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Looks like he might get out of it...
or not...

EDIT:

Sorry forgot the link :)

http://www.coindesk.com/ross-ulbrichts-silk-road-defence-invokes-fourth-amendment/ (http://www.coindesk.com/ross-ulbrichts-silk-road-defence-invokes-fourth-amendment/)

If he does...

what happens with his coins they sold?

Is there a link to a news article you could share that shows he's invoking the fourth amendment for his defence you could share?  Or is this just some random speculation you were hoping to have a disscussion about?  Either way my interest is peeked.

http://www.coindesk.com/ross-ulbrichts-silk-road-defence-invokes-fourth-amendment/ (http://www.coindesk.com/ross-ulbrichts-silk-road-defence-invokes-fourth-amendment/)

Sorry forgot to post it :)

good point they have to hit him with some kinda crime to keep the auction proceeds no?

But it would be great if he does win the case and he demands his coins IN COINS back :)

The US gov will have to buy all his coins back!

TO THE MOON!!!!!!

From all of the press releases from the police and everything, there is legitimately only one way he could get out of this, and that is that the prosecutor somehow messes up and gets a mistrial. Ross is done for, he is scum, he ran a website that is illegal and got caught in a library while signed into his master account that ran everything. The police tackled him out of a chair so he couldn't lock the computer or break it. He was caught red handed, his parents are delusional and obviously are not intelligent enough to gauge what their own son does. Just looking into his eyes, noticing his facial expressions and how he holds himself most people can conclude there is something wrong with DPR.

If you cannot tell that from strictly just looking at him you probably have some form of autism or an inability to empathize with others and get a real connection on how another human being acts and really behaves.

You know how when you watch COPS or a show, you look at the guy, and you're like wow it looks like he did it because you can tell there is something so off about him you know he did it and/or something else.

People are pretty easy to read honestly if you really take the time to look at mannerisms. He also was you know, kinda caught red handed in their operation where he hired an FBI agent to assassinate that one guy who made him mad by doing something( I forget it was something like disagreeing with DPR on something dumb). DPR flipped out, hired an undercover FBI guy, then wanted all the guys room mates killed too. they staged the crime scene, sent the pics to DPR paid the undercover FBI guy and they got him dead to rights.


I still cannot fathom the stupidity of anyone making a topic about this horrible person who did a lot of illegal things. mind you i could care less about what drugs you take honestly, but it is the law(for now).

Please for the love of everything or nothing or anything, delete this stupid topic. It serves no purpose other than having other morons come out and say stupid things.

They didn't sell his coins, they sold silk road coins. 27k of them. He has 117k

OK, I ain't gonna argue with you there.
Yes he did it and to be honest I couldn't care less if he makes it out.

But in the case he does,
your coins and mine will double in value.

That being said, I am no where near a supporter of Ross or SilkRoad for that matter but you should know that there are a lot in these forums that are  ::)

PS: You think Ross is a bad person yet nothing has changed with his arrest. Has it?

here is my thought process

FBI seen that a crime was being committed (housing a sales site for drug dealers) without FBI needing to do any search or seizures. after all it was mentioned on TV that silk road existed. so that covers the "has a crime been committed" clause without the FBI having to lift a pen.

As for whom committed it. well ulbrich plastered his gmail address publicly, so it didnt need a search warrant to find out that part, so they have a crime and a suspect. so far so good for the FBI.

now the part i think is the weak point in the case was:
going to google to search his gmail account for data, IP and geolocation - was the warrant valid
going to comcast using his IP from google - was the warrant valid
to then spoof his laptop to then get to the icelandic servers.. - was the warrant valid to cover the icelandic jurisdiction.

if ulbrich can get the geolocation, IP, email info thrown out. then and only then he can try the "prove the email belongs to me a physical human being, and not a room-mate, girlfriend, neighbour, stranger spoofing his computer, identity thief using ulbrichs details" defense.

Stuff that involves a lot of money and complications takes years to go to court. There are a ton of different investigations that happen where they look into every part of someones life. They are most likely pulling all the records from every place his computer has ever connected to the internet. They need to establish instances where he was say, in view of a camera while on the internet doing something so they can prove he did "X" on other things to.

There might be even more charges they bring up because once they dig through everything for awhile more stuff might come out.

Yes it is unfortunate about people supporting him, the sad reality is that people who do support him are blinded by ideology and video games and the internet. They live in this different kind of world, of which I am also part of, but I am grounded pretty solid in other things that take me away from the computer. Shooting guns, hanging with friends, playing magic the gathering again(lots of fun), reading interesting fiction and non fiction books, keeping up with a lot of news sources.

