Today in the ongoing Silk Road trial, Defense Attorney Joshua Dratel and his client, Defendant Ross Ulbricht, made another bold proclamation. A day after the defense stated that Ulbricht was not Dread Pirate Roberts, they pursued a line of questioning suggesting who actually controlled the online drug marketplace: Mark Karpeles, the owner of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange.

Further Reading Defense bombshell in Silk Road trial: Mt. Gox owner “set up” Ulbricht

Ars reached out to Karpeles soon after his name came up in court today. With a Department of Homeland Security representative mentioning that he was at one point a suspect for being Dread Pirate Roberts, we asked if he ever had any connection to Silk Road.

"I have nothing to do with Silk Road and do not condone what has been happening there," Karpeles continued. "I believe Bitcoin (and its underlying technology) is not meant to help people evade the law, but to improve everyone's way of life by offering never thought before possibilities. As for the silkroadmarket.org domain, it was registered by a KalyHost.com customer and paid in Bitcoins (KalyHost is a service of Tibanne that has been up since 2009)."

When asked about more specific suggestions made in court—that Karpeles' lawyers offered to tell the government who ran Silk Road, and perhaps led them to Ulbricht—Karpeles said he didn't know how much he could say, but he denied knowing the man who's now on trial.

"I did not know Ross Ulbricht until his name was published after he was arrested," he wrote. "It was not uncommon for Mt. Gox to cooperate with law enforcement within the scope of Japanese law."

In court earlier, Dratel asked Homeland Security agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan about his earlier suspicions that Karpeles was running Silk Road. Der-Yeghiayan acknowledged being suspicious at an earlier time, saying he filled out an affidavit in mid-2013. "By the contents of that affidavit—yes," Der-Yeghiayan answered from the stand.

Both the government and US District Judge Katherine Forrest were surprised by the approach. Prosecutor Serrin Turner initially objected, saying Dratel was trying to get hearsay evidence. When the jury was sent out of the room, Dratel stated his thesis more clearly.

"They had this guy [Karpeles] in their sights and he'd never been charged," Dratel said. "Our position is that he set up Mr. Ulbricht."

Ars' Joe Mullin and Cyrus Farivar contributed to this report.