Who is "Variety Jones"?

[Gleb Gamow]

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/curtis-green-silk-road-memoir/

The Silk Road employee that Dread Pirate Roberts allegedly tried to have murdered is writing a memoir.

Curtis Green was an administrator named "chronicpain" at the dark net black market Silk Road, the first modern dark net market. In two years, it grew into a billion dollar business selling mostly drugs.

Green was caught with $27,000 and soon flipped to cooperate with police. Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder and leader of Silk Road, found out about Green's involvement with police and allegedly paid $80,000 to have him killed.

Ross Ulbricht was convicted of founding Silk Road, which launched in 2011. He was arrested in 2013 and convicted on multiple charges in 2015 including drug trafficking, money laundering, computer hacking, and identity fraud.

Even though Ulbricht was never tried or convicted for any murder charges, the accusations played heavily into the trial against him. His legal team is currently fighting for an appeal.

Dread Pirate Roberts believed Green had stolen money from Silk Road. Green worked closely with Carl Mark Force, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, who masqueraded as a hitman. He pretended to murder Green and event sent Roberts staged photos of the hit.

Federal law enforcement and prosecutors argue that Ulbricht was the one who ordered the hit. Ulbricht's defense team claimed during his first trial and the fight for appeal that he was not involved or in control of Silk Road during these events, meaning someone else was allegedly operating under the Dread Pirate Roberts name at the time.

Despite Roberts' suspicions, it was Agent Force himself who was stealing money from Silk Road as one of at least two corrupt cops on the Silk Road case. Green is the one who taught the pair of dirty police officers how to use bitcoins, the only currency accepted on Silk Road, and later said the cops "set me up to take the fall."

Force and Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges were both convicted on theft and blackmail charges last year.

Suffice it to say, Green has a hell of a lot of material for a book here.

Green is currently looking at different possible cover art for his memoir, tentatively titled Silk Road Memoir. He did not return a request for comment.

Green's book joins a wide range of media already published or in the works about Silk Road, including a documentary called Deep Web, Eileen Ormsby's book Silk Road, a Vice documentary, a 20th Century Fox feature-length film, and more.

Green's plea deal and cooperation with police meant he served no prison time on felony drug charges. But the cops aren't the only group Green cooperated with. The former Silk Road staffer is said to have worked closely with journalists and writers at Wired and 20th Century Fox starting last year during Ulbricht's criminal trial.

Now we can wait for a comic book version of this saga.

Editor's note: We have updated the article to clarify Green's history with drug use.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Yeah, I remember Curtis Green. He's the dude that was baggin' his daughter. I wonder what happened to the FOX movie that was going to be made prior that revelation.

Ah, that funny bigasic episode ...

Yep! Here's the mega post with where Curtis confesses to fucking his daughter within: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1173703.msg12994311#msg12994311

[1713271903]

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[1713271903]

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[1713271903]

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[AGD]

PoM is still in Thai jail fighting his extradition? What is happening? Why there is no talk about VJs role in any of the recent court documents?

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/silk-road-prosecutors-argue-ross-ulbricht-doesnt-deserve-new-trial/
http://silkroaddrugs.org/ulbricht-defense-filed-reply-brief/

All pretty strange in my opinion ...

[OmegaStarScream]

PoM is still in Thai jail fighting his extradition? What is happening? Why there is no talk about VJs role in any of the recent court documents?

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/silk-road-prosecutors-argue-ross-ulbricht-doesnt-deserve-new-trial/
http://silkroaddrugs.org/ulbricht-defense-filed-reply-brief/

All pretty strange in my opinion ...

All became strange once the government didn't want to reveal how they got the servers location etc... In the first place. I saw the deep web documentary and there are some facts there , the way Ross was speaking on his Linkedin profile makes me think It's actually him who did all this.

About Variety jones now , shouldn't the government offer a deal or something to Ross (If he actually did it) to take down his associates (If there are any) , I mean that should get all cases closed.

[AGD]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/exclusive-our-thai-prison-interview-with-an-alleged-top-advisor-to-silk-road/

Exclusive: Our Thai prison interview with the alleged top advisor to Silk Road
Is Roger Thomas Clark really the notorious "Variety Jones"?

Sam Cooley and Akbar Khan - 9/8/2016, 2:00 AM
44

BANGKOK, Thailand—Few people were watching when the prison truck doors swung open at Ratchada Criminal Court to reveal a 55-year-old Canadian inmate. But there he was: Roger Thomas Clark, the man accused of being “Variety Jones,” notorious dope dealer and top advisor to Silk Road founder Ross “Dread Pirate Roberts” Ulbricht.

Clark entering court.
Enlarge / Clark entering court.
Clark did the perp-walk, shuffling unchained and unnoticed past the Bangkok press brigade, which was focused that day on the trial of an accused Spanish murderer. Accompanied by a lone Thai corrections officer in a sand-coloured uniform, Clark was led to the eighth floor and was greeted by his team of lawyers and interpreters.

