The FBI has arrested elusive Silk Road architect "Variety Jones" in Thailand

[bitcoinmarkets]

original link: http://www.bitcoinfuturesguide.com/bitcoin-blog/the-fbi-says-it-has-arrested-the-mysterious-and-elusive-silk-road-architect-variety-jones-in-thailand



The FBI announced today through a press release that they arrested the architect of Silk Road, from the statement: http://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-arrest-and-unsealing-charges-against-senior-adviser

CLARK, WHO WENT BY THE ONLINE NICKNAMES “VARIETY JONES,” “VJ,” “CIMON,” AND “PLURAL OF MONGOOSE,” WAS DESCRIBED BY ULBRICHT AS A TRUSTED “MENTOR,” WHO REGULARLY ADVISED HIM ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SILK ROAD ENTERPRISE.  AMONG OTHER THINGS, CLARK COUNSELED ULBRICHT ON THE IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION OF SILK ROAD’S TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, INCLUDING HELPING ULBRICHT HIRE AND MANAGE A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER TO ASSIST WITH THESE PROJECTS.  CLARK ALSO HELPED ULBRICHT DEVELOP AND ENFORCE THE RULES GOVERNING HOW SILK ROAD VENDORS AND USERS COULD DO BUSINESS ON THE SITE, WHICH WERE DESIGNED TO MAXIMIZE THE COMMISSIONS THAT ULBRICHT RECEIVED FROM SILK ROAD SALES.  CLARK FURTHER ADVISED ULBRICHT ON HOW TO CONCEAL HIS INVOLVEMENT IN, AND HIDE HIS PROFITS FROM, THE OPERATION OF SILK ROAD, INCLUDING HELPING ULBRICHT DEVISE COVER STORIES TO TELL OTHERS AND MAKE PLANS TO OBTAIN FOREIGN CITIZENSHIP AND OFFSHORE BANK ACCOUNTS.  FINALLY, CLARK ALSO ADVISED ULBRICHT ON TACTICS TO THWART EFFORTS BY LAW ENFORCEMENT TO INVESTIGATE SILK ROAD.  IN THAT VEIN, CLARK REPEATEDLY ADVOCATED THE USE OF INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE TO KEEP MEMBERS OF THE SILK ROAD SUPPORT STAFF FROM COOPERATING WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT.  IN ONE SUCH CONVERSATION, IN WHICH CLARK AND ULBRICHT DISCUSSED “TRACK[ING] DOWN” A CERTAIN SILK ROAD EMPLOYEE TO ENSURE THAT HE HAD NOT GONE “

• FF THE RAILS,” CLARK COMMENTED, “[D]UDE, WE’RE CRIMINAL DRUG DEALERS – WHAT LINE SHOULDN’T WE CROSS?”

Clark is a 54-year-old Canadian man living in Thailand who is being arrested by the Americans for supposed crimes done years ago. The long arm of Uncle Sam is unforgiving.

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[unamis76]

This is definitely not Bitcoin Discussion...

Let's see what happens to this guy on trial. I just hope that mainstream media doesn't start saying that this guy is a Bitcoin expert and his business was based on Bitcoin

[bitcoinmarkets]

This is definitely not Bitcoin Discussion...

Let's see what happens to this guy on trial. I just hope that mainstream media doesn't start saying that this guy is a Bitcoin expert and his business was based on Bitcoin

Eek sorry if i posted in wrong section.

Yea knowing the media they will label him "Bitcoin CEO" lol!

[Quickseller]

Does anyone know when VJ was arrested? Was it very recently, or has he been in custody for a while now?

[countryfree]

Legendary Russian arm dealer Viktor Bout was also arrested in Thailand. I guess this isn't a safe country to settle down if you're wanted by the FBI. He should have moved to Russia like Snowden, but I suppose he didn't like the weather up North.

[var53]

Legendary Russian arm dealer Viktor Bout was also arrested in Thailand. I guess this isn't a safe country to settle down if you're wanted by the FBI. He should have moved to Russia like Snowden, but I suppose he didn't like the weather up North.

He could have tried moving to Ecuador. It's warm and offered Julian Assange a safe haven, but maybe it wouldn't be as keen to grant a Russian arms dealer citizenship. I doubt many of those South American countries extradite people to the USA, but perhaps getting citizenship in one isn't easy for arms dealers.

Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela offered asylum to Snowden, but I suppose that's different.

