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“That field is interstate drug smuggling, money laundering, RICO and drug kingpin legislation.” But in Ross’s mind, he wasn’t going to get caught, so why would he need a “top man” lawyer? That was already admitting defeat. And then there was the biggest new development between the two friends and associates: it seemed that VJ wanted more ownership too. Maybe this was why he had been so nice all along? Maybe when he had come up with the brilliant plan to rename the creator of the site the Dread Pirate Roberts, it was Variety Jones’s hope that one day he would become the next pirate to captain the ship. Their recent debates had come to a head when VJ wrote, “I think we need to formalize . . .” To create an official partnership between the two men . . . “If only to avoid confrontation in the future.” Ross was caught off guard by the question, and another debate ensued. “Here’s the thing,” VJ wrote. “I do well two ways.” Option one: “50/50.” Option two: “Me having it all.” What the heck was Variety Jones talking about?! Ross wasn’t giving up control of his site. Here was the only person Ross could trust in this online world, who had given him endless advice, and was now giving ultimatums. “Well, you can’t have it all now can you?” DPR wrote. “You could compete with me and maybe you’d win, but . . .” VJ could tell the conversation was getting contentious quickly, so he quelled the argument. “Naw, let’s not go down that road. I’m not gonna do that, ever, I promise. But, I do know what I bring to the table, and it’s a shitload.” “I know you do.” “Dude, I want equality,” Jones wrote. “I don’t do second fiddle very well.” But Ross had no interest in parity. In the current version of the site, it was Ross’s world, and he got to decide what went and what didn’t. He dictated who got a raise and who didn’t. People who worked hard were rewarded, as he had recently done with some focused employees, giving some of them an extra few hundred dollars in Bitcoin when they excelled. When Ross wanted to reward Smedley, the chief programmer, he did it on his terms. “You’ve really stepped up to the plate here already. Your base pay is still $900 of course, but I’ll throw [in] a bonus.” And when Inigo, another lieutenant, needed help finishing a renovation project on his house, Dread gave him an extra $500 to pass along to his handyman. Those kinds of decisions were up to Ross the Boss to decide, not VJ. What would have happened if he had to run these things past his lieutenant? No, thank you. Plus, how would Ross exert power and control on the site? He was already having a difficult time getting people to show up to work on time, or fill out the correct reports that he wanted to see at the end of their shift. He even enjoyed disciplining employees, telling them (still in Ross’s hokey banter) that they had “fudged up” when they needed a good scolding. Ross had worked too hard to simply hand anything to anyone. And shortly after this conversation with VJ, Ross simply stopped talking to him for a few days. Instead he retreated into the real world. Into San Francisco. As Ross stood up from the grassy knoll at Alamo Square and reached for his brown laptop bag to head back to his apartment, there was no question about it: This was the place he was supposed to be. This was the city where Ross would make the Silk Road into the greatest start-up the world had ever seen. And yet, as he walked back along Sacramento Street, past those beautiful painted lady Victorian homes and the modern glass skyscrapers, Ross didn’t know that he would soon face challenges that no
other start-up in the city would have to deal with. That in a matter of months he would find himself dealing with dirty cops and rogue employees, and Ross Ulbricht would have to decide if he wanted to have people tortured and killed in order to protect his growing enterprise.
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Portfolio/Penguin An imprint of Pen
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No man, for any considerable period
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20. The Dread Pirate Roberts 21. Ca
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Author’s Note My mother, who pass
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PART I
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look for anything out of the ordina
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pills that had been arriving, week
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Five Years Earlier
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hand in marriage (Say yes, please s
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Chapter 3 JULIA VIE Julia Vie’s f
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“Oh, no, no, no,” Julia said as
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American drug laws. “Take your se
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His hope was that this gig would le
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Chapter 6 THE BONFIRE Ross swerved
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As they joined the group around the
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Chapter 7 THE SILK ROAD Stuff, to R
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computer screen, he daydreamed that
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to push Ross’s intelligence, with
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“We should go,” he said to Juli
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at the University of Texas, and ask
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Chapter 10 WHAT GOES UP MUST COME D
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Now, rather than split his time amo
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enough, someone was. You could buy
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Chapter 12 A BULL’S-EYE ON MY BAC
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transaction. This would require rew
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libertarian theory. When the tête-
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Chapter 14 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Tea
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Chapter 15 JARED AND THE FIFTY-TON
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themselves. The issue, Jared reiter
Page 61 and 62: A few days before he left for Austr
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 17 CARL FORCE’S TOMORROW
Page 65 and 66: Carl thought about it for a moment.
