What Led Agents to Ulbricht? Job Posting Referred Interested Applicants to Personal E-Mail

In a blizzard-shortened session yesterday, IRS Special Agent Gary Alford took the stand and described how agents were led to Ross Ulbricht.

Alford did not catch up to Ulbricht until September 2013, a month before his arrest. It was at that time that he simply Googled "Silk Road" and ".onion" - the latter being the extension for dark net sites. He found a 2011 post on bitcoin.org, which is still up. It quoted another post from a user named "altoid":

"What an awesome thread! You guys have a ton of great ideas. Has anyone seen Silk Road yet? It's kind of like an anonymous amazon.com. I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff. They basically use Bitcoin Bitcoin While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that While some may still be wondering what is Bitcoin, who created Bitcoin, or how does Bitcoin work, one thing is certain: Bitcoin has changed the world.No one can remain indifferent to this revolutionary, decentralized, digital asset nor to its blockchain technology.In fact, we’ve gone a long way ever since a Florida resident Laszlo Hanyecz made BTC’s first official commercial transaction with a real company by trading 10,000 Bitcoins for 2 pizzas at his local Papa John’s.One could now argue that Read this Term and tor to broker anonymous transactions."

Instructions were then provided on how to get to Silk Road. Alford then searched all of altoid's posts and found one seeking "the best and brightest IT pro in the bitcoin community to be the lead developer in a venture backed bitcoin Startup Startup A company operating within its first stage of investing is known as a startup. While startups may give the impression that the company must be new, that is not always the case.Many companies can have this designation after nearly three years of existence. Typically, a company exits the startup status after a period between 3 to 5 years or after successful funding rounds where capital is acquired. Startups tend to derive out of the belief that there is a demand for a service or product which is c A company operating within its first stage of investing is known as a startup. While startups may give the impression that the company must be new, that is not always the case.Many companies can have this designation after nearly three years of existence. Typically, a company exits the startup status after a period between 3 to 5 years or after successful funding rounds where capital is acquired. Startups tend to derive out of the belief that there is a demand for a service or product which is c Read this Term company." Incredibly, the poster wrote that interested parties should send an e-mail to "rossulbricht at gmail dot com."

Alford apparently obtained a search warrant to access Ulbricht's Gmail account, where he discovered a heap of additional evidence that closely matched up with what was later discovered on Ulbricht's laptop.