Looks like the FBI got to DPR's stash

[ekiro]

Of course. They offered him a plea-bargain if he gave up his stash. Probably cut his time in jail by half.  The authorities love to seize money. Believe me, they enjoy seizing money.  Any assets not so much as they have to go through the process of auctioning/reselling it.

The next step is for me to create a legitimate SR with the same level, if not more, activity.

[rogue13]

  NOOOOO! I always imagined him scattering a few thousand uniquely encrypted private keys all over the world and recovering these when he eventually got out of prison.

Hind sight is always 20/20 but I know if i held that much BTC I would be paranoid as all hell and get really creative in creating redundancies and fallback plans. But unfortunately this is probably a pipe dream this day and age in the United States thanks to federal prosecutors and their games, plea bargains and the surveillance state. I just hope this story serves as a lesson for the next person to inevitably come along and take his place.

How would you of handled your BTC if you had as much as him?

[PrintMule]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/25/fbi-says-its-seized-20-million-in-bitcoins-from-ross-ulbricht-alleged-owner-of-silk-road/

Seems legit. I think most people had assumed that DRP's stash would remain under his control, looks like that isn't the case. What do we think, newbies?

Given the recent spike in value after shutting down SR, the US government will enjoy liquidating those seized BTCs for a nice chunk of change to buy more weapons, equipment, and maybe pay someone's bonus.

I don't like the idea of the authorities hogging something cool and finite as BTCs.

I personally don't think they cracked his account. I think he gave up his password or they found it copied somewhere.

[paul25]

I cant wait for the information how FBI acquired access to his private keys or password.

But it seems DPR was a bit careless, at least according to informations in his indictment. He was for example using same nick altoid for one of the first posts about Silk Road and later for post seeking programmer with contact email address on Gmail in his own name...

So maybe they found some unencrypted wallet's backup or something.

Or maybe he gave them 144 thousand for some deal, so he can enjoy his other 300K much sooner :)

[CryptoNames]

Of course. They offered him a plea-bargain if he gave up his stash. Probably cut his time in jail by half.  The authorities love to seize money. Believe me, they enjoy seizing money.  Any assets not so much as they have to go through the process of auctioning/reselling it.

The next step is for me to create a legitimate SR with the same level, if not more, activity.

This. Ulbricht is useless to them. The coin, however, provides them a pretty sweet welcome package into the world of BTC 

[BillyPilgrim]

Of course. They offered him a plea-bargain if he gave up his stash. Probably cut his time in jail by half.  The authorities love to seize money. Believe me, they enjoy seizing money.  Any assets not so much as they have to go through the process of auctioning/reselling it.

The next step is for me to create a legitimate SR with the same level, if not more, activity.

This. Ulbricht is useless to them. The coin, however, provides them a pretty sweet welcome package into the world of BTC 

Agreed.  I'm pretty sure a vast, vast majority of cases end with a plea bargain.

[predictbit]

I'm wondering what price all those coins will go for at a federal auction!

[MAbtc]

I had thought there was a very good chance they had access to these coins. Too bad for DPR.

[NocTurNalFX]

Seems like DPR made mistakes from the start.   I never visited silk road.  I had heard about it,  but didn't think it would be around for too long.  Selling drugs will get you put in jail,  no matter how you do it. 

[MAbtc]

Seems like DPR made mistakes from the start.   I never visited silk road.  I had heard about it,  but didn't think it would be around for too long.  Selling drugs will get you put in jail,  no matter how you do it. 

I don't necessarily agree with that. But I do think using (and certainly running) a centralized marketplace using distributed servers was a recipe for disaster -- and I would be worried if I had been a seller on SR.