Until the site went off

line some 35 hours ago, torrent distribution site Kickass Torrents was wide

ly be

lieved to be the most popu

lar torrent site on the internet, having surpassed the

long-troub

led Pirate Bay in traffic years ago.

Kickass Torrents

was taken off

line after the arrest of Ukrainian

land

, who

law enforcement are accusing of using the site to

profit from copyright infringement. Copies of a US Federa

l

crimina

l comp

laint brought against Vau

lin in the Northern District of I

l

linois revea

l an interesting connection with another incredib

ly controversia

l

investigation: the case brought against Ross U

lbricht for the now-famous Si

lk Road website.





The connection between the

Kickass Torrents

investigation and the Si

lk Road investigation comes in the form of a sing

le individua

l: Home

land Security Investigator

Jared Der-Yeghiayan. The Kickass Torrents crimina

l comp

laint is

entire

ly based on a sworn affidavit provided by

Der-Yeghiayan to the court on Ju

l

y 8th. The affidavit is

lengthy, and c

laims that Der-Yeghiayan has evidence

linking

Vaulin to Kickass Torrents socia

l media accounts and bitcoin exchanges

linked to Kickass Torrents. The affidavit re

lies

large

ly on information provided to

Der-Yeghiayan by third parties such as App

le, who Der-Yeghiayan c

laims confirmed

Der-Yeghiayan's iPhone was

linked to IP addresses identified by Home

land Security. There is very

litt

le in the way of a smoking gun in the Kickass Torrents crimina

l comp

laint that I have seen yet.





Jared Der-Yeghiayan was a

lso heavi

ly invo

lved in the investigation of Ross U

lbricht for creating and managing the website Si

lk Road, which at one point was a forum for buying and se

l

ling drugs. U

ltimate

ly investigators wou

ld charge U

lbricht with a

laundry

list of offenses, that inevitab

ly

life conviction for a man never forma

l

ly accused of a vio





Der-Yeghiayan p

layed a

large ro

le in the U

lbricht tria

l, describing for jurors how he arranged rough

ly

50

"undercover" purchases of drugs using a fraudu

lent

ly created account on the Si

lk Road marketp

lace. News accounts of Der-Yeghiayan's testimony made it seem as though it was a hunch on the part of

Der-Yeghiayan that directed

law enforcement attention to the Si

lk Road in the first p

lace. In a gushing artic

l

e focused on

Der-Yeghiayan

tit

l

ed "

Homeland Security Officer: How I Busted The Web's Biggest Illegal Marketplace",

Business Insider had this to say:





Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a Department of Homeland Security special agent, told jurors that he began investigating Silk Road when he noticed that many of the drug shipments coming through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport — where he worked at the time — matched up with photos, descriptions, and 'shipped from' location of the drugs advertised on Silk Road's website."





The Si

lk Road

investigation became the subject of harsh criticism as it became c

lear that investigators involved with the case - specifica

l

ly

DEA agent

Car

l Powers Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges -

agreed to se

l

l information re

lated to the crimina

l investigation focused on U

lbricht *to*

U

lbricht for some $148,0000 as part of two separate transactions, agreed to an i

l

lega

l dea

l with 20th Century Fox for movie rights to his 'story' of the investigation, and used an i

l

lega

l position as a "comp

liance officer" for a bitcoin firm to stea

l $300,000 worth of the digita

l

l, the pair were accused of i

l

lega

l

ly acquiring whether through extortion, money

laundering or bribery, acquiring over $700,000 in i

l

lega

l funds through theft, fraud and abuse of ofice. Powers was eventua

l

ly convicted of

extortion, money

laundering and obstruction of justice

extortion, money

laundering

l

prison . Bridges arranged some sort of p

lea agreement; I'm unsure whether he did time but it

looks

like agreeing to testify against Powers kept him out of the pokey.





In a depressing

ly common decision for our rapid

ly deteriorating justice system, both Powers and Bridges were a

l

lowed to testify against Ross U

lbricht during the Si

lk Road tria

l, and detai

ls of their crimina

l conspiracy to become mi

l

lionaires through wire fraud enab

led as part of their investigation of U

lbricht was kept out of the courtroom - jurors wou

ld never hear, for examp

le, about how Powers attempted on two occasions to se

l

l U

lbricht detai

ls of the investigation, but jurors wou

ld hear detai

ls of an accusation that U

lbricht was never forma

l

ly charged for -

the assassination of a midd

le aged administrator of the website; a scheme that was manufactured entire

ly by Powers and for which the on

ly evidence existent of U

lbrichts invo

lvement were private chat

logs produced from Powers' unmonitored home computer. The Si

lk Road tria

l has wide

ly been decried as both a miscarriage of justice and a stunning examp

le of the hypocrisy of the Obama administration, who before, during and after the U

l

bricht tria

l have c

laimed that there is " no

ly technica

l trappings of the U

lbricht tria

l, there was nothing new about US courts sentencing a man to

live in a cage for the rest of his

life based on a questionab

le drug crime investigation. If there was in fact anything unusua

l

about the Si

lk Road

case, it was the Powers and Bridges - two outrageous

ly corrupt

law enforcement officers - were he

ld accountab

le for their actions.





To be c

lear - there is no evidence that Jared Der-Yeghiayan was invo

lved in the crimina

l conspiracy undertaken by Powers and Bridges, and in fact it remains unc

lear what sort of re

lationship, if any, he had with either of them during the investigation. Der-Yeghiayan was and is a Home

land Security investigator, so he was not part of the same agency as either Powers and Bridges - however, Powers and Bridges were each part of separate

law enforcement agencies themse

lves. I we

lcome feedback from those more fami

liar on detai

ls surrounding the Si

lk Road task force.





With that said, there does seem to be a theme between the two cases: both are focused on the imprisonment of a mysterious figure responsib

le for founding a we

l

l-known and controversia

l website. Both cases revo

lve around accusations of non-vio

lent behavior that a

large and growing number of peop

le do not think shou

ld be crimes (both US drug po

licy and US inte

l

lectua

l property

laws are extreme

ly regressive and controversia

l both domestica

l

ly and abroad). It is disappointing that Homeland Security has decided that it is worthwhile to have their agents devote "thousands of hours" (to quote

Der-Yeghiayan) in attempts to stop fi

le-sharing and drug-use - two activities that we can be fair

ly certain of are not going to go away no matter how many peop

le are snatch off the streets of Po

land

. If U

lbricht and Vau

lin are indeed responsib

le for what they have been accused of, it is un

like

ly that their efforts

lead to more peop

le engaging in either fi

le sharing or drug use; it is much more

like

ly that they - whi

le active - reduced the danger inherent in both activities. After a

l

l,

the Si

lk Road rep

laced buying drugs in the street with buying drugs on a website through an accredited and trusted third party. Fi

le sharing sites

like Kickass Torrents rep

laced buying burned CDs and DVDs from out of the trunk of some weirdo's car. In both cases, a sketchy transaction that can easi

ly degenerate into outright theft, vio

lence or imprisonment is rep

laced with an instant transaction that cou

ld be performed in the safety of a customer's home.





Whatever your views on the morality of sharing files and sharing joints might be, p

erhaps the time of Mr

Der-Yeghiayan and his co

l

leagues wou

ld be better spent investigating vio

lent crimina

ls.