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As you already know if you follow such things, the feds have raided an online black market called "Silk Road" and charged a man named Ross Ulbricht with various federal crimes on the theory that he is its mastermind known as the "Dread Pirate Roberts."1 You can find posts discussing Silk Road's place in Internet culture at BoingBoing or TechDirt or ArsTechnica.
My task is to use the Silk Road prosecution to talk about how the federal criminal justice system works, as I've done before with Edward Snowden or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Yeah, I know. Look, don't blame me if you keep reading.
So What's Happening?
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York — that is, the federal prosecutorial agency for the region covering New York City — has filed a criminal complaint against a man named Ross Ulbricht, charging him with federal crimes in connection with the site Silk Road. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland has obtained a grand jury indictment against him.
The New York complaint and its supporting affidavit of probable cause is here. The Maryland indictment (actually the Superseding Indictment, meaning there was an earlier one they have convinced the grand jury to modify) is here.
The New York and Maryland charges represent two different ways the feds can charge you with a crime. The feds can indict you, which means they present their evidence to the grand jury, draft an indictment, and ask the grand jury to approve the indictment. Or they can seek a criminal complaint by presenting a statement of the charges (the complaint) and a supporting statement of facts supporting probable cause (the affidavit of probable cause) to a United States Magistrate Judge. The Magistrate Judge reads the affidavit, finds it adequate to show probable cause for the crimes charged, and signs it and the requested arrest warrant. Often they do both. If the feds start out by charging you in a complaint, you have a Fifth Amendment right to grand jury indictment unless you waive it or you're only charged with a misdemeanor. Therefore most people charged with felonies by the feds get indicted right out of the gate or get hit with a complaint and then an indictment.
How Long Has This Been Going On?
For a while. The federal government's competitive advantage is the ability to use vast resources to conduct leisurely investigations. Except for reactive cases — say, where someone catches a bank robber in the act — it's very common for the feds to take many months or a few years to investigate a case.
Here, we know that the Maryland case has been open since May, since PACER shows that the first filing in the Maryland case (probably a sealed complaint or initial indictment) was in May 2013. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland obtained their superseding indictment on October 1, possibly after Ulbricht's arrest in San Francisco. Today — October 2 — the Maryland federal court unsealed only the superseding indictment. The superseding indictment was item 4 on the docket; from that I infer that there was an earlier indictment and motion to seal on May 1, but not an earlier complaint.
The New York complaint was only filed on September 27, 2013, but reflects an investigation lasting longer than that.
"Under Seal?" What Does That Mean?
Federal cases are public, and appear fairly quickly on PACER. Federal prosecutors routinely seek, and federal judges routinely grant, orders hiding the case from the public until the defendant is arrested so that they won't be tipped off and flee, and so that prosecutors and federal agents can plan arrests and accompanying searches. Parts of the Maryland case docket are now available on PACER; as of this writing the New York docket hasn't hit PACER yet. It can take a few days.
What's Ulbricht Charged With, Anyway?
The New York complaint charges Ulbricht with three crimes:
1. A conspiracy to traffic in narcotics in violation of Title 21, United States Code, section 846. That charge requires proof that (1) that two or more persons agreed to distribute drugs in violation of federal law, and (2) the defendant knew of the agreement, and (3) the defendant intentionally joined the agreement.
2. A "computer hacking conspiracy" in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 1030(a)(2).2 That charge requires proof that (1) there was an agreement intentionally to access a "protected computer"3 without authorization or in excess of authorization and get information from the "protected computer," (2) the defendant knew about the agreement, (3) the defendant intentionally joined the agreement, (4) somebody committed an "overt act" — some affirmative step — in support of the agreement.4
3. A conspiracy to launder money in violation of Title 18, United States Code, sections 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) and (a)(1)(B)(i). That charge requires proof that (1) the defendant conducted a transaction with money, (2) the money was the proceeds of an unlawful activity specified in the statute (including, for instance, drug trafficking), (3) the defendant knew that the money was the proceeds of that specified unlawful activity, and (4) the defendant intended that the transaction promote the activity or conceal the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the money.
