A key administrator who says he helped Ross Ulbricht run the Silk Road online drug empire appeared in a Baltimore courtroom yesterday. Forty-seven-year-old Curtis Clark Green, who went by the aliases "Flush" and "chronicpain" online, lives in a small town about an hour from Salt Lake City; he works at a nonprofit that helps people with learning disabilities, and he's a grandfather.

Green is also the admin who Ulbricht, operating online as Dread Pirate Roberts, allegedly tried to have killed.

He made his appearance in a Baltimore courtroom this morning and gave this statement telling his story to journalist Joshua Davis, who published it in his online magazine, Epic:

I was an employee of Silk Road from approximately November 2012 until January 2013. I got involved in SR because I was interested in Bitcoin and SR was the biggest market place for Bitcoin. I also had an interest in harm reduction related to drug use. Initially I just chatted on the forum, and that led to DPR [Dread Pirate Roberts] hiring me to work for SR. I was basically employed as a customer service rep, assisting people to use the site. I never used illegal drugs and I never intended to be directly involved in illegal drug deals. In January 2013 federal agents stormed into my home and arrested me on drug charges. According to federal agents, DPR paid an undercover agent to murder me. The agents took photos as they faked my murder. I did not know the identity of DPR or any other user of SR. I never stole from DPR, SR or any SR users. On the advice of my attorney, I cannot give any further details, as I still face serious federal charges.

Green also submitted a list of facts he's stipulated to in court. He was paid a salary to work as a Silk Road admin, and his access allowed him to view all messages on the site, as well as Bitcoin accounts held by users—and by Dread Pirate Roberts.

He was ultimately busted when Dread Pirate Roberts told him to help out with a drug sale that was actually with an undercover agent. A US Postal Inspector delivered a kilogram of cocaine to his house, sold online for about $27,000. After that, he was arrested.

Green's statement doesn't include much more detail. It all suggests, of course, that he's cooperating with law enforcement to get his charges reduced. That deal might not have been a hard sell once agents told him that Dread Pirate Roberts was trying to kill him and that they needed to fake his death.

Ulbricht, meanwhile, has been transferred to New York and recently made his first court appearance there, covered by Bloomberg News. He'll be back at a November 21 hearing to argue for bail.

“He’s not the person they’re saying he is,” Ulbricht's new lawyer told reporters outside court. He's “a regular person, a loyal friend."