"I'm pissed I had to kill him...but what's done is done," he allegedly laments.
by Dan Goodin
The kingpin of the Silk Road drug empire paid $80,000 to commission the torture and murder of an employee suspected of cheating customers in a deal gone bad, federal prosecutors alleged.
Ross William Ulbricht ordered the hit against an employee who took delivery of a kilogram of cocaine valued at $27,000, according to a superseding indictment filed in federal court in Maryland. Shortly after receipt, the employee came under suspicion of stealing from other Silk Road members after he was arrested by law enforcement authorities, prosecutors said. Communicating with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a drug smuggler, Dread Pirate Roberts—the online moniker prosecutors say Ulbricht used as leader of Silk Road—first asked that the suspected employee be beaten and forced to return the stolen Bitcoins. Soon, the indictment alleged, the kingpin changed his mind.
"Can you change the order to execute rather than torture?" Ulbricht allegedly asked in January. The employee—who prosecutors said had access to private messages sent by all Silk Road users including its boss—"was on the inside for a while, and now that he's been arrested, I'm afraid he'll give up info." Dread Pirate Roberts, who agreed to pay $40,000 in advance and another $40,000 when the hit was completed, added he had "never killed before, but it is the right move in this case," the indictment added.
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On February 4, Dread Pirate Roberts allegedly transferred $40,000 into a bank account controlled by the undercover agent. On March 1, Dread Pirate Roberts had the remainder deposited into the account after he received a staged photo that purported to depict the body of the employee who had died of asphyxiation and heart rupture after being tortured.
"I'm pissed I had to kill him ... but what's done is done," Dread Pirate Roberts allegedly wrote after receiving the image. "I just can't believe he was so stupid. I just wish more people had some integrity."
“This kind of behavior is unforgivable to me”
The indictment isn't the first court document to level chilling murder-for-hire allegations against Ulbricht. A separate 39-page criminal complaint claims that two months later Ulbricht ordered a $150,000 hit on a Silk Road user known as FriendlyChemist. The murder was ordered after FriendlyChemist hacked into the computer of a large Silk Road drug dealer and provided Ulbricht with a sample of usernames, addresses, and order information to prove it. FriendlyChemist threatened to publish the data unless he was paid $500,000.
"This kind of behavior is unforgivable to me," Ulbricht told a Silk Road user named redandwhite, according to the complaint. "Especially here on Silk Road, anonymity is sacrosanct." Referring to the hit, he went on to say "it doesn't have to be clean."
There is no evidence the hit was ever carried out. Authorities in White Rock, British Columbia, where Dread Pirate Roberts said FriendlyChemist lived with a wife and three children, have no record of a homicide occurring on March 31, the date redandwhite told Dread Pirate Roberts the man was executed. Ulbricht is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday. He has not entered a plea or commented on the allegations.
Courtesy: arstechnica
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