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In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything—drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons—free of the government’s watchful eye.
It wasn’t long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone—not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers—could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site’s elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.
The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself—including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren’t sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.
Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It’s a story of the boy next door’s ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized Web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it’s all too real.
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Subjects
Criminals, united states, Computer crimes, Black market, Drug traffic, Electronic commerce, Criminal investigation, united states, Criminals, Investigation, Case studies, nyt:business-books=2017-06-11, New York Times bestseller, New York Times reviewedPlaces
Austin, United StatesTimes
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American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
2017, Ebury Publishing
in English
0753548577 9780753548578
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2
American kingpin: the epic hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road
2017
in English
1591848148 9781591848141
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zzzz
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3
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
2017, Ebury Publishing
in English
0753546671 9780753546673
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zzzz
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4
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
2017, Portfolio
Paperback; Hardcover;
in English
0143129023 9780143129028
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zzzz
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5
American Kingpin: Catching the Billion-Dollar Baron of the Dark Web
2017, Ebury Publishing
in English
0753548003 9780753548004
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aaaa
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6
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind behind the Silk Road Drugs Empire
Publish date unknown, Virgin Books
paperback
0753547007 9780753547007
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September 19, 2021 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Better World Books record |