The Maryland indictment charges Ulrich with three crimes:
1. A narcotics trafficking conspiracy, under the same statute discussed above.
2. Attempted murder of a federal witness in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 1512. That charge requires proof that the defendant (1) attempted to kill a person (2) intending to prevent the person (3) from communicating to federal law enforcement or a federal judge (4) about the commission of a federal crime. The indictment charges Ulbricht as someone who aided and abetted this crime under Title 18, United States Code, section 2; under that theory, if another person commits a federal crime, the defendant is equally guilty if the defendant intentionally "aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures" the commission of the crime.
3. Use of interstate commerce facilities to procure murder-for-hire, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 1958. That charge requires proof that the defendant(1) used or caused another to use any facility of interstate or foreign commerce (like the internet); (2) with the intent that a murder be committed; (3) in exchange for something of value.
Does that sound serious? It's very serious.
Holy Shit! What Do They Claim He Did?
Both the New York complaint and the Maryland indictment claim that Ulbricht ran Silk Road as a market for illegal drugs and collected a fee for transactions. The Maryland indictment claims that Ulbricht used Silk Road to arrange a cocaine transaction between an undercover agent and a seller. The New York complaint says that undercover agents have made more than 100 purchases of illegal drugs through Silk Road.
The Maryland indictment also asserts that Ulbricht paid an undercover agent to kill a former Silk Road employee who had stolen from Ulbricht and was cooperating with federal authorities after an arrest. The agent staged a death picture and sent it to Ulbricht. The New York complaint doesn't charge Ulbricht with murder for hire, but does detail a long correspondence in which Ulbricht allegedly tried to hire a killer to murder a Canadian extortionist. There's no indication that the murder occurred or that the murderer was an undercover, so it may have been a scam by the purported murderer. The presence of the murder scheme in the New York complaint is entirely gratuitous to support holding Ulbricht without bail and make him look menacing, even though it may actually signify that a purported criminal mastermind was duped by fake murderers in two separate countries. Federal criminal justice is like that.
The indictment is short and colorful; the complaint is long but has much more factual detail. The indictment is fairly typical and adequately written. The complaint has much detail, but is subject to criticism. An affidavit of probable cause is supposed to provide facts showing probable cause that the defendant committed the charged crimes. Part of an adequate affidavit of probable cause is attribution — stating how the federal agent swearing out the affidavit knows the facts stated in the affidavit. If the affidavit doesn't say how the witness knows the facts, it doesn't support probable cause. This is the difference between saying "the defendant robbed First National Bank" and saying "I spoke to Teller Tessie of First National Bank, who told me that the defendant, whom she recognizes from past transactions, pointed a gun at her and demanded the money in her teller drawer." This affidavit isn't as bad as, say, the Zimmerman affidavit, but it's pretty bad — it relies on generic "based on my knowledge" and "based on my familiarity" and "based on an analysis" statements rather than more specific statements.
Most of the complaint reflects fairly straightforward federal investigative work, though the efforts to tie Ross Ulbricht to "Dread Pirate Roberts" of Silk Road, starting at paragraph 33, are quite interesting.
How Much Time Is Ross Ulbricht Facing?
Lots, but not the silly numbers the media will tell you.
The New York complaint mentions specific amounts of drugs trafficked over Silk Road; those allegations are calculated to trigger a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence under Title 21, United States Code, section 841. Recently I explained Attorney General Eric Holder's memorandum giving prosecutors discretion to refrain from triggering mandatory minimum sentences; this is not a case where such discretion would be exercised.
The media will report what Ulbricht faces by adding up the statutory maximum sentence on each charge and reporting it as if it's a likely sentence. In fact, if convicted Ulbricht will be sentenced by a federal judge taking into account arcane calculations under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. I've tried to explain the difference here and here. If convicted Ulbricht likely faces a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence and an actual sentence of as much as a few decades, depending on the amount of drugs traded and money laundered. However, the "he faces up to 300 years in jail" numbers you will be hearing are nonsense.
