U.S. judge rejects accused Silk Road creator's bid to suppress evidence
By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Texas man accused of creating an underground online drug marketplace called Silk Road lost a bid on Friday to suppress virtually all the evidence in his case ahead of his trial next month in New York. Lawyers for Ross Ulbricht, 30, argued that search warrants executed in the investigation were improper. The warrants stemmed from an earlier search of an Icelandic server that was "shrouded in mystery," defense lawyers said, questioning whether it was constitutional. But U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan said Ulbricht had failed to submit any evidence to show he had a privacy interest in the server. "Without this, he is in no different position than any third party would be vis-a-vis those items, and vis-a-vis the investigation that led U.S. law enforcement officers to Iceland in the first place," Forrest wrote. Prosecutors say Ulbricht owned and operated Silk Road, which they allege served as a black-market bazaar where drugs and criminal services such as computer hacking and forgeries could be acquired in exchange for the digital currency bitcoin. Forrest acknowledged that requiring Ulbricht to concede he had an interest in the Icelandic server "could be perceived as unfair" since prosecutors are trying to prove he created and operated Silk Road. "But as Ulbricht surely knows, this is not the first court, nor is he the first defendant, to raise such an issue," she said. The judge said that, as a result, the only arguments she had to consider related to searches of his Gmail and Facebook accounts and his laptop, all of which she concluded were legal. A lawyer for Ulbricht did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ulbricht, who prosecutors said was known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," faces trial on Nov. 3. He has pleaded not guilty to a seven-count indictment that includes various conspiracy, narcotics trafficking, and continuing criminal enterprise charges. Federal authorities shut down Silk Road last year, although a new Internet marketplace debuted under the same name in November. The case is U.S. v. Ulbricht, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-06919. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; editing by Gunna Dickson)