[btckold24]

Sigh already had a person go. Hey you see that bitcoin guy got arrested  why do people
always want to only try and make btc look bad instead of pointing out that this guy would of
been a criminal either way.

[QuestionAuthority]

What a dumbass. Thailand and the US have been close allies since the Vietnam war.

[meono]

What a dumbass. Thailand and the US have been close allies since the Vietnam war.

Dumbass indeed. Few hundred KMs and he could be in Vietnam where US cant do shit.

[zivone]

O, he should have came here in the Philippines, he can actually hide in the "maximum security" prisons here just like high profile illegal doers just chillin' in a hotel-like room still doing their illegal businesses protected by some  high ranking officials, if you know what I mean.

[Spoetnik]

Legendary Russian arm dealer Viktor Bout was also arrested in Thailand. I guess this isn't a safe country to settle down if you're wanted by the FBI. He should have moved to Russia like Snowden, but I suppose he didn't like the weather up North.

I think the guy from Pirate Bay was nabbed over there too

And WOW drama !
The FBI is nabbing guys from Canada in Thailand ? jurisdiction much ?
Reminds me of Kim Dotcom's raid in New Zealand by the FBI.

Note to self don't hide out in Thailand LOL

[tokeweed]

He also was the original Dread Pirate Roberts, which Ross Ulbricht ended up inheriting. Now the FBI has ordered the Thai authorities to put him under arrest. So it could be that he's made some kind of deal between then and now to cooperate and make it easier for him. Or maybe he just wasn't laying low enough and they eventually caught up with him.

There's a third option:  Ross Ulbricht may have made a deal with the feds and ratted him out.  Something which I wouldn't blame him for or judge him.  Prison is a hard place.  Especially for a guy from the suburbs and isn't a hardened criminal.

Edit:  If, in the coming months, Ulbricht gets his sentence shortened or something, then I wouldn't rule it out.

[Quickseller]

He also was the original Dread Pirate Roberts, which Ross Ulbricht ended up inheriting. Now the FBI has ordered the Thai authorities to put him under arrest. So it could be that he's made some kind of deal between then and now to cooperate and make it easier for him. Or maybe he just wasn't laying low enough and they eventually caught up with him.

There's a third option:  Ross Ulbricht may have made a deal with the feds and ratted him out.  Something which I wouldn't blame him for or judge him.  Prison is a hard place.  Especially for a guy from the suburbs and isn't a hardened criminal.

Edit:  If, in the coming months, Ulbricht gets his sentence shortened or something, then I wouldn't rule it out.

I don't really see this as being the case. I would think that the Feds would generally cut deals in order to get testimony/evidence against "bigger fish" and Ross/DPR was pretty clearly a bigger fish then VJ.

I would say the chances are greater that it was either the guy from MD who Ross put a "hit" on, or one of the corrupt agents working on the MD case who was the confidential informant, and would say the chances are that it was the former, as the complaint says that the informant was yet to be sentenced.

[AGD]

He also was the original Dread Pirate Roberts, which Ross Ulbricht ended up inheriting. Now the FBI has ordered the Thai authorities to put him under arrest. So it could be that he's made some kind of deal between then and now to cooperate and make it easier for him. Or maybe he just wasn't laying low enough and they eventually caught up with him.

There's a third option:  Ross Ulbricht may have made a deal with the feds and ratted him out.  Something which I wouldn't blame him for or judge him.  Prison is a hard place.  Especially for a guy from the suburbs and isn't a hardened criminal.

Edit:  If, in the coming months, Ulbricht gets his sentence shortened or something, then I wouldn't rule it out.

Thomas Clark has written an email to the prosecutors, telling them where they can find him. He really seems to have a plan and this story is far from over.

[Spoetnik]

hmm interesting comments guys surprised no one here cares..
And not Bitcoin News ? WOW 
The Bitcoin fanboyism around here makes my eyes bleed.

If a guy bought child porn with Bitcoin we would here ..it's not a Bitcoin story LOL
Well did he use Paypal ?

Damn the idiocy just utterly rattles me around here.. like WTF people ?
can you guys possibly just suck it up and realize there is always going to be good & bad BTC related News ?
I hear the most dumbest crap imaginable when guys go into over time denying BTC involvement in bad things.
It always winds up looking pathetic..