So What Happens Next?
If Ulbricht had been charged in one place and arrested in that place what happens next would be fairly straightforward; I described how it works in the context of the Boston Marathon bombing.
But this is twice as complicated, because (1) Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco, where he's not charged, and (2) he's charged in two places.
First, the feds have to get him back to someplace he's charged. Occasionally federal agents ship a defendant to another district without a hearing if they "consent."5 They don't do that in high-profile cases. Today Ulbricht appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge in federal court in San Francisco. That appearance was explicitly based on the New York complaint, not the Maryland indictment; the government is seeking for now to send him to New York. The Magistrate Judge in San Francisco ordered Ulbricht held without bail pending another hearing this Friday, October 4. At that hearing Ulbricht may or may not seek bail and ask to be allowed to surrender in New York; I would be shocked if the judge agreed. Ulbricht may consent to be transferred to New York without further hearings. If he doesn't, he is entitled to a hearing on whether he is the same Ross Ulbricht charged in the complaint.6 He's also entitled to a probable cause hearing before his transfer unless the feds in New York get a grand jury indictment first. From that, and from the fact that the government consented to the next hearing being in two days, I infer that either (1) New York has already indicted him, but the indictment isn't unsealed yet, (2) New York is indicting him Thursday or early Friday morning, or (3) there is a deal in the works to waive indictment. See, the feds like to avoid probable cause hearings with their cross-examination and public proceedings and other hallmarks of due process whenever they can; that's why they indict quickly to avoid them.
So: Ulbricht is likely to head back soon to New York to face an indictment that's not public yet. There he'll make his first appearance before a Magistrate Judge, be informed of the charges against him, and either consent to being detained or make an almost-certainly-futile plea for bail. His case will be assigned randomly to a United States District Judge, and eventually he'll make an appearance before that judge and get a trial date.
What about Maryland? That depends. Ulbricht, if he's inclined to plead, could plead to a deal in one district that wraps up the charges in both districts. Or Maryland may have to wait its turn. It's even possible — though I see no clear evidence of it yet – that this flurry of charges represents a who-gets-him-first battle between the two districts. When that happens it's always entertaining, though perhaps not so much for the defendant.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet it happened like this: New York started investigating Silk Road in 2012, taking its time. Someone in the investigation figured out that Dread Pirate Robers was thinking about having the Maryland witness whacked and Maryland agents and prosecutors got involved. Maryland indicted first, asserting jurisdiction based on a scheme to murder one of its inhabitants. But New York made its charges public first and arrested first — possibly by agreement, possibly by gamesmanship.
My Head Hurts
I did warn you.
- Have fun storming the federal criminal justice system! ▲
- That's sloppy drafting on the part of the Southern District; the conspiracy provision is section 1030(b). Section 1030(a)(2) is the substantive offense you might conspire to violate. ▲
- A "protected computer" means a computer (A) exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the United States government, or used by them in a way impacted by the intrusion, or (B) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, which with the internet means just about every computer. ▲
- I would indulge in a diversion explaining the problems with charging someone with conspiring with — or aiding an abetting — an undercover agent who isn't actually committing a crime, but the sun would go dark and my fingers would fall off and you would fall over and blood would gush out of your head on the carpet. Who's going to clean up after that? ▲
- Or if the agent claims they consented. ▲
- You don't get such a hearing if you are arrested in the district where you are charged; you only get it if you are arrested in another district. Home is the place where, if you go there, we trust that federal agents recognize you. ▲
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SPRING HILL — Gerald Miller was not happy about the news he had to deliver to the congregation of St. Paul the Apostle Church last Sunday.
Miller, the church's lay administrator, informed members that their meeting place for the past eight years would no longer be available to them.
"I was depressed about it," Miller said. "We'd been meeting at United Church of Christ and had a fantastic relationship with them. They always bent over backward to accommodate us."
