Today is Day 2 of my Silk Road Trivia Quiz as we count down to the tenth anniversary of the shutdown of Silk Road.
Very few people got the answer to yesterday’s question, but it was a pretty tough one. I thought today’s would be equally tough, but a much higher proportion got this one. Twitter users did better than Reddit users, but that is partly due to Twitter only allowing four options in the poll.
If you want to play along on Twitter or Reddit, please do!
QUESTION 2
Which of the following is NOT a pseudonym used by corrupt DEA special agent Carl Mark Force in his dealings with Ross Ulbricht/Dread Pirate Roberts?
(a) Nob
(b) DeathFromAbove
(c) FrenchMaid
(d) Carla Sophia
(e) AlPacino
ANSWER (SPOILERS AHEAD):
(e) AlPacino
Carl Mark Force IV was a former DEA agent involved in the Silk Road investigation as an undercover who gained the trust of the Dread Pirate Roberts (Ross Ulbricht) by posing as a big-time dealer. He got greedy when he saw how much money was going through Silk Road and abused his position by extorting money from the site and embezzling Bitcoin funds. Force was ultimately arrested, pleaded guilty to charges including money laundering and obstruction of justice, and received a sentence of 78 months in federal prison.
Carl Mark Force used the following pseudonyms on Silk Road:
Nob was his official DEA-sanctioned name, which he used to befriend the Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), acting as a cocaine dealer who wanted to deal in kilograms, and was also the “hitman” who “killed” Silk Road employee Curtis Green.
DeathFromAbove was NOT a DEA-sanctioned name (ie rogue). It was the name he used to extort DPR, saying he knew he had Green murdered and demanding payment “I” know that you had something to do with Curtis Green’s disappearance and death. Just wanted to let you know that I’m coming 3 for you. Tuque. You are a dead man. Don’t think you can elude me.”
French Maid, also not sanctioned, was the name he used to provide DPR with intel in return for Bitcoin. DPR paid $100K in return for the name provided to the authorities by Mark Karpales as the person he suspected to be running Silk Road.
Carla Sophia was the name he said was his real name when he accidentally signed the first of his messages to DPR using the French Maid account as “Carl”:
“French Maid” wrote to DPR: “I have received important information that you need to know asap. Please provide me with your public key for PGP. Carl.”
Just four hours later, “French Maid” sent a follow-up message to DPR with the subject line
“Whoops!” and a message stating “I am sorry about that. My name is Carla Sophia and I have many boyfriends and girlfriends on the market place. DPR will want to hear what I have to say ;)xoxoxo.”
AlPacino was another person being paid for intel by DPR and was originally thought to be another ’nym of Carl Mark Force, but in fact, turned out to be yet another rogue LE agent.
POLL RESULTS
Twitter said:
Reddit said:
Day 3 question is up on Reddit and Twitter now