[Kprawn]

He also was the original Dread Pirate Roberts, which Ross Ulbricht ended up inheriting. Now the FBI has ordered the Thai authorities to put him under arrest. So it could be that he's made some kind of deal between then and now to cooperate and make it easier for him. Or maybe he just wasn't laying low enough and they eventually caught up with him.

There's a third option:  Ross Ulbricht may have made a deal with the feds and ratted him out.  Something which I wouldn't blame him for or judge him.  Prison is a hard place.  Especially for a guy from the suburbs and isn't a hardened criminal.

Edit:  If, in the coming months, Ulbricht gets his sentence shortened or something, then I wouldn't rule it out.

I would rather say, Ross Ulbricht was the fall guy for this Clark guy... The master mind behind everything was Variety Jones from the start.  The search for Variety Jones was

more intense than the search for Satoshi Nakamoto.  ....Hopefully this will be the end to the whole Silkroad saga now. What next... prosecution of all the Silkroad users?

It just shows you... You can hide, but the truth will catch up to you... sometimes it just takes a while. 

[QuestionAuthority]

He also was the original Dread Pirate Roberts, which Ross Ulbricht ended up inheriting. Now the FBI has ordered the Thai authorities to put him under arrest. So it could be that he's made some kind of deal between then and now to cooperate and make it easier for him. Or maybe he just wasn't laying low enough and they eventually caught up with him.

There's a third option:  Ross Ulbricht may have made a deal with the feds and ratted him out.  Something which I wouldn't blame him for or judge him.  Prison is a hard place.  Especially for a guy from the suburbs and isn't a hardened criminal.

Edit:  If, in the coming months, Ulbricht gets his sentence shortened or something, then I wouldn't rule it out.

I would rather say, Ross Ulbricht was the fall guy for this Clark guy... The master mind behind everything was Variety Jones from the start.   The search for Variety Jones was

more intense than the search for Satoshi Nakamoto.   ....Hopefully this will be the end to the whole Silkroad saga now. What next... prosecution of all the Silkroad users?

It just shows you... You can hide, but the truth will catch up to you... sometimes it just takes a while.  

That's been happening from the beginning. When I first came to this forum Silk Road was a taboo subject. Simply posting a link to the onion address would meet with an immediate deletion and doing it more than once was a permaban. There were lots of shit talking druggies that spoke up for SR and how great it was to be able to anonymously buy drugs on-line. I see they're all gone now. Did they get scared and leave or get busted? We will probably never know.

[DGulari]

What next... prosecution of all the Silkroad users?

It just shows you... You can hide, but the truth will catch up to you... sometimes it just takes a while. 

First the 10,000 silk road dealers.  Then, the 100,000 silk road customers.  It will take a while, but they will all end up in jail. most getting a term somewhat less than life.  But most will get a very long sentence.  International drug dealing on the wire is highly illegal.  And use of bitcoin makes it de facto include money laundering.  These people are well and truly fucked.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[Spoetnik]

I have been paranoid enough about SR i would never even put those keywords in Google.
Takes a pretty huge idiot to think he has a way to be anon and untraceable on the internet.
Just boils down to a users resources and skills.
Even a dumb user who can barely surf the web could prob use all the NSA abilities to do a lot.
I generally group things as follows.. types of internet trackers.

- Morons.
- Intermediate users.
- Advanced users.
- Elite or Overly Motivated (guys who don't mind spending money for credit reports etc)
- General Law enforcement.
- Govt Agents with Custom Services or Tools + Expanded Special Resources.

So when guys think they can hide from all of the above i just roll my eyes and tell them..
Buy Monero !
..it's secure and untraceable

If the SilkRoad guys used Monero instead they might have gotten away with it.

HONEST i am a huge Monero supporter !

I argued with them about their "Anon" coin.. it gets old  
just let the idiots believe what they want..

[pereira4]

This is definitely not Bitcoin Discussion...

Let's see what happens to this guy on trial. I just hope that mainstream media doesn't start saying that this guy is a Bitcoin expert and his business was based on Bitcoin

Eek sorry if i posted in wrong section.

Yea knowing the media they will label him "Bitcoin CEO" lol!

I remember reading back in the day when someone related to Bitcoin, I think from the Bitcoin Foundation or something like that, committed suicide, I saw some news in some digital newspapers talking about how the "CEO of Bitcoin committed suicide yesterday", it was absolutely hilarious. People's misunderstanding on how Bitcoin works knows no limits whatsoever.