American kingpin: the epic hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road Cover Image

Book

American kingpin: the epic hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road / by Nick Bilton.

Summary:

In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything--drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons--free of the government's watchful eye. It wasn't long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone--not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers--could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site's elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts. The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself--including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren't sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet. Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It's a story of the boy next door's ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized Web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it's all too real.

Record details

ISBN: 9781591848141
ISBN: 1591848148
Physical Description: xv, 329 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York : Portfolio/Penguin, [2017]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (page 329).

Formatted Contents Note:

The pink pill -- Ross Ulbricht -- Julia Vie -- The debate -- Jared's khat -- The bonfire -- The Silk Road -- Ross the farmer -- Opening day of the Silk Road -- What goes up must come down -- The Gawker article -- A bull's-eye on my back -- Julia tells Erica -- What have you done?! -- Jared and the fifty-ton Flamingo -- From Austin to Australia -- Carl Force's tomorrow -- Variety Jones and the serpent -- Jared goes shopping -- The dread pirate Roberts -- Carl Force is born again -- "O Captain, my captain" -- Ross, hanged or home -- Carl, Eladio, and Nob -- Jared's Chicago versus Carl's Baltimore -- The mutiny -- A billion dollars?! -- The aspiring billionaire in Costa Rica -- Variety Jones goes to Scotland -- The armory opens -- Ross silences Julia -- Chris Tarbell, FBI -- Ross arrives in San Francisco -- Chris is the pit -- Batten down the hatches! -- Jared's dead ends -- A pirate in Dominica -- Carl likes DPR -- Kidney for sale! -- The White House in Utah -- Curtis is tortured -- The first murder -- The FBI joins the hunt -- Camping and the ball -- Gary Alford, IRS -- Life and death on the road -- Gary's big change -- Ross goes underground -- Carl switches teams -- A parking ticket on the internet -- Tarbell finds a mistake -- The fake IDs, part one -- The deconfliction meeting -- Jared becomes Cirrus -- Julia is saved! Hallelujah! -- The fake IDs, part two -- Onward to Federal Plaza -- Julia comes to San Francisco -- I am God -- The phone call -- The good-bye party -- The pink sunset -- Carla Sophia -- FeLiNa -- Arrested -- The laptop -- Ross locked up -- United States of America v. Ross William Ulbricht -- To catch a pirate -- Sentencing -- The plural of mongoose -- The museum -- The others.