Miller had recently learned that the church on Mariner Boulevard, from which St. Paul's had been renting a fellowship hall, had grown to the point of needing the hall and the accompanying parking spaces for its own use on Sunday mornings and would not be renewing St. Paul's lease.
"They didn't want us to leave, but they can't accommodate us on Sunday morning any longer," Miller said. "I can totally understand that. They're a growing community."
As an alternative, the United Church of Christ offered the use of another building. But under the terms of that agreement, services initially would have to be held on Saturday evenings.
St. Paul's pastor, the Rev. Jim Marsh, who works full time in the medical field, would not be available to conduct services on Saturdays.
"In addition, we have many elderly parishioners who would rather not be driving at night, nor do we want them to," said Anne Marquis, a member of the church leadership.
The church board had only one week to decide if they would use the smaller facility. It was a dilemma. So leaders decided to publicize their plight and see whether they could quickly find a new meeting place.
"It should be pointed out that we have approximately 35 parish members and do not have a huge bank account," Marquis wrote in an e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times. "Ideally, we would love to find a space in the vicinity of $500 per month with kitchen facilities if possible available. We understand this is not a lot of money to offer, but we also feel we are a safe and reliable tenant, looking for long-term comfort in a nice space."
Meanwhile, Miller told the church congregation the news.
"They were devastated to start with," he said. "Then they said, 'Something will come up, or if we have to, we can revert to meeting in someone's home until we find a place.' So they were very sad to hear that we were going to have to find another place, but they were very upbeat about us being able to."
Miller said the church members' attitude was an encouragement to him.
"Without a doubt, this is the most prayerful, faithful group of people you could ever meet," he said of the congregation that formed in June 2000.
The members' faith was not misplaced. On Wednesday, Miller and Marquis secured a new meeting place.
"We drove around and found places that looked like they were vacant and not particularly busy, and one of them was a place on Fort Dade Avenue," Miller said.
They found out, through the Realtor who had sold Marquis and her husband, Dennis, their home in Spring Hill eight years ago, that the building, Hernando Senior Center No. 1, at 8187 Fort Dade Ave., west of Brooksville, was available.
With verbal approval from board members and the pastor, Miller agreed with the president of the association that holds the building to terms for a lease, which he hopes to sign soon, after the board meets.
"I was pleasantly surprised," Miller said. "We kept it within our budget. It has a full kitchen in it, and we are able to serve meals. We can actually hold bingo there. We got everything we could possibly want."
Miller said the church will have Sunday morning services there, board meetings and special activities like bingo and their annual Community Fun Day, as well as community outreach events that benefit the needy, such as their work with the Salvation Army this past Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"This will definitely be better because we have access to it on a regular basis," Miller said.
Marquis said getting the new facility is "wonderful news." The intent of St. Paul's is to grow, she said.
"With our own space, we would then be able to put out signage for the public to see," she said. "It is our intent to hold dinners open to the public as a means of fundraising and also to encourage growth and help our community as much as we can. We are a small church but one with big hearts."
Miller says his feelings have done an about-face since last week.
"Today," he said, "I could walk on cloud nine."

subset: commoncrawl


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Federal independent MP
Mr Oakeshott, who is part of the federal government's multi-party climate committee which met in Canberra on Tuesday, said the group was "negotiating like crazy" but still a fair way from setting a final carbon price.
The NSW independent said he would leave it for others to discuss whether the tax was set at $10 or $40 a tonne.
"We are now down to the raw, pragmatic, political end of the spectrum of how we get something through this parliament," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
"I am in this negotiation at this stage looking for some of those pragmatic outcomes which mean at the end of this ... we actually come out of the room with something."
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce says Australia is being drip-fed "random pieces of nonsense" about the carbon tax.
"If taxes made the world get cooler the place would be an ice-box," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
Senator Joyce demanded the tax be taken to an election, drawing a contrast with Tim Mathieson's media musings about a marriage proposal to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
"I read in the paper, three, four pages, about somebody who is going to make a choice or not ... and the rights that are there for one person to say yes and say no," he said.
