 00:32:15,420 --> 00:32:18,360 But she doesn't get the response she expects. 462 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:25,080 His immediate reaction was, why are you in San Francisco looking into this 463 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:27,500 internal matter unique to Baltimore? 464 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:32,380 It was very much a kind of this is none of your business type feeling that I was 465 00:32:32,380 --> 00:32:33,380 getting from him. 466 00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:38,380 I would have expected a response such as, oh, my gosh, these are kind of crazy 467 00:32:38,380 --> 00:32:40,340 things. We could get to the bottom of this. 468 00:32:40,660 --> 00:32:44,740 I certainly didn't expect a response of, essentially, this is none of your 469 00:32:44,740 --> 00:32:45,740 business. 470 00:32:45,820 --> 00:32:49,040 Hahn decides to take a closer look at Bridges. 471 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:54,080 Well, who is this Secret Service agent? Oh, that's interesting. He's also in 472 00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,820 Baltimore. And I later found out, well, he's on the same task force. 473 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,920 Not only is Bridges on the same task force as Carl Force. 474 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:07,180 He is part of the proper session where Green explains how to use his account to 475 00:33:07,180 --> 00:33:09,040 reset usernames and passwords. 476 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:14,060 It's the exact method that was used to break into vendors' accounts and steal 477 00:33:14,060 --> 00:33:15,560 the 20 ,000 Bitcoin. 478 00:33:16,100 --> 00:33:19,040 Once again, Gambarian tracks the money. 479 00:33:19,900 --> 00:33:23,480 Stolen money goes out, goes to the Bitcoin account, and then deposited into 480 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,280 account that Sean Bridges controlled through an LLC. 481 00:33:27,110 --> 00:33:31,610 For IRS agents like Gambarian, it's a typical money laundering investigation. 482 00:33:32,430 --> 00:33:35,410 I don't know if he read a money laundering book or something and figured 483 00:33:35,410 --> 00:33:38,610 that I should use LFB on laundering money, but it wasn't very hard to kind 484 00:33:38,610 --> 00:33:41,830 link him to Sean's actual identity. 485 00:33:42,170 --> 00:33:46,290 You know, he's a great undercover agent, great cyber agent, but not very good at 486 00:33:46,290 --> 00:33:47,249 money laundering. 487 00:33:47,250 --> 00:33:51,890 On May 4, 2014, Forrest resigns from the DEA. 488 00:33:52,130 --> 00:33:54,750 And March 18, 2015... 489 00:33:55,100 --> 00:33:57,260 Bridges resigns from the Secret Service. 490 00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:02,360 But breaking the law seems to have its own kind of addiction. 491 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:08,739 When American Greed returns, Sean Bridges knows he's caught. 492 00:34:09,679 --> 00:34:12,360 But that doesn't mean he'll go down willingly. 493 00:34:13,219 --> 00:34:18,840 Sean Bridges had been attempting several times not only to change his name, but 494 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,239 also to procure a new social security number. 495 00:34:22,430 --> 00:34:24,630 was incredibly concerning to us. 496 00:34:34,870 --> 00:34:40,010 In January 2015, the trial of Ross Ulbricht begins. 497 00:34:40,550 --> 00:34:44,050 He pleads not guilty of being the mastermind of Silk Road. 498 00:34:44,389 --> 00:34:48,690 But on the first day of trial, his defense makes a startling admission. 499 00:34:49,170 --> 00:34:53,449 On the very first day, His defense admitted that he had created the Silk 500 00:34:53,630 --> 00:34:59,050 but that it had been just this kind of economic experiment that he quickly sold 501 00:34:59,050 --> 00:35:02,030 off to the real Dread Pirate Roberts. 502 00:35:02,410 --> 00:35:06,930 It was a remarkable defense because the Dread Pirate Roberts had laid the 503 00:35:06,930 --> 00:35:11,330 groundwork for it with his name as the thing that can be passed off and 504 00:35:11,330 --> 00:35:16,990 inherited. So it did fit together in this really intriguing way, but it just 505 00:35:16,990 --> 00:35:20,290 still wasn't quite believable because the evidence was... kind of 506 00:35:20,290 --> 00:35:24,670 incontrovertible. I mean, they had just got everything on him from the Silk Road 507 00:35:24,670 --> 00:35:29,370 server, from his communications, to the stuff that he just stored on his laptop, 508 00:35:29,610 --> 00:35:33,910 including a journal and a logbook of his daily activities running the site. 509 00:35:34,130 --> 00:35:35,130 The jury agrees. 510 00:35:35,510 --> 00:35:39,130 In just a single afternoon, they come back with a verdict. 