5 ms·

Notorious dark web administrator ordered to hand over more than £490k

26 points by hariswill 5y ago

new_guy 5y ago
I'm in no way condoning this guys actions, but the articles bias is a joke. > unemployed > university drop-out > White paid £10,700 up front to rent his plush apartment on Liverpool’s city water front. ..that's cheap. And he was employed - albeit running an 'illegal' website - and no-one refers to Zuckerberg et al as a university drop-out.
- hashim 5y ago
  It's the NCA site, not a news agency - the sole reason they publish this stuff is to win the propaganda war, so that kind of language is par-for-the-course.
spacemanmatt 5y ago
£490k? Is that not a slap to law enforcement that they're only able to trace half a million?
- tyingq 5y ago
  Maybe it was all the bitcoin he had left. I found this quote: "White took a hefty commission on purchases, ranging between 1% and 5% on each sale. According to investigators, approximately $96 million (£73 million) was spent on the site." So, his total commission was somewhere between £730k and £3.65M, and they noted "lavish spending" in many articles. Edit: Kind of funny that 1-5% is characterized as "hefty", compared to what legitimate marketplaces charge.
  - LocalH 5y ago
    The air of legitimacy leads some people to do heinous things without retribution.
  - jaclaz 5y ago
    >Edit: Kind of funny that 1-5% is characterized as "hefty", compared to what legitimate marketplaces charge. ... but legitimate marketplaces pay taxes ... hem, no, wait, bad argument ...
- Traster 5y ago
  An article back in 2019 said they had already seized 50 BTC from him. So that's quite a decent chunk. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47913780 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47913780
user3939382 5y ago
“This case proves crime doesn’t pay” Unless you’re HSBC, Bayer, Nancy Pelosi, etc, then you control and steer the definition of crime beyond its reasonable limit.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
  [flagged]
lordnacho 5y ago
If the previous guy who ran Silk Road got caught and is now in jail for basically life, why would you be confident that you could take over the same infra and get away with it?
- dekhn 5y ago
  i guess maybe if you don't use a public library in glen park?
  - Melting_Harps 5y ago
    > i guess maybe if you don't use a public library in glen park? Ouch, but yes, I agree. He wasn't a kingpin, he was a idealistic youngman trying to leave his mark on the World with a Market place. But his horrible OPSEC coupled with his openess with Media (which should have been a 0 tolerance policy) was his downfall; they even made a Nerdcore song about DPR [0]. The Kangaroo court was just a predictable outcome, like most freedom fighting it will never be a fair trail, and it was used to serve as a deterrent: but the Internet works on the hydra model so clearly a guy like White would take the mantle. Then again they took down Variety Jones in Thailand, which is where Ross was for a while, too. In the end DNMs are still alive and well in 2021, too. So ultimately their are more people wanting to run them. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
    - hellojesus 5y ago
      I have desires to run one myself, just haven't had the time to set it up and make sure my opsec is on point.
    - nieve 5y ago
      Are you claiming that getting caught with child porn was "freedom fighting"?
ryanlol 5y ago
> Although he had no legitimate income, White paid £10,700 up front to rent his plush apartment on Liverpool’s city water front. This sounds so deeply out of touch. Has the writer never visited London? There are thousands of students fitting this description, often paying much more.
- hashim 5y ago
  Tbf London is a very different place to Liverpool, what's standard for London is often extravagant pretty much anywhere else. I'm also up North, about the same latitude as Liverpool, and to me that does sound very "plush", though I may be biased because I live in a working class bubble and don't know city centre property prices that well.
  - ryanlol 5y ago
    It’s plush for Liverpool (3k pcm, I guess?), no doubt. But these kinds of statements sound completely absurd when they also describe thousands of studio-dwellers in central London.
deadalus 5y ago
Is TOR compromised? How are the Feds targeting these 'dark web administrators' so efficiently and regularly?
- 0xdeadb00f 5y ago
  Tor might not actually be compromised and it may as well be that these DNM admins just have a small opsec slip-up that LEA jump on.
Traster 5y ago
>Thomas White, now 26, took over the running of the notorious dark web site Silk Road after it was first closed in 2013. How on earth does someone take a look at what happened to Ulbricht and think "I fancy doing that". Honestly, the lengths that they went to find Ulbricht were ridiculous and the consequences for him were essentially life-ending. I'm actually astonished hearing about this now how short a sentence White got. Ulbricht is serving 2 life sentences without parole. White is serving 5 years - despite some extremely bad charges (child porn, drug trafficking etc)
- kingcharles 5y ago
  The justice system is generally a lot less punitive in the UK. He was sentenced two years ago, so he might be released already now.
kingcharles 5y ago
More information and background: https://news.bitcoin.com/silk-road-2-founder-finally-sentenced-5-years-after-his-arrest/ https://news.bitcoin.com/silk-road-2-founder-finally-sentenc...

