Bitcoin Forum

What happens to the silk road bitcoins after the trial?

If a defendant is found guilty, don't they get a chance to appeal? It there is an appeal, then is the US government legally allowed to auction the bitcoins they still have before the verdict?

How many appeals is someone likely to be allowed? There must be a legal expert among us who knows the answers.

Returned or sold only two options.

What happens during an appeal against the verdict?

They will just be held till final deposition.

Does the FBI have access to the remaining wallets in the first place? (sorry if I missed the news)

What's the maximum amount of time that could take?

Sometimes appeals drag on forever, and keep getting moved to a higher court for another appeal after each verdict.

Only time can tell, but the chances of the coins being sold is high. They have a group of nerds right now tracking the coins I am sure and if they were ever moved out of SR I am sure they will be sold.

The dailydot.com website says they have access to the remaining wallets and put all the coins in the address linked to below.

https://blockchain.info/de/address/1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH

The Bitcoin address now known as DPR Seized Coins finished receiving the mass of cryptocurrency early this morning, an FBI official told Greenberg.

http://www.dailydot.com/crime/fbi-bitcoin-seized-28-million-silk-road-ulbricht/

I'm just wondering if there is a possibility the appeals process could result in the remaining coins being held in limbo for years.

That is sort of the best case scenario for Ulbricht, sadly.

They rig the trial.

What, did you think there would be justice for anyone going up against the state?

i guess satoshi will collect them via his magic key

Imagine that they make a mistake and they send me all that coins. ;D ;D

It is generally difficult for the prosecution to appeal a not guilty verdict against a defendant. It is somewhat more common for the prosecution to appeal a specific ruling that was made in the defenses favor that could potentially result in a retrial. IMO I would find it more likely that he is initially found guilty then he appeals various rulings in his case and potentially walks a free man.

It should be very interesting to see just how much evidence is actually against him and how the evidence was found.

Once the verdict in his criminal trial is finalized (appeals have been exhausted) the civil case regarding his personal coins should be pretty straightforward.

Can you give an rough estimate of the maximum amount of time that appealing a guilty verdict could take?

How long do you think the maximum time will be before the government can auction the bitcoins?

The rest of the Bitcoin are the ones that they took from Ross himself, not Silk Road. He has filed a motion to have them returned to him, claiming that they were his personal Bitcoin, and had nothing to do with Silk Road.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/25/ross-ulbricht-im-not-the-dread-pirate-roberts-but-the-bitcoins-are-still-mine/

If they sent you a suitcase of cash you could spend it but bitcoin is traceable. Shortly after you set up an account somewhere to spend it you would get a knock on the door. I doubt you could even move very much of them on localbitcoins before you're sitting across a coffee shop table from a fed trying to buy them from you. One of the great features of Bitcoin is the permanent record.

Pretty much or the very small chance the government chooses to confiscate them and keep them for themselves instead of selling them off
Treating them as a reserve of sorts  8)

appeal arise because one or both parties are not willing to accept what was decided by the district court judge / court religion.
the process:
those who do not accept the contents of the decision within 14 days shall state appealed to the clerk of the district court / religion. after the parties that the appeal must be filed nai "memory appeal" contains things that makes anything she does not want to accept the decision. delivered to the clerk of the district court / religion to be forwarded to the High Court in order to be processed. The process of examination of the case in the High Court only examine the docket that in devolved to the high court by the district court / religion.
long time until there is a decision of the high court is relative, depending on the density of matter that in check.
-More technical details can ask the court clerk. : P.

This is technically true, however there are a number of mixing services available that could help you disconnect the coins you are spending and the coins that were sent to you in error. Another issue is the fact that there are no laws against receiving funds at your address and spending them. As long as you would not steal the coins from the government they would likely have no case against you.

Lucy you got a lot a splainen mixen to do. It's been proven that mixed Bitcoins have a degree of traceability. I'm sure with the resources of the government (the designers of crypto in the first place) it could be done. Money laundering is a federal crime in the United States, and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary (ninth edition) as "the act of transferring illegally obtained money through legitimate people or accounts so that its original source cannot be traced." That's your first crime according to the Uniform Money Services Act.

If you receive stolen coins can you spend them? Can you keep and spend money that fell out of a Brinks truck or an armored US mint truck? Hum, I'm not sure. Receiving stolen property is a crime but are Bitcoins property? Spending marked $100 bills that were stolen in a bank robbery even if you aren't the robber will get you some jail time but are Bitcoins currency? I don't think I'd like to be the guinea pig. You go first. I'll send cigarettes to you at Guantanamo if they decide not to prosecute you at all.

They can always find a case against you. Federal laws and regulations are so vast and unreadable that most average people commit crimes everyday in their everyday life. The key is to avoid their radar and not become a target.

There is even a book about it http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229/ (http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229/)

This may be true, assuming that they can find you. If they simply send coins to an address that you control that is not linked to you then you could simply mix the coins sufficiently so that when you go to spend the coins no one will know they are the same coins that were sent to you in error. If they don't know who to harass then they cannot charge you with bs crimes

People are sending small amounts to these types of addresses because they know that a lot of people are looking at them and they put public messages on the TX to try to get people to give them BTC

It's also kind of funny that one can consider them as donations to the government
They have a nice little balance growing although it does make for a nice place to put a dedicated advertisement that targets Bitcoin users