But then you get these people who I swear get their news from The Onion News or something like Tickld or other bogus places. Then they root for DPR and its just sickening, especially if all of the stuff the police press release said is all true its even scarier, of people putting out hits on people using bitcoins and using laundering services that throw your coins around to make you truly antonymous and sending it through exchanges and all these things. That takes things to a whole new level, because i would imagine it is really hard to find a real hit man and speak to them person to person and then most of the time it is a cop and they arrest you. Over the internet there are so many things you can do to make yourself not show up on the radar for anything so I really hope bitcoin does not become something more criminals use than good people use it.

and i too hope the cops have this evidence from before the poisonous tree (as a separate investigation). EG obtained by a public geo-location tag he left on a public google+ page or something. which they then linked to a CCTV video footage.

Can they take back the coins they auctioned off back in June to that Draper guy? If they have been confiscated as well, maybe they weren't really legitimately sold, as well? Imagine the feds knocking on Drapers door and demanding the coins back!

If he does indeed get all of his charges dropped and wins, they will still likely never give him back his money from selling things illegally through silk road though, that is still illegal and if there is not a clause that defines bitcoin as money directly then they can still make a clause or law and apply it backwards in time(I forget the word they use for that). But it would apply to anyone who ever did it since bitcoin came out or something like that, posthumously? idk lol.

the coins auctioned off were from private keys on silk road itself. these were directly linked to a crime.

if ulbrich wants any chance of getting away scot free, then he has to stay far far away from admitting those coins belong to him. and instead accuse a room-mate, partner, stranger of being involved with silk road. if he admits to being linked to silkroad by showing proof of links then it makes the whole 4th amendmant stuff futile. so forget the silk road seizure. thats done and dusted.

the only thing left is ulbrichs personal stash which was the private keys on his personal possession. which he could only request back IF there was zero taint that came from silkroad (less then x transaction hops), otherwise if there was direct linkage/taint. then this would be linking him to silk road again.

Yes, at least in the US, forfeiture is a really big thing for law enforcement.  In other words it's my understanding that sometimes they can not even find you guilty of a crime, but they'll keep anything they can show you used in furtherance of possible criminal activity.  And they never give it back.

I have not really read up on this case, but since it is so high profile, I cannot imagine a judge allowing the case to be thrown out.  I think he faces trial any way you look at it.   It is really a shame, but they are definitely making an example out of him so that people are afraid to do the same thing...

The ruling of this case will have huge ramification for all bitcoin users.

Even if the judge does not throw out the case, Ross's legal team can appeal any ruling that the Judge makes. If the appellate court rules against him then he can appeal to the Supreme court. I would not at all be surprised if the NSA was somehow involved in finding the Silk Road servers in Iceland and the government may not want to disclose this, if this is the case it would not be all that unlikely that Ross's charges are dropped or significantly reduced.

The silk rod guy has no political contacts, so will never get his coins back.

They will be kept forever as some kind of evidence, or just without any excuse, as it is not uncommon to happen.

They obviously obtained the server location illegally, and are going to do whatever they can to avoid revealing that. Maybe they will just never reveal how they did it and take their chances that the judge doesn't throw it out. In that case, it goes to the jury, and I don't see how any jury would find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt without all the evidence. Only time will tell!

Regardless what you think of Ross (personally, I think he's a fricken Hero!) if he gets found guilty on all charges, it will be a serious blow to certain internet freedoms as we know it!

How do you figure? Please explain. I don't think the ruling in this case will have any affect at all on BTC or its users.

Ross is using a brain wallet, the FBI only have access to something like 25% of his coins or something along them lines. Once he gets out no matter what all he has to do is use ANY computer and put in his memorable question and memorable answer and bam he has access to his hundreds of millions of dollars. This is what the FBI are trying to do now, they know he is using a brain wallet but they can't seem to crack the question/answer pass-phrase.

QFT. Unconstitutionally at the very least, but we all know what these people think of the constitution... they wipe their ass with it daily. They are above the law, or so they seem to think.

Lots of people in this thread seem to be operating under the illusion that the US law enforcement system functions in a just way... It does not. Rigged trials are very common. The Injustice System will have its way.

But hey, at least Ross is white so there's hope for him...

How do you figure this?? His personal Bitcoin is here (https://blockchain.info/address/1i7cZdoE9NcHSdAL5eGjmTJbBVqeQDwgw/whats), and he has an open case (http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/silk-road-pirate-ross-ulbricht-accuses-us-government-of-stealing-his-38million-bitcoin-booty/story-fnjwmwrh-1226789213977) against the government to get them back.

Moreover, since we know the US has no problem torturing people, a brain wallet would probably be the last thing you would want in their custody.