UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS OFFICE

Southern District of New York

U.S. ATTORNEY PREET BHARARA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 04, 2015
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys
FBI
Adrienne Senatore, Stephanie Shark,
Kelly Langmesser
(212) 384-2100
DEA
Erin McKenzie-Mulvey
(212) 337-2906

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEYS OFFICE

Jim Margolin, Dawn Dearden,
Christian Saint-Vil
(212) 637-2600
HSI
Lou Martinez
(646) 313-2716
IRS-CI
Gregory Tranchina
(212) 436-1687

MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY ANNOUNCES ARREST AND

UNSEALING OF CHARGES AGAINST SENIOR ADVISER TO THE
OPERATOR OF THE SILK ROAD WEBSITE
Roger Thomas Clark Was a Key Figure in the Development of Silk Road Who Helped Ross
Ulbricht Run the Criminal Enterprise
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Diego
Rodriguez, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), James M. Gibbons, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland
Security Investigations Chicago (HSI), James J. Hunt, Special Agent in Charge of the New
York Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Shantelle P.
Kitchen, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue
Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), announced today the unsealing of a complaint
charging ROGER THOMAS CLARK, a senior adviser to Ross Ulbricht, a/k/a Dread Pirate
Roberts, a/k/a DPR, the owner and operator of the Silk Road website, an online illicit black
market that operated from January 2011 until October 2, 2013. CLARK is alleged to have been
a close confidante of Ulbrichts who advised him on all aspects of Silk Roads operations and
helped him grow the site into an extensive criminal enterprise. CLARK was arrested in Thailand
on December 3, 2015, and is pending extradition to the United States.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: Silk Road was a secret online marketplace
for illegal drugs, hacking services, and a whole host of other criminal activity. Like a
consigliere, Roger Thomas Clark allegedly served as a trusted confidante to Silk Road founder
and operator Ross Ulbricht, advising him on all aspects of this illegal business, including how to

maximize profits and use threats of violence to thwart law enforcement. Thanks to the
investigative work of our fellow law enforcement agencies and our international partners, Clark
is in custody and awaits American justice.
FBI Assistant Director Diego Rodriguez said: The arrest of Roger Thomas Clark shows
again that conducting criminal activities on the Dark Web does not keep a criminal out of law
enforcements reach. As alleged, Clark was paid at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to act
as a counselor to Ross Ulbrichts black-market bazaar, Silk Road. Clark may have thought
residing in Thailand would keep him out of reach of U.S authorities, but our international
partnerships have proven him wrong. We thank our law enforcement partners who have worked
with the FBI on this case.
HSI Chicago Acting Special Agent-in-Charge James M. Gibbons said: Roger Clark, a
high-ranking Silk Road operator, served as Ross Ulbrichts closest adviser and confidante as
together they facilitated an anonymous global black market for all things illegal. As this arrest
proves, the long arm of the law has a great reach even in cyberspace. Our HSI special agents
continue to work closely with our federal and international law enforcement partners around the
world to patrol the darknet and protect public safety.
DEA Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt said: Anonymity is what Roger Thomas
Clark believed he attained posing as Variety Jones while allegedly committing crimes; but
handcuffed and pending extradition is not anonymity. I command and thank law enforcement's
tenacious investigative skills and coordination throughout this investigation.
IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen said: Although the conviction of
Ross Ulbricht effectively brought an end to the operation of the Silk Road site, this complaint
represents another step in bringing full closure to the investigation of this criminal enterprise.
IRS Criminal Investigation remains committed to bringing our expertise in conducting complex
financial investigations to the investigation of narcotics organizations of all types, including
those operating in the anonymity of cyberspace.
According to the allegations contained in the criminal complaint 1 unsealed today in
Manhattan federal court, and evidence submitted at trial and in court filings during the
prosecution of Ross Ulbricht:
Ulbricht created Silk Road in approximately January 2011, and owned and operated the
underground website until it was shut down by law enforcement authorities in October 2013.
During that time, Silk Road emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal
marketplace on the Internet, serving as a sprawling black-market bazaar where unlawful goods
and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all kinds, were bought and sold regularly by the
sites users. While in operation, Silk Road was used by thousands of drug dealers and other
unlawful vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other unlawful goods
and services to well over a hundred thousand buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of
dollars deriving from these unlawful transactions.
1

As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the complaint, and the description of the complaint
set forth herein, constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.

Silk Road enabled its users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services
anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement. Silk Road was operated on what is
known as The Onion Router or Tor network, a special network of computers on the Internet,
distributed around the world, designed to conceal the true IP addresses of the computers on the
network and thereby the identities of the networks users. Silk Road also included a Bitcoinbased payment system that served to facilitate the illegal commerce conducted on the site,
including by concealing the identities and locations of the users transmitting and receiving funds
through the site.
CLARK, who went by the online nicknames Variety Jones, VJ, Cimon, and
Plural of Mongoose, was described by Ulbricht as a trusted mentor, who regularly advised
him on the management of the Silk Road enterprise. Among other things, CLARK counseled
Ulbricht on the improvement and expansion of Silk Roads technical infrastructure, including
helping Ulbricht hire and manage a computer programmer to assist with these projects. CLARK
also helped Ulbricht develop and enforce the rules governing how Silk Road vendors and users
could do business on the site, which were designed to maximize the commissions that Ulbricht
received from Silk Road sales. CLARK further advised Ulbricht on how to conceal his
involvement in, and hide his profits from, the operation of Silk Road, including helping Ulbricht
devise cover stories to tell others and make plans to obtain foreign citizenship and offshore bank
accounts. Finally, CLARK also advised Ulbricht on tactics to thwart efforts by law enforcement
to investigate Silk Road. In that vein, CLARK repeatedly advocated the use of intimidation and
violence to keep members of the Silk Road support staff from cooperating with law enforcement.
In one such conversation, in which CLARK and Ulbricht discussed track[ing] down a certain
Silk Road employee to ensure that he had not gone [o]ff the rails, CLARK commented,
[D]ude, were criminal drug dealers what line shouldnt we cross?
CLARK was paid at least hundreds of thousands of dollars for his assistance in operating
Silk Road.
*

CLARK, 54, a citizen of Canada, is charged with one count of narcotics conspiracy,
which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years, and one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20
years in prison. The statutory maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided
here for informational purposes only, as any sentence imposed on the defendant will be
determined by the Court.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding joint efforts of the FBI and its New York Special
Operations and Cyber Division, HSI Chicago-OHare, the DEAs New York Field Division, and
IRS-CIs New York Field Office. Mr. Bharara also thanked the HSI Attache Bangkok, Thailand,
for its assistance and support. Mr. Bharara also thanked the Royal Thai Police and the U.S.
Department of Justices Office of International Affairs for their support and assistance.

This case is being prosecuted by the Offices Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.
Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy Howard and Richard Cooper are in charge of the
prosecution.
The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
15-311

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