The specter of Ross Ulbricht is still haunting the American law enforcement agencies. There is another arrest related to the case. An arrest is made by the Thailand authorities on behalf of the American counterparts.
The accused is a Canadian citizen who has advised Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht is famous for the creation of world’s first anonymous free market website called Silk Road. The website was immensely popular on the Darknet.
Silk Road was involved in crimes related to narcotics, trafficking, hacking and money laundering. Ross Ulbricht made a multi-billion dollar empire through Silk Road. Silk Road used Bitcoin as a favored mode of transaction. The accused is being extradited to United States where he will face all the above charges.
The United States Justice Department has asserted that the accused Roger Thomas Clark was a key figure in the development of Silk Road. The advice he made according to DOJ included the criminal enterprises of Mr. Ulbricht. The case might be tried in the Southern District of New York.
The statement made by the Attorney Geoffrey S Berman is revealing, “Roger Thomas Clark allegedly served as a trusted confidante to Silk Road founder and operator Ross Ulbricht, advising him on all aspects of this illegal business, including how to maximize profits and use threats of violence to thwart law enforcement. Thanks to the investigative work of our fellow law enforcement agencies and our international partners, Clark now faces justice in an American court”.
The DOJ has pointed that Ulbtricht has described Mr. Clark as a true mentor. He also provided him with the advice pertaining to security vulnerabilities of the website, management of the Silk Road users, technical infrastructure management and actively thwarting US law enforcement.
Roger Clark according to DOJ also has huge role in developing the processes underpinning the management and operation of Silk Road. He communicated with Mr. Ulbricht about narcotics sales. He went by number of online aliases such as VJ, Cimon, Variety Jones and Plural of Mongoose.