Senior Adviser To Silk Road Operator Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Roger Thomas Clark, a/k/a "Plural of Mongoose," "Variety Jones," "VJ," and "cimon," was sentenced to 20 years in prison today for conspiring to distribute massive amounts of narcotics as the top adviser to Ross Ulbricht, a/k/a "Dread Pirate Roberts," the owner and operator of the "Silk Road" online illicit black market.

From 2011 to 2013, thousands of drug dealers and other illegal vendors used Silk Road to sell illegal drugs and other goods and services to over 100,000 buyers and launder hundreds of millions of dollars.

CLARK advised Ulbricht on all aspects of the enterprise, including encouraging and facilitating an attempted murder-for-hire. Sidney H. Stein sentenced Clark. On January 30, 2020, CLARK pleaded guilty before the late U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Silk Road was a secret online marketplace for illegal drugs, computer hacking services, and a host of other criminal activity.  Roger Thomas Clark was a central figure in helping to lead Silk Road and in advocating violence, even murder, to protect this digital drug empire.  Today’s sentence is another reminder that criminal marketplaces, like Silk Road, are a road to prison.”

The Superseding Indictment, court filings, statements, and evidence from Ross Ulbricht's 2015 trial state:

Ulbricht founded Silk Road in January 2011 and ran it until law enforcement shut it down in October 2013. Silk Road was one of the first online marketplaces to exclusively use cryptocurrency for illegal transactions.

Silk Road had 1.5 million transactions, 115,000 buyer accounts, and 3,000 seller accounts. These transactions totalled $213 million, including $183 million in drug sales.

Silk Road sold over 82 kilogrammes of cocaine and 26 kilogrammes of heroin. Silk Road laundered hundreds of millions of dollars from illegal transactions.

Silk Road uses Tor and Bitcoin to let users buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously.

In his journal, Ulbricht called CLARK a "real mentor" who advised him on Silk Road security vulnerabilities, technical infrastructure, Silk Road rules, and Silk Road sales, including narcotics. CLARK advised Ulbricht on creating a "cover story" to make it appear he sold Silk Road. CLARK also helped Ulbricht hire a Silk Road infrastructure programmer. CLARK also gathered information to thwart Silk Road investigations. CLARK advised Ulbricht on protecting the Silk Road criminal empire. When a Silk Road employee was suspected of stealing $350,000 in Bitcoin, CLARK suggested Ulbricht hire a hitman. Ulbricht agreed. Ulbricht paid the purported hitman $80,000 for the failed murder-for-hire.

Canadian CLARK, 61, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $1,606,150.

Mr. Williams lauded the joint efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation's New York Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations ("HSI") Chicago-O'Hare, the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division, and the New York City Police Department. Mr. Williams also thanked the HSI Attaché Bangkok, the Royal Thai Police, and U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs.

Complex Frauds and Cybercrime are prosecuting this case. Prosecutors Michael D. Neff and Vladislav Vainberg.

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