NEW YORK—IRS Special Agent Gary Alford showed a jury personal e-mails from Ross Ulbricht’s Gmail account that prosecutors say line up with chats and other records from the Silk Road drug-trafficking site.
In 2013, Alford searched through the Gmail account belonging to Ulbricht, the 30-year-old Texan who stands accused of being the mastermind behind the Silk Road drug-trafficking website. Alford’s testimony today compared information found on Ulbricht’s computer, including Silk Road expense sheets and chats with administrators, with Ulbricht’s personal Gmail account. Alford also looked through Ulbricht’s Facebook posts.
Prosecutors weren’t able to show any direct mentions of Silk Road on Ulbricht’s Gmail or on Facebook. Instead, they associated e-mails from Ulbricht’s personal life and receipts for travel and electronics with the data found on his laptop, which was open to a Silk Road management page when he was arrested in San Francisco.
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