Clark was here to battle extradition to America and a possible life sentence on charges of narcotics conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering. But face to face, whether in a Thai court or a prison, Clark appeared unfazed by the powerful forces seeking him for a trial on the other side of the planet.

Though acknowledging that his odds of beating extradition are slim, Clark remained in high spirits during his July day-trip to the courthouse. He even slipped in a brag or two on the way.

“Normally a senior person signs an extradition order, but my order was signed and stamped by John Kerry,” he said, adding that the order came with a blue silk ribbon. “Very few people ever have an extradition signed by John Kerry.”

(In the past, Clark has proven to be an eccentric interviewee who has made bold, unsubstantiated claims, such as having access to helicopters and being guarded by members of the Thai Tourist Police, the Khmer Palace Guard, and the Vietnamese Special Forces.)

Clark is fighting for his life any way he knows how. But one thing he’s sure of: he won’t go down like Ulbricht, laptop open and unencrypted. During a series of recent interviews from prison, Clark bragged about how his machines, when seized by Thai police last year, were all cryptographically secured.
Bangkok Remand Prison, where Clark is being held as he awaits the outcome of his extradition hearing.
Enlarge / Bangkok Remand Prison, where Clark is being held as he awaits the outcome of his extradition hearing.
Sam Cooley
"They found my three notebooks closed and encrypted"

Silk Road functioned for years as a sort of “Amazon.com for drugs.” Equipped with the proper software, users around the world could log in to Silk Road and cruise through hundreds of drug listings, read reviews, and decide to purchase a kilogram of heroin off someone named “BigDaddy24”—all without leaving their bedrooms. During its lifetime, from 2011 to 2013, Silk Road’s user base exploded. Ulbricht eventually had to hire administrators to keep things running smoothly—and Clark is believed to have been one of the most important.

In 2013, Ulbricht was captured red-handed in a San Francisco library with his laptop open and logged in to Silk Road—and on that laptop was a photograph of Clark. (To this day, the photograph functions as one of the few public pieces of evidence linking Clark to the “Variety Jones” name.) Also on Ulbricht’s computer was a 2011 journal entry paying tribute to Variety Jones’ influence on Silk Road.

“He has helped me better interact with the community around Silk Road, delivering proclamations, handling troublesome characters, running a sale, changing my name, devising rules, and on and on,” Ulbricht wrote. “He also helped me get my head straight regarding legal protection, cover stories, devising a will, finding a successor, and so on. He’s been a real mentor.”

This evidence, in part, led investigators to suggest that Clark was in fact Variety Jones and that he had advised Ulbricht “on all aspects of the [Silk Road], including how to maximize profits and use threats of violence to thwart law enforcement,” according to a press release issued after Clark’s arrest in Thailand.

On the Internet, Variety Jones came across as a bit of a tough guy. According to seized chat logs, Jones may have been instrumental to Ulbricht’s decision to commission the killing of one of his workers whom he believed had defected. (The “killing” was actually faked by a corrupt—and now-convicted—DEA agent.)

That toughness came through in prison, where Clark periodically receives visitors. When the buzzers rang at the visitation segment of Bangkok Remand Prison this June, Clark took a seat at a row of telephones to discuss his predicament during a series of interviews with co-author Sam Cooley. (Disclosure: Cooley purchased two containers of Pringles and three cartons of soy milk for Clark before one interview.)

“Guilt is a technical term,” Clark said, adding that he won’t be taken by the FBI the same way Ulbricht was in 2013. “They don’t have shit on me. I’m not going [to the US]. It’s an impossible circumstance.”

“They might have caught Ross with his notebook opened, as they claim, but they found my three notebooks closed and encrypted,” Clark added, claiming his home was raided without a warrant on the Thai island of Koh Chang in December 2015.

“Forensics could spend 30 years trying to decrypt those hard drives and still not get anywhere; so in a way, those hard disks are a headache,” he said. “The longer they need to open them, the longer I can relax here in Bangkok. They would rather deny that they seized all this evidence.”

For the past 20 years, Clark says he’s been living internationally—though most recently on the concrete floor of the jail, where he’s been held for the past nine months.

Clark shook his head when asked if he was mistreated. He laughed, saying the only people who complain about the conditions are foreigners—and that he wasn’t about to do so over a jail telephone.

“My chances of survival are zero if I go to the US,” he added.

Clark also repeated a previous claim to have knowledge about a so-far undiscovered dirty FBI agent—information that he said he’s keeping “under (his) hat” until the right opportunity presents itself.
A Thai prison guard.
Enlarge / A Thai prison guard.
Sam Cooley
"39 words exactly"

During Clark's July appearance at Ratchada court, an officer of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs functioned as a liaison between the US government and its Thai counterparts.

Discussion in court that day—all of it in Thai, which was interpreted into English by co-author Akbar Khan—revolved around domain registration and whether the prosecution could provide information about the official registrant of the Silk Road domain name. Given the complexities of Silk Road’s operations, which formerly existed in the semi-public darknet, prosecutors were forced to concede they did not have a copy of the domain registry.