511 00:35:39,490 --> 00:35:44,230 The jury did not take long. It was a matter of hours before they came back 512 00:35:44,230 --> 00:35:50,180 with... completely guilty on every count. The counts include conspiracy to 513 00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:55,720 distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit or aid and abet computer hacking, 514 00:35:55,720 --> 00:35:59,180 perhaps most importantly, continuing a criminal enterprise. 515 00:35:59,780 --> 00:36:03,800 This kingpin charge, as people call it, it's usually something that is used 516 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,060 against mafia bosses and drug cartel leaders. 517 00:36:07,700 --> 00:36:11,000 It was about as harsh as anybody could have thought. 518 00:36:11,530 --> 00:36:15,990 When it comes time for sentencing, Judge Catherine B. Forrest has a daunting 519 00:36:15,990 --> 00:36:16,990 challenge. 520 00:36:17,310 --> 00:36:20,810 She had been presented with all these different Ross Ulbrichts, like the 521 00:36:20,810 --> 00:36:27,510 says he's this wonderful, nice guy, and the FBI says, well, here he is kind of 522 00:36:27,510 --> 00:36:32,490 becoming a murderer. His own diary is a different account, right, and different. 523 00:36:33,100 --> 00:36:35,940 And the diary at different stages say different things about the person. So 524 00:36:35,940 --> 00:36:41,860 everybody offered a different version of this guy, and she said, I don't really 525 00:36:41,860 --> 00:36:42,819 know which is which. 526 00:36:42,820 --> 00:36:47,360 One thing not charged is the murder -for -hire plots that the prosecution 527 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:49,200 alleges DPR executed. 528 00:36:50,540 --> 00:36:54,940 They include it in their narrative, but are never required to prove it to the 529 00:36:54,940 --> 00:36:55,940 jury. 530 00:36:56,900 --> 00:37:01,480 Nevertheless, Greenberg believes that the judge unfairly takes the evidence 531 00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:02,480 consideration. 532 00:37:02,700 --> 00:37:03,860 when assessing a judgment. 533 00:37:04,460 --> 00:37:08,020 The prosecution asked for a sentence that was significantly beyond the 534 00:37:08,020 --> 00:37:09,020 minimums. 535 00:37:09,740 --> 00:37:11,260 They did not ask for a life sentence. 536 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:17,300 It was the judge who took it upon herself to put him in prison for life, 537 00:37:17,300 --> 00:37:22,160 in part on trying to set an example. She was very explicit about the fact that 538 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:24,080 she didn't want to see people following his footsteps. 539 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:30,380 And then based in part on these accusations of violence that he was 540 00:37:30,380 --> 00:37:31,380 actually charged with. 541 00:37:32,570 --> 00:37:37,830 It seemed to me that it was this kind of tricky thing where he was charged with 542 00:37:37,830 --> 00:37:40,370 nonviolent crimes and then sentenced for a violent one. 543 00:37:41,530 --> 00:37:43,950 That's not how the system is supposed to work. 544 00:37:44,530 --> 00:37:49,930 And I also think it's unfair that anybody pays the price for some 545 00:37:49,930 --> 00:37:52,590 future criminal copycat. 546 00:37:53,410 --> 00:37:58,350 You're supposed to pay the price for what you do. And I don't think it was 547 00:37:58,350 --> 00:38:00,410 necessary to put Ross Ulbricht in prison for life. 548 00:38:00,990 --> 00:38:03,930 Bull Brick has appealed his case and the results are pending. 549 00:38:04,170 --> 00:38:08,530 But former prosecutor Tom Brown believes the assessment of the danger of Silk 550 00:38:08,530 --> 00:38:10,190 Road is warranted. 551 00:38:10,730 --> 00:38:16,510 There's a narrative out there that says that Silk Road was simply, was a benign 552 00:38:16,510 --> 00:38:17,510 force on the internet. 553 00:38:17,690 --> 00:38:20,350 But the evidence of the trial showed that was conclusively false. 554 00:38:20,650 --> 00:38:22,730 You had children purchasing drugs from the website. 555 00:38:23,710 --> 00:38:25,810 You had murders that were ordered out. 556 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:31,520 Of course, it appeared from the evidence of trial that DPR himself was being 557 00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:34,980 defrauded and the murders never actually occurred, but he thought they did. And 558 00:38:34,980 --> 00:38:37,840 the evidence of trial showed that he thought he was ordering people killed. 559 00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:43,620 So I think it's beyond a stretch to say that Silk Road was simply a benign 560 00:38:43,620 --> 00:38:47,160 website that didn't really cause any harm. 561 00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:51,920 According to Greenberg, if the judge thinks the sentence has discouraged 562 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,720 copycats, she is severely mistaken. 