His punishment is certainly harsh, especially if we're merely taking into the consideration that he just set up and ran the site (disregarding any other charges that may or may not be true or had been dropped). Ross would have had my sympathy if he truly was just some entrepreneurial libertarian who believed in freedom and the freedom for people to use drugs, but things obviously took a darker turn here. I'm not claiming to know all the facts surrounding this case and I do not know if Ross was 100% solely behind the running of the site, but I don't like how he has conducted himself since his arrest in trying to save his own skin by passing on the blame to whoever else he thinks he can finger. I just watched the first episode of that Railroaded documentary on him that you provided in the op and it seems like a complete puff piece filled with lies just to try get him out of jail.
Sometimes people do some stupid things without fully considering the consequences.
I've seen the consequences of drug addiction on people I care about and people I have assisted professionally. I have also been the victim of serious crime that was drug induced. It is all very ugly. (I personally have never taken recreational drugs)
It can result in parents having to disown their children because they now steal, lie and abuse (physically and emotionally).
Parents abandoning their own children in favor of drugs.
People who sell drugs are often addicts themselves or motivated by greed. They don't consider the scrounge drugs is on the rest of society.
I personally like the Dutch model of dealing with addicts - where they are considered "sick" rather than criminals. (Unless they offend in some other way)
I've written an extensive article about Silk Road and how it related to Bitcointalk:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4437773.0
He's trying to blame Karpeles with some very circumstantial evidence, and even claims he was behind the creation of this forum (is Karpeles Satoshi now?). I can understand that there's not a lot of options for Ross when he's in jail for life without the possibility of parole and he's obviously just desperately trying anything he can to shift blame and strengthen his case so there's at least some light at the end of the tunnel for him, but trying to pass the blame on to others who are probably 100% innocent here is disturbing. Ross is making out like he just created the site as a libertarian market and quickly passed it on to somebody else, yet he was caught logged into the site as the administrator at the time of his arrest. What's his excuse for that? He was literally caught red-handed.
Karpeles was deeply involved with this forum. Receiving honorary VIP status for the resources he donated to this forum. Karpeles provided the hosting for Bitcointalk for many years.
He also audited the site after the first hack
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4405796.0Ironically the first hack resulted in the second hack and the malicious code had not been found.
<snip>
He probably used these IP addresses:
74.242.208.15974.242.205.69
152.14.219.223
152.14.247.62
74.242.205.161
74.242.206.245
74.242.208.159
74.242.235.132
98.69.157.69
98.69.160.187
41.125.48.26
150.206.212.72
(Thanks to Mark Karpeles for finding most of this info.)
Change of hostingMark Karpeles is now hosting the forum's server. The forum is still owned by Sirius, as it has always been. There will be no policy changes.
Signed version of this messageI believe that this is how the attack was done: After the 2011 hack of the forum, the attacker inserted some backdoors. These were removed by Mark Karpelles in his post-hack code audit, but a short time later, the attacker used the password hashes he obtained from the database in order to take control of an admin account and insert the backdoors back in. (There is a flaw in stock SMF allowing you to login as someone using only their password hash. No bruteforcing is required. This was fixed on this forum when the password system was overhauled over a year ago.) The backdoors were in obscure locations, so they weren't noticed until I did a complete code audit yesterday.
I think Karpeles was a victim of circumstances. He did mislead investors about the liquidity of the exchange and did some dodgy stuff with bots but he would have been a wealthy man if he hadn't set up the exchange and just held onto his bitcoins.
The “Willy bot”—was artificially inflating its account balance and using the money to buy Bitcoins. When Mt. Gox ran low on Bitcoins, Willy helped make up the shortfall. Sometimes its trades went the other way, selling borrowed Bitcoins to generate cash. Critics speculate that it was a fraudulent, if failed, exercise to keep Mt. Gox afloat.
He bought an insolvent exchange from Jed McCalib (Ripple founder).
I wrote about MtGox here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4412667.0He has co-operated with WizSec in the investigation of the missing MtGox funds.
While I believe Karpeles was implicated in a minor role with Silk Road (As client, vendor or laundry) - I do not think he was DPR. (Based on just opinion - not evidence)
Regardless of whether he was or not - he would have likely had some resources at his disposal that allowed him to have some idication as to who DPR was due to the amount of bitcoin going to and from Silk road and ending up on MtGox.
On 15 May 2013 the US Department of Homeland Security seized money from Mt. Gox's U.S. subsidiary's account with payment processor Dwolla asserting that the subsidiary was not licensed by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was operating as an unregistered money transmitter in the US.
During the negotiations Karpeles’s attorneys allegedly brought up Silk Road . They said that Mark Karpeles was willing to give up Silk Road operator “Dread Pirate Roberts” if he “could get a walk on his charges.”[/b]
June 29, 2013, Mt. Gox received its money services business (MSB) license from FinCEN
Some people in the FBI suspect that Karpeles was heavily involved so it is not just a desperate accusation.
Der-Yeghiayan identifies MtGox CEO Mark Karpeles as the person behind Silk Road and MtGox associate Ashley Barr as DPR’s voice. He also suspected blogger Anand Athavale.
What concerns me the most about the case is how badly the evidence got compromised. Often referred to as "fruit from the poisoned tree".
Two of the undercover Secret Service agents got convicted for trying to steal Silk Rd funds. Anything those Agents have done or touched now in my view is unreliable evidence. Potentially tampered with for selfish gain.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/ex-fed-in-silk-road-case-pleads-guilty-to-new-money-laundering-charges/