"We never had a choice to go to an election to decide whether we (were) going to marry a carbon tax, we just woke up one day and (it) was in the sack with us."
Liberal backbencher Simon Birmingham wished the residents of Armidale the best of luck with the roll-out.
"But there are millions of other Australians who are without metro-equivalent broadband services," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The government (should have) focused on delivering something that people actually need rather than trying to create this nirvana of speeds."
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said the roll-out of the NBN in the New England electorate of independent MP Tony Windsor was telling.
Mr Windsor and fellow independent Rob Oakeshott played a fundamental role in the "Greens-independent-Labor alliance", Senator Joyce said.
"They get to the front of the political church in a big white fluffy dress saying I don't know how I got here (or what) to say next," he told reporters.
"We don't need this stupid little dance that goes on all the time with the independents."


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I have a problem and am not sure where to start. I don't know what to even call the problem. Maybe someone can help?
I am trying to capture VHS from a combo VCR to Roxio. The picture image and audio quality are fine, but the video frames skip or get jumbled up. Sort of reminds me of the old Max Headroom character on TV. Anyway, I watch the captured video frame by frame and there I can see the frames get out of order, causing a glitch.
My setup: Win 7x64, 4gb ram, geforce 8800gts, Roxio Creator Pro 2012 and roxio capture device UB315-E ver3. I am using a newer JVC dvd/vcr combo and using the analog rca ports with gold plated cables. I turned on the Win gadget that shows cpu and ram usage and both stayed below 30% when capturing.
Any idea?
Capturing From Vcr Problem
Started by schooled , Jan 08 2012 09:26 AM
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Proving once and forever that the combination of slot mags and fender flares is a formula for great success is this vintage race-prepared 1967 MGB GT, built as a tribute to men and machines that survived the ruinous 12 Hours of Sebring. The MG comes with solid vintage racing history, and is ready f ... Read more
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Steve McQueen's Porsche 908 is expected to sell for between $1.5 and $2 million. photo courtesy Bonhams & Butterfields A couple of weeks after breaking his foot racing a Husqvarna dirt bike at the 1970 Lake Elsinore GP, Steve McQueen did what any self-respecting movie star-cum-amateur mo ... Read more


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After 28 years with General Electric Lorraine Bolsinger took over as president and CEO of GE Aviation Systems in October 2008. What a time to take the reins at a top-tier aerospace supplier, with the civil side of its business facing its most serious downturn in several generations.
But Bolsinger can see beyond the current gloom and is determined not to let short-term cash flow concerns drag the company down into a just-get-by mentality. "We have a mandate to grow this business and to do that we have to make sure that we maintain the operational excellence and discipline that GE is noted for," she told AIN.
At the same time, she has also maintained and even increased the engineering budget for research-and-development work. "You can't take a year off from this," she explained. "I learned that in the engine business and it [R&D] would be an easy place to make cuts."
GE has a strong heritage in pioneering engineering work, founded on its Global Research Center which was launched by the company's illustrious founder Thomas Edison. The facility feeds proven new technologies out into the various GE companies and, according to Bolsinger, this has given a great advantage to the former Smiths Aerospace business which GE acquired a couple of years ago to create GE Aviation Systems.
Much of the effort lately has been on how to make wider use of composites and the GRC has been looking into new materials and manufacturing processes for structures such as fan cases and blades, nacelles and propellers, as well as for wing structures. Earlier this year, the emphasis on new technology paid off when GE Aviation Systems at last won the significant work package it had long sought on the new Airbus A350 airliner, for which it is making sections with wing trailing edges.
GE Aviation Systems is working with its GE engine partners on new-generation, slimline nacelles that would contribute to lowering fuel burn through reduced weight and drag, while at the same time also cutting turbofan noise. Bolsinger explained that these advances likely will result in a new approach to the interface between the nacelle and the pylon, as well as new exhaust nozzle plugs and acoustic treatments.