26 points by hariswill 5y ago

I'm in no way condoning this guys actions, but the articles bias is a joke. > unemployed > university drop-out > White paid £10,700 up front to rent his plush apartment on Liverpool’s city water front. ..that's cheap. And he was employed - albeit running an 'illegal' website - and no-one refers to Zuckerberg et al as a university drop-out.

hashim 5y ago
It's the NCA site, not a news agency - the sole reason they publish this stuff is to win the propaganda war, so that kind of language is par-for-the-course.

spacemanmatt 5y ago

£490k? Is that not a slap to law enforcement that they're only able to trace half a million?

tyingq 5y ago
Maybe it was all the bitcoin he had left. I found this quote: "White took a hefty commission on purchases, ranging between 1% and 5% on each sale. According to investigators, approximately $96 million (£73 million) was spent on the site." So, his total commission was somewhere between £730k and £3.65M, and they noted "lavish spending" in many articles. Edit: Kind of funny that 1-5% is characterized as "hefty", compared to what legitimate marketplaces charge.
- LocalH 5y ago
  The air of legitimacy leads some people to do heinous things without retribution.
- jaclaz 5y ago
  >Edit: Kind of funny that 1-5% is characterized as "hefty", compared to what legitimate marketplaces charge. ... but legitimate marketplaces pay taxes ... hem, no, wait, bad argument ...
Traster 5y ago
An article back in 2019 said they had already seized 50 BTC from him. So that's quite a decent chunk. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47913780 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-47913780

user3939382 5y ago

“This case proves crime doesn’t pay” Unless you’re HSBC, Bayer, Nancy Pelosi, etc, then you control and steer the definition of crime beyond its reasonable limit.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
0xdeadb00f 5y ago
[flagged]

lordnacho 5y ago

If the previous guy who ran Silk Road got caught and is now in jail for basically life, why would you be confident that you could take over the same infra and get away with it?

dekhn 5y ago
i guess maybe if you don't use a public library in glen park?
- Melting_Harps 5y ago
  > i guess maybe if you don't use a public library in glen park? Ouch, but yes, I agree. He wasn't a kingpin, he was a idealistic youngman trying to leave his mark on the World with a Market place. But his horrible OPSEC coupled with his openess with Media (which should have been a 0 tolerance policy) was his downfall; they even made a Nerdcore song about DPR [0]. The Kangaroo court was just a predictable outcome, like most freedom fighting it will never be a fair trail, and it was used to serve as a deterrent: but the Internet works on the hydra model so clearly a guy like White would take the mantle. Then again they took down Variety Jones in Thailand, which is where Ross was for a while, too. In the end DNMs are still alive and well in 2021, too. So ultimately their are more people wanting to run them. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
  - hellojesus 5y ago
    I have desires to run one myself, just haven't had the time to set it up and make sure my opsec is on point.
  - nieve 5y ago
    Are you claiming that getting caught with child porn was "freedom fighting"?

ryanlol 5y ago

> Although he had no legitimate income, White paid £10,700 up front to rent his plush apartment on Liverpool’s city water front. This sounds so deeply out of touch. Has the writer never visited London? There are thousands of students fitting this description, often paying much more.

hashim 5y ago
Tbf London is a very different place to Liverpool, what's standard for London is often extravagant pretty much anywhere else. I'm also up North, about the same latitude as Liverpool, and to me that does sound very "plush", though I may be biased because I live in a working class bubble and don't know city centre property prices that well.
- ryanlol 5y ago
  It’s plush for Liverpool (3k pcm, I guess?), no doubt. But these kinds of statements sound completely absurd when they also describe thousands of studio-dwellers in central London.

deadalus 5y ago

Is TOR compromised? How are the Feds targeting these 'dark web administrators' so efficiently and regularly?

0xdeadb00f 5y ago
Tor might not actually be compromised and it may as well be that these DNM admins just have a small opsec slip-up that LEA jump on.

Traster 5y ago

>Thomas White, now 26, took over the running of the notorious dark web site Silk Road after it was first closed in 2013. How on earth does someone take a look at what happened to Ulbricht and think "I fancy doing that". Honestly, the lengths that they went to find Ulbricht were ridiculous and the consequences for him were essentially life-ending. I'm actually astonished hearing about this now how short a sentence White got. Ulbricht is serving 2 life sentences without parole. White is serving 5 years - despite some extremely bad charges (child porn, drug trafficking etc)

kingcharles 5y ago
The justice system is generally a lot less punitive in the UK. He was sentenced two years ago, so he might be released already now.

kingcharles 5y ago

More information and background: https://news.bitcoin.com/silk-road-2-founder-finally-sentenced-5-years-after-his-arrest/ https://news.bitcoin.com/silk-road-2-founder-finally-sentenc...