This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
When "Dread Pirate Roberts" needed help with his underground market website Silk Road, where narcotics and other illegal items were exchanged using untraceable electronic bitcoins, he turned to a Utah man.
But when Silk Road's alleged creator and operator Ross Ulbricht — said to be Dread Pirate Roberts — thought Curtis Clark Green of Spanish Fork was stealing from him and cooperating with the law, Ulbricht paid $80,000 to have him murdered, and applauded when he thought the hit had been carried out.
Now, Green, 48, is awaiting sentencing on a cocaine charge linked to his role in Silk Road, and Ulbricht has completed the first week of a trial in New York, where he faces federal charges related to the online marketplace.
The cocaine charge against Green was the result of a federal law enforcement operation that led to the shutdown of the Silk Road and the dramatic arrest of the alleged Dread Pirate Roberts at a library in San Francisco.
Green did not return emails, a text or a phone call seeking an interview. His Salt Lake City attorney, Scott E. Williams, declined comment, as did a neighbor and Green's father.
But documents in court cases involving Green and Ulbricht reveal the Utahn's role in the notorious Silk Road.
Green has lived in his Spanish Fork home since 1994. He has owned several businesses in the Utah County town, including Advanced Multimedia and Anytime Airport Shuttle.
And his court record is relatively mundane. A misdemeanor charge was filed in 2011 for keeping junk in his yard — such as vehicles, stoves, refrigerators, freezers and trash — and another of running a kennel without a permit, which was later dismissed. He faced another misdemeanor in 2013 for having animals in a prohibited zone.
In 2012, Green registered a business, Bitcoin Investments LLC.
Bitcoin is used legitimately by many people and some companies, such as Overstock.com accepted it as payment for goods. But it's also used extensively for illegal transactions.
Bitcoin is a digital currency exchanged over the Internet that, according to an FBI report, "provides a venue for individuals to generate, transfer, launder and steal illicit funds with some anonymity."
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A "sprawling black market" • Ulbricht, 30, created Silk Road in 2011, which quickly became a "sprawling black market" for illegal items and services, according to a complaint filed in October 2013 in which the U.S. government sought forfeiture of Ulbricht's properties.
Silk Road operates on the The Onion Router, or TOR, encrypted network, which makes it extremely difficult to trace the computers that are hosting it or using it.
The site quickly gained notoriety for facilitating transaction of illegal goods or services, such as cocaine and heroin, computer hacking services and fake identity documents. It was used by "well over a hundred thousand buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars," according to the forfeiture complaint.
Ulbricht collected a fee of 8 percent to 15 percent for each transaction, the government alleges.
Beginning in about November 2012, Green started working for Dread Pirate Roberts as an administrator for Silk Road using the aliases "Flush" and "chronicpain," Green has admitted in court documents.
"His responsibilities included responding to questions and complaints from buyers and sellers, resetting passwords, resolving disputes between buyers and sellers," according to court filings.
But Silk Road was also attracting other attention.
Federal law enforcement agents started investigating around November 2011, and a task force named Marco Polo was formed in Baltimore to focus on Silk Road. It included members from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security, U.S. Postal Inspectors and U.S. Secret Service.
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DEA agent goes undercover • An undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer pretending to be a major drug dealer began communicating with Ulbricht in April 2012 via the TorChat message system, though the agent didn't know Ulbricht's true identity. The agent "complained that existing Silk Road sellers appeared to 'want very small amounts' of drugs and that 'it really isn't worth it for me to do below ten kilos,' " according to an October 2013 indictment in Maryland.
Ulbricht asked Green to see if he could find someone to buy the drugs being offered by the fake dealer. Green complied, but, unknown to Ulbricht or the agent, Green agreed to act as a middle man and take delivery of the cocaine and provided his home address, according to court records.
On Jan. 17, 2013, a U.S. postal inspector delivered a kilogram of cocaine to Green's home. Shortly after that, agents, including Marco Polo members, raided the home with a search warrant.
They found Green "with the package of cocaine, which he had opened," according to court filings.
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$80,000 for murdering Green • A week later, Ulbricht told the agent who claimed to be a drug dealer that Green had been arrested and also that he had stolen funds from Silk Road users. He asked the "dealer" to arrange for Green to be beaten up.
"I'd like him beat up, then forced to send the bitcoins he stole back, like sit down at his computer and make him do it," Ulbricht said, according to a May 1, 2013, indictment that named John Doe, also known as Dread Pirate Roberts.
A day later, Ulbricht wrote to the agent that Green "was on the inside for a while, and, now that he's been arrested, I'm afraid he'll give up info." Ulbricht added that he had "never killed a man or had one killed before, but it is the right move in this case."
On Jan. 29, 2013, Dread Pirate Roberts messaged someone in Maryland that he would pay $80,000 for Green's murder, "half down and half when the job is done." On Feb. 4, 2013, he wired $40,000 from Technocash Limited in Australia to Capital One Bank in Washington, according to the indictment.
Ulbricht also demanded "proof of death" and asked for videos or pictures of Green.
"I'm more concerned about silencing him than getting that money back," Ulbricht wrote.
On Feb. 21, 2013, an agent told Ulbricht that Green was dead, having died during torture.
Agents staged photos of Green being tortured and killed and sent them to Ulbricht, who replied he was "a little disturbed but I'm ok … I'm new to this kind of thing is all."
"I'm pissed I had to kill him … but what's done is done," Ulbricht wrote, adding "I just can't believe he was so stupid. … I wish more people had some integrity."
On March 1, 2013, Ulbricht sent the second $40,000 payment.
Federal agents arrested Ulbricht at a library in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2013.
Green entered into a plea agreement on Sept. 8, 2013, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, admitting guilt to a charge of conspiracy to distribute and possession of a kilogram of cocaine.
Ulbricht's trial is to continue Monday. Green's sentencing has been continued several times and now has no definitive date. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 40 years in prison with a five-year mandatory minimum imprisonment as well as a possible fine of up to $5 million.