The new technology will also extend to integrate more electrical systems such as threat reversing and electrical de-icing into the nacelles.
In the field of primary and secondary power distribution, GE is developing new modular power units that can configure the power distribution system according to whether AC or DC power is required. The system can take into account an aircraft's changing power needs over the course of a 30- or 40-year service life and allows operators to maintain efficiency.
GE's overall goal is to achieve the highest possible level of system integration in propulsion systems, in aircraft electrical power and also in its contributions to avionics suites. Bolsinger heralded the success her division has had in advancing the benefits of open-architecture cockpit systems in Boeing's new 787 airliner.
So is the former Smiths Aerospace business better off for having become part of GE and is the giant engine maker better off for having made the acquisition? "We have achieved a lot more than we anticipated, and we still see further opportunities," said Bolsinger. "For instance, the former Smiths business was well known for its flight management system and now we have a new initiative to use this to push the agenda on air traffic management through the use of continuous descent that would reduce airspace congestion and increase traffic throughput partly from the legacy of our great FMS which can allow crews to maintain very precise flight paths. This alone could save 6 to 12 percent in fuel burn, just through changes in software and procedures."
Like all aerospace firms, over the past year GE Aviation Systems has seen sales decline due to reductions in new civil aircraft production and also through cuts in aircraft utilization that have impacted its parts and product support business. "We haven't hit the bottom yet," concluded Bolsinger. "There is still potential for the downturn to continue into 2010."
If anything, the industry downturn has whetted GE's appetite for greater production efficiency. "We are now trying to run all the various GE businesses as we would the rest of the aviation supply chain and through new lean manufacturing initiatives we improved on-time delivery by 20 percent during the first quarter of 2009," Bolsinger explained.


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Grinding now done in Apex park, not between skateboarders and police
Posted August 1, 2016
Apex, N.C. — Reducing crime in Apex started with a simple conversation about solving a problem.
Until a year ago, skateboarders around town were viewed as scofflaws, racking up trespassing citations and disturbance complaints.
"In a skateboarder's mind, you see the sidewalk as a playground, you see a curb as an obstacle, you see a fire hydrant as something to jump over," Kenny Feliciano said.
"I'm not a criminal. I'm just a dude who likes to skateboard," said Oba Latortue, who has had his share of run-ins with police.
Apex police Capt. Jacques Gilbert had an epiphany last year while enforcing the town's laws on skateboarding.
"I got dispatched to a call – a disturbance – a young man in his driveway skateboarding," Gilbert recalled. "I pretty much told him he was violating one of our ordinances by skating in his own driveway and making a lot of noise. His response was the eye opener. He said, 'I can't skateboard in my driveway?' and I said, 'No sir, you can't,' and he said, 'Where am I supposed to go?' and I said, 'You need to figure it out.'"
With those last words rolling through his mind, Gilbert knew things would never change unless he took the first step.
"So, I turn around and went back to his house and just explained to him I want to help," he said. "That meeting led to more meetings with more skateboarders, and what we noticed was now there was a bridge between the youth and the police in town."
Both groups agreed the youths needed a place to skate.
"Obviously, we were skeptical," Feliciano said.
Working with the town of Apex, the Rodgers Family Skate Plaza, at 1290 Ambergate Station, became a reality one year ago. The 13,000-square-foot park, which is open 6 a.m. to midnight daily, is designed to mimic street skating.
Suddenly, skateboarding was no longer an issue in Apex.
"Since the skate park opened," Gilbert said, "skateboarding calls, trespassing, public disturbance calls have reduced 100 percent."
Meanwhile, the understanding between skateboarders and local police has increased more than 100 percent.
"I don't even think about cops as I used to," Feliciano said. "They say there are good cops and bad cops. I say, as long as there's an individual trying to create something positive for the community, there's nothing to hate. There's nothing to hate."
"Two people sat down together and tried to understand each other and broke down that wall called stereotypes, and when you do that, great things happen," Gilbert said.