The former Silk Road employee who allegedly had a bounty placed on his head by his employer, the owner of the notorious online drug marketplace, has finally been named.
Curtis Green, 47, of Utah revealed in a Baltimore court today that he worked for Silk Road from November 2012 to January as an administrator who dealt with customer service.
Green pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs and gave a statement about a plot by Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht—alias “Dread Pirate Roberts” or DPR—to kill him.
“In January 2013 federal agents stormed into my home and arrested me on drug charges,” Green stated, according to an exclusive report by Epic founder Joshua Davis.
“According to federal agents, DPR paid an undercover agent to murder me. The agents took photos as they faked my murder. I did not know the identity of DPR or any other user of [Silk Road]. I never stole from DPR, SR or any SR users. On the advice of my attorney, I cannot give any further details, as I still face serious federal charges.”
Ulbricht, 29, was arrested on Oct. 2 and charged with computer hacking, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, and use of interstate commerce in murder-for-hire. According to Department of Justice documents, $3.6 million in Bitcoin, the digital currency exchanged on Silk Road, were confiscated when Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco. Silk Road’s dark web domain was also seized by the FBI.
Green was known on the site as “flush” and “chronicpain.” His responsibilities included “responding to questions and complaints from buyers and sellers, resetting passwords, resolving disputes between buyers and sellers,” Davis added.
While details surrounding the murder plot against Green are sparse, his case could easily be made into a blockbuster film based on court documents and the testimony of former Silk Road users.
The story began in December 2012, when Ulbricht helped facilitate a deal between Green and a Drug Enforcement Agency agent posing as a dealer.
“Green found a buyer and agreed to act as the middleman for a $27,000 sale of a kilogram of cocaine,” USA Today reported. “Green gave the DEA agent his address.”
In January, DPR contacted the undercover agent and was told that Green had been arrested. The agent said that Green had stolen funds from other Silk Road users. According to the DEA, DPR was afraid that Green would talk to police, so, within a day, he asked the undercover agent to kill him.
DPR allegedly offered up $80,000 for Green’s murder. According to court documents, on Feb. 4, 2013, DPR transferred $40,000 from Technocash Limited in Australia to the agent.
On February 12, the agent told DPR that the hitmen were in place but were waiting because Green lived with a wife and daughter. Sometime later, the agent assured DPR that Green had been tortured and broken for several days. On February 16, staged photos were sent to DPR to prove the job was done.
“I don’t think I’ve done the wrong thing. I’m sure I will call on you again at some point, though I hope I don’t have to,” DPR wrote.
On Feb. 19, the agent told DPR that Green had been killed by “asphyxiation/heart rupture.” DPR then allegedly sent the remaining $40,000 to the agent.
Ulbricht has also been implicated in another plot to kill a former Silk Road user named FriendlyChemist in March 2013, after the user threatened to release a list of names and addresses of vendors. The FBI says that Ulbricht paid $500,000 to have the man killed in Canada. Thus far, no records of such a murder have turned up.
Silk Road was relaunched on Wednesday by someone else using the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts. By Thursday, the site already had 20,000 registered users.
Ulbricht is currently being held in a New York jail awaiting a Nov. 21 trial date.
H/T Epic | Illustration by Jason Reed