Clark’s defence team responded by launching a barrage of strategic questions which could, at the least, prolong the extradition process. Shortly afterwards, the court session concluded and Clark was shuffled back to prison. (The hearing was attended by only one other person, a slick-looking Chinese man who described himself as a law student.)

As for Clark's newest gambit to save himself from extradition, it comes right out of a spy movie. He said that he recently requested a meeting with an intelligence official close to Thailand’s prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, because Clark has “top secret information” for the military government.

“I am going to write (the information) on a piece of paper for them and hand it to them to read. It’s not even going to be 40 words; it’s just going to be 39 words. 39 words exactly,” he said. “The deal can only be done within six days after the verdict has been read, and I have no idea how long this is going to drag on for.”

Freelance journalist Sam Cooley tweets at @samcooley.

[AGD]

Nice BBC documentation about SilkRoad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACWVg5Y5zM

VJ mentioned from 56:40. They got pretty exactly the moral turning point of VJ and Ross from their libertarian view into simple violent drug kingpins. PoM's answer to my question regarding this conversation (on MPG pm), was more like some other person used the VJ/Cimon account.

[LateralThinkerer]

They caught him too. So not a fake identity by Ross.

[Quickseller]

Nice BBC documentation about SilkRoad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACWVg5Y5zM

VJ mentioned from 56:40. They got pretty exactly the moral turning point of VJ and Ross from their libertarian view into simple violent drug kingpins. PoM's answer to my question regarding this conversation (on MPG pm), was more like some other person used the VJ/Cimon account.

This is a very interesting watch, I would recommend doing so if you have a space hour and a half.

Unfortunately, this really does not talk about VJ very much, except for one small scene.


Interestingly enough, many people interviewed close to Urbright find it hard to believe that he would have ordered all those killings.

[AGD]

Nice BBC documentation about SilkRoad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACWVg5Y5zM

VJ mentioned from 56:40. They got pretty exactly the moral turning point of VJ and Ross from their libertarian view into simple violent drug kingpins. PoM's answer to my question regarding this conversation (on MPG pm), was more like some other person used the VJ/Cimon account.

This is a very interesting watch, I would recommend doing so if you have a space hour and a half.

Unfortunately, this really does not talk about VJ very much, except for one small scene.


Interestingly enough, many people interviewed close to Urbright find it hard to believe that he would have ordered all those killings.

As far as I remember, there was a second guy arrested in Thailand in connection with Thomas Clark. I've never read more about it, though.

[hilariousetc]

Interestingly enough, many people interviewed close to Urbright find it hard to believe that he would have ordered all those killings.

The people close to rapists and murderers often say the same thing. I'm sure they would have all felt he couldn't possibly be involved with Silk Road either and his mother was protesting his complete innocence for quite some time and was shocked when he finally owned up to it.

[Quickseller]

Interestingly enough, many people interviewed close to Urbright find it hard to believe that he would have ordered all those killings.

The people close to rapists and murderers often say the same thing. I'm sure they would have all felt he couldn't possibly be involved with Silk Road either and his mother was protesting his complete innocence for quite some time and was shocked when he finally owned up to it.

Fair enough. Although most of the people they interviewed that knew him seemed to accept Ulbright was behind SR, although they did not explicitly say so.

[OmegaStarScream]

It seems like Bitcointalk has been mentioned as well (24:10) and here is the post they were talking about: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47811.msg568744#msg568744 Where else could I find the documentary btw? I can't really watch something that long in 360p.

[hilariousetc]

It seems like Bitcointalk has been mentioned as well (24:10) and here is the post they were talking about: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47811.msg568744#msg568744 Where else could I find the documentary btw? I can't really watch something that long in 360p.

http://rlsbb.ru/storyville-2017-08-21-silk-road-drugs-death-and-the-dark-web-720p-hdtv-x264-creed/

[sAt0sHiFanClub]

Have we heard anymore about his supposed knowledge of "Diamond"?

I recently heard a (brief) story about it, but with no decent sauce. Wonder if anyone here has heard anything?

[Gleb Gamow]

Have we heard anymore about his supposed knowledge of "Diamond"?

I recently heard a (brief) story about it, but with no decent sauce. Wonder if anyone here has heard anything?

"Dude, I'm just a mongoose. I haven't heard anything."

[AGD]

More important is: Why PoM is still sitting in jail in Thailand after years?

[zhqqnhivae]

This is simply a magical story. PoM's story tells us that police around the world are still concerned about the dark network transactions.

[BayAreaCoins]

More important is: Why PoM is still sitting in jail in Thailand after years?

He's fighting being extradited and they have the funds atm.

I really pray PoM can slip this  .

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

More important is: Why PoM is still sitting in jail in Thailand after years?

He's fighting being extradited and they have the funds atm.

I really pray PoM can slip this  .

Agreed. Hate to see anybody rot in a cage.

[AGD]

More important is: Why PoM is still sitting in jail in Thailand after years?

He's fighting being extradited and they have the funds atm.

I really pray PoM can slip this  .

Agreed. Hate to see anybody rot in a cage.

@BayAreaCoins
Which funds you mean?

[BayAreaCoins]