Overview
Steptoe partners Stewart Baker and Jason Weinstein were quoted in an article in The Wall Street Journal’s legal blog titled “Ross Ulbricht Trial: Key Legal Issues at Play.” The article, published January 13, discusses the landmark case of the accused ringleader of an online drug bazaar and how the trial could throw light on tactics used by authorities to unmask suspects operating in the darkest recesses of the web.
“If I’m the defense, I want to make it as painful as possible for the government,” Mr. Baker says. And that means, “forcing the government to disclose methods of investigation they’d rather not disclose.”
According to the article, the trial is a test case not only of what the government can do to catch “dark web” suspects but also of what federal criminal statutes prosecutors can wield in such cases where all of the money exchanging hands was virtual currency.
Mr. Weinstein says that bitcoin users — at least ones engaging in legitimate transactions — shouldn’t be too anxious about the outcome of the trial.
“It’s not a crime to avoid the banking system,” he says. “It’s a crime to avoid the banking system for criminal purposes.”
The full article can be read at The Wall Street Journal.