Page 67 and 68: Ross interacted with dozens of diff
Page 69 and 70: caught up in the conversation to se
Page 71 and 72: Then there was the challenge of buy
Page 73 and 74: Chapter 20 THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS
Page 75 and 76: What a brilliant idea. Ross loved i
Page 77 and 78: He soon realized that this site cou
Page 79 and 80: people, the risk was worth the rewa
Page 81 and 82: Ross’s cut from the commission fe
Page 83 and 84: Chapter 24 CARL, ELADIO, AND NOB Fo
Page 85 and 86: Chapter 25 JARED’S CHICAGO VERSUS
Page 87 and 88: The Baltimore attorney then explain
Page 89 and 90: commission,” Ross wrote in a lett
Page 91 and 92: world businesses when a CEO is oust
Page 93 and 94: Nope. Not going to happen. Carl had
Page 95 and 96: This place was special to Ross for
Page 97 and 98: Chapter 29 VARIETY JONES GOES TO SC
Page 99 and 100: him break a drug dependency, and en
Page 101 and 102: But if Ross wanted to keep growing
Page 103 and 104: Chapter 31 ROSS SILENCES JULIA Ross
Page 105 and 106: away. Heading into the darkness, al
Page 107 and 108: Chapter 32 CHRIS TARBELL, FBI A que
Page 109 and 110: took his SATs in high school he did
Page 111: After breakfast each morning, while
Page 115 and 116: There were two main aspects of the
Page 117 and 118: Chapter 35 BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!
Page 119 and 120: For the backup plan to the backup p
Page 121 and 122: the site had grown, DPR’s message
Page 123 and 124: This wasn’t a vacation. It was hi
Page 125 and 126: When his new friends asked Ross wha
Page 127 and 128: Chapter 38 CARL LIKES DPR On paper
Page 129 and 130: are safe from the laws of your nati
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 39 KIDNEY FOR SALE! Ross st
Page 133 and 134: On the black market a person’s ki
Page 135 and 136: Chapter 40 THE WHITE HOUSE IN UTAH
Page 137 and 138: pup, tried to bite another agent’
Page 139 and 140: Chihuahuas. Green went on like a sc
Page 141 and 142: Chapter 42 THE FIRST MURDER Ross ha
Page 143 and 144: started to wonder if he might not h
Page 145 and 146: usts with physical drugs, not digit
Page 147 and 148: Portland, looked like she was going
Page 149 and 150: into the hospital room as they wept
Page 151 and 152: Chapter 45 GARY ALFORD, IRS The sid
Page 153 and 154: He started with the Gawker article,
Page 155 and 156: It was, after all, his legacy, the
Page 157 and 158: Chapter 47 GARY’S BIG CHANGE Ever
Page 159 and 160: to go and feed a parking meter. So
Page 161 and 162: you were only giving them half of y
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“Let me tell you a little parable
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your side” capacity—tried to wa
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Chapter 50 A PARKING TICKET ON THE
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Another search showed that Ross Ulb
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unclear what, if anything, was on t
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Chapter 52
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take a few breaks to watch Louis C.
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The agent asked again. “Andrew Fo
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Chris Tarbell had decided he wouldn
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By the end of Jared’s presentatio
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Chapter 54 JARED BECOMES CIRRUS Whe
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plastic. When the woman from Texas
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Chapter 55 JULIA IS SAVED! HALLELUJ
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Chapter 56
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Dylan waited for Ross to respond, b
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Chapter 57 ONWARD TO FEDERAL PLAZA
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Angels to have people killed, and h
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Chapter 58 JULIA COMES TO SAN FRANC
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She nonchalantly came up the stairs
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“We’re going to read from the T
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Chapter 60 THE PHONE CALL Gary sat
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She turned back to her computer and
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Dread Pirate Roberts was a twenty-n
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caught in a tree in the park and ha
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Chapter 62 THE PINK SUNSET Pink. Th
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was logged in to the site and arres
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even stop crossing the line, Carl d
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Even if anyone had noticed the SUV
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laptop and find a spot in a cafe wh
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“Sure,” DPR wrote. “Let me lo
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“I am Special Agent Chris Tarbell
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Thom and the other agent started ch
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And then there was Julia, who had p
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Chapter 68 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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The defense knew an insurmountable
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He continued walking through the sp
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man. Gravity doesn’t care if you
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Chapter 71 THE PLURAL OF MONGOOSE I
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Chapter 72 THE MUSEUM Along Pennsyl
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high school, René, about their fut
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the perils lovingly and yet resolut
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For over a year after the Silk Road
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Young Ross in elementary school in
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Ross with his parents, Lyn and Kirk
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The NOMMO Club at Penn State Univer
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The Silk Road Web site, which offer
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Jared Der-Yeghiayan of the Departme
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Force disguised as Nob, his online
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Chris Tarbell of the Federal Bureau
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Curtis Green, known on the Silk Roa
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Curtis Green’s staged murder, an
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Notes on Reporting Each and every d
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Acknowledgments I’d like to start
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Bibliography Bauer, Alex. “My Roo
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