By ANNA GLEKSMAN & ELIZABETH COLUCCIO
The trial of the Internet “mastermind” accused of founding a site devoted to facilitating illegal transactions and covering the tracks of users came to an end Tuesday with prosecutors portraying the defendant as “the same man who started Silk Road and kept it running until the very end.”
Jury deliberation were scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Closing arguments by prosecutors in the Manhattan Federal Court trial of Ross Ulbricht depicted Silk Road as one of the biggest online market places for illegal drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
The prosecution linked personal emails of Ulbricht on his Gmail account to his chats with employees on Silk Road. The prosecution also found a personal journal on his computer giving accounts of his involvement in the creation and development of Silk Road.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Serrin Turner advised the jury to follow the “digital fingerprints” that Ulbricht has left, such as several chats between the alias Dread Pirate Roberts and other users on Silk Road. After officials obtained Ulbricht’s computer they were able to link his username auto login to the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a username that was alleged by the prosecution to have been discussed between Ulbricht and fellow employees of the site to signify a character from The Princess Bride.
Many personal emails from Ulbricht’s Gmail account were linked by prosecutors linked to the purchase of multiple fake ID cards, which they contend the defendant was planning to use if stopped or arrested by police. Serrin said dryly, “He was clearly not using these to go bar hopping.”
The government has accused Ulbricht of facilitating one million drug deals and earning $18 million in enabling these dug transactions.
Defense attorney Joshua Dratel maintained in his closing statement that the true, still unknown Dread Pirate Roberts framed his client to take the fall as mastermind of the Silk Road. He contends that the anonymity of the Internet allows for the possibility that the messages used as evidence by the prosecutor had been manipulated to implicate Ulbricht. Even the personal information found within the messages could have been lifted from Ulbricht’s Facebook or other social media by a hacker, said Dratel.
Furthermore, Dratel argued that the characters of the Dread Pirate Roberts figure and Ulbricht are inconsistent. The Dread Pirate Roberts counseled his colleagues on the site on how to cover their tracks with highly detailed instructions and avoided FBI investigators for two years, while Ulbricht was found with critical files in clearly marked folders on his laptop and a personal journal at the time of his arrest.
“Does this sound like the Dread Pirate Roberts?” Dratel asked repeatedly.
Certain chat logs also indicated that the Dread Pirate Roberts tried to hire a Hell’s Angel to kill a blackmailer who threatened to release names of Silk Road vendors and buyers, though as of Tuesday the prosecution had not charged Ulbricht with attempted murder. Dratel said that such behavior was inconsistent with the defendant’s character that character witnesses described as nonviolent.
Dratel urged the jury to use their “common sense” in deciding Ulbricht’s fate, and to “challenge the government” on the evidence that the prosecution presented. “This kind of evidence cannot be trusted beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.
Ulbricht faced seven charges, including drug trafficking, computer hacking, producing fake passports and IDs, and money laundering.
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