563 00:38:55,630 --> 00:38:57,230 AlphaBay is the most recent one. 564 00:38:57,470 --> 00:39:03,530 You can see that it has 80 ,000 drug listings, which is about 565 00:39:03,530 --> 00:39:07,510 four times more than the Silk Road ever had. 566 00:39:07,870 --> 00:39:12,350 This whole crypto market world has deteriorated in many ways, not in terms 567 00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:17,450 how much money is getting passed around there. It's still probably more than 568 00:39:17,450 --> 00:39:22,970 $100 million a year in revenue, but simply in terms of the morality of it, 569 00:39:22,970 --> 00:39:23,970 ideals are gone. 570 00:39:24,470 --> 00:39:27,530 Everybody's ripping off everybody else. There's no sense of a kind of 571 00:39:27,530 --> 00:39:28,530 libertarian revolution. 572 00:39:28,770 --> 00:39:35,730 It's all just kind of replication of the dirty world of the offline drug 573 00:39:35,730 --> 00:39:36,730 industry. 574 00:39:37,470 --> 00:39:42,870 Agent Karl Mark Forrest and Sean Bridges are part of this dirty world. They both 575 00:39:42,870 --> 00:39:48,930 plead guilty to taking more than $1 .5 million from Silk Road Combined through 576 00:39:48,930 --> 00:39:50,070 theft and extortion. 577 00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:55,960 Upon his guilty plea, Carl Forrest is remanded into custody and is ultimately 578 00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:57,820 sentenced to six and a half years. 579 00:39:58,700 --> 00:40:03,580 But at Bridges' plea hearing, he is allowed to turn himself in at a later 580 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:07,100 The prosecution adamantly objects. 581 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:12,000 Sean Bridges had been attempting several times over the summer. 582 00:40:13,450 --> 00:40:16,950 After he had agreed on a plea agreement with the government, both to not only to 583 00:40:16,950 --> 00:40:21,010 change his name, but also to procure an additional, a new social security 584 00:40:21,010 --> 00:40:26,010 number. And that information was incredibly concerning to us. We alerted 585 00:40:26,010 --> 00:40:28,350 judge to it that day at the change of plea. 586 00:40:28,550 --> 00:40:32,610 And on that basis, sought his remand into custody. We considered him 587 00:40:32,610 --> 00:40:35,450 flight risk, but he was not placed into custody. 588 00:40:36,610 --> 00:40:43,250 Bridges is asked to turn himself in in late January 2016 to serve a 71 -month 589 00:40:43,250 --> 00:40:48,450 sentence. But a day before his surrender date, law enforcement raids Bridges' 590 00:40:48,510 --> 00:40:52,990 apartment in Baltimore under suspicion that he may be trying to flee. 591 00:40:53,510 --> 00:40:58,690 I had a bulletproof vest that I found in this thing, numerous documents for 592 00:40:58,690 --> 00:41:02,010 offshore facility, Apple laptop with the serial number scratched off. 593 00:41:02,650 --> 00:41:06,550 Kind of a go -back which had all the stuff in there and prepaid debit cards 594 00:41:06,550 --> 00:41:10,470 whatnot for him ready to go and, you know, potentially flee the country. 595 00:41:11,070 --> 00:41:15,370 After Bridges' arrest, he won't breathe free air for a long time. 596 00:41:16,090 --> 00:41:20,510 In fact, he may be facing more than his original 71 -month sentence. 597 00:41:21,410 --> 00:41:25,730 As the public filing has stated, Sean Bridges is being investigated for 598 00:41:25,730 --> 00:41:26,730 additional crimes. 599 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:32,440 Perhaps the Silk Road began as a utopian libertarian dream. 600 00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:38,460 But in a criminal enterprise, greed always rears its ugly head. 601 00:41:38,900 --> 00:41:44,480 The Silk Road case in the end, it showed some incredibly effective law 602 00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:49,220 enforcement investigation techniques at the same time as it showed just like a 603 00:41:49,220 --> 00:41:55,300 bizarre, comical, corrupt side of the federal government and its agents. 604 00:41:56,170 --> 00:42:00,490 These guys who just clearly had no principles about what they were doing 605 00:42:00,490 --> 00:42:02,610 also just weren't very good at getting away with crime. 606 00:42:03,130 --> 00:42:06,730 The Dread Pirate Roberts, at least, was a criminal with some principles. 607 00:42:07,750 --> 00:42:12,950 The DEA agents and the Secret Service guys who were ripping off the Silk Roads 608 00:42:12,950 --> 00:42:14,390 were just in it for the money. 609 00:42:19,790 --> 00:42:23,510 Some of the best inventions never made. Get a second chance. 610 00:42:23,770 --> 00:42:28,170 Holy cow. This is your choice now. The defining moment of our life. 611 00:42:28,430 --> 00:42:31,930 Make Me a Millionaire Inventor, season premiere next Thursday at 10. 612 00:42:32,410 --> 00:42:33,850 CNBC, get yours. 613 00:42:34,310 --> 00:42:38,750 From executive producer LeBron James, Stephen Hustle, premiere episodes 614 00:42:38,750 --> 00:42:39,750 Wednesday.