American Kingpin

The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

By: Nick Bilton

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom - and almost got away with it

In 2011, a 26-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine website hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything - drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons - free of the government's watchful eye.

It wasn't long before the media got wind of the new website where anyone - not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers - could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site's elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.

The Silk Road quickly ballooned into a $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself - including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren't sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.

Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind, Vanity Fair correspondent and New York Times best-selling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns, lucky breaks, and unbelievable close calls. It's a story of the boy next door's ambition gone criminal, spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning, anonymous, decentralized web advocates and the old world of government control, order, and the rule of law. Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpin might be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. But it's all too real.

©2017 Nick Bilton (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“An astonishingly well-researched narrative.... Bilton's storytelling bears not so much as a trace of fat; the book he's conjured is so sharp and bright that it can be whipped through in the airport lounge before the flight takes off." (The Globe and Mail)

"Unbelievably riveting." (Casey Neistat)

“I dare you not to read this book in one sitting. Masterfully reported and written, Bilton’s book drops you hard into the dark heart of the most famous Internet crime to date. A first-rate thrill.” (Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of The Seventh Sense)

Simply...Amazing!

This book has a bit of everything. There are people I found myself pulling for, people I wanted to see get what was coming to them and some people that alternated between those two possibilities.

It had intrigue and backstabbing and some gold old fashioned government turf wars to boot.

I loved everything about this book and did not want to stop until I had finished the whole thing. This has to this point been my favorite nonfiction audiobook release of 2017!

Best listen in a long time

This book kept my interest in every chapter. This was a great example of what really goes on in the world. I would recommend this book to everyone

This book got me back into reading.

Reads just like any fiction book, worth every moment of your time. Would strongly recommend!

Book is like a Well written film

The narrator is really good and the book is well written.
Casey neistat recommend the book and he was right, it is like a thriller/drama movie and very interesting how Ross got away with this drug crime for so long.

The book goes into great detail of his life before, after and during the crime in a way that is not boring to hear.

Great book!

Well written. Nicely read. Easy to follow along, and understand. Had me on the edge of my seat.

fantastic!

loved every second of this book!
great storytelling and great narration!
fascinating insight into the story of the silk road and it's founder!
highly recommend!

Libertine Nightmare

The Silk Road is the common name for the old trade routes between China and the West, but a few years ago people started hearing of a hidden website where anyone could buy and sell anything using a little known “currency” called “Bitcoin.” It was started as an easy marketplace for drugs but expanded into almost anything. It made purchasing drugs easy. There was no danger of being caught in the wrong neighborhood, getting on the wrong side of your dealer, or getting caught by police. The drugs would be delivered in almost the safest way possible, by the US Postal Service. It was brilliant and was almost impossible to take down because the marketplace was on the dark web behind layers of security and relays from one place to another, and the currency was considered impossible to trace (though, there are now some ways to trace Bitcoin at least in some cases). It was run by someone who called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), a character from a very popular children’s movie, “The Princess Bride.” In real life, he was Ross Ulbricht, a nice guy from Texas who didn’t curse, who treated people kindly, and who lived very frugally. He didn’t buy anything new, even his clothes. But, he was a “Libertarian,” believing that government should be minimal, should give maximum freedom to people, and as a result, should not be telling people what they can put into their bodies. He saw his project as a way to overthrow the strict drug laws when people could buy with impunity so that the government would eventually give up. And, he saw this as just a beginning to take the government out of almost everything else as well. Of course, at the same time, his small cut was adding up to a huge 6-figure fortune, though it seems that barely spent any of it, keeping his frugal lifestyle until he was caught. This is the story of how a nice young guy became a fanatic to a cause, how he came up with and developed the idea of the Silk Road, and how he changed into someone who would eventually order the death of 5 people and pay a price for having it done (though, it seems that none of the murders were actually carried out). This is not a happy and uplifting book. It’s sad to see how Ross changed over the course of a few years and how this ended up harming society so much. The time period corresponded with the great increase in drug use and addictions in American society that we are still dealing with. It also shows how it even drug in two Drug Enforcement agents, tempted by the money they could get from him. But, it’s also the story about how dedicated agents from several agencies from the DEA to the FBI and Homeland Security pored over tiny details, put together the slightest clues, to eventually find out who the DPR was, catch him while online, grab his laptop before he could hit a kill switch that would log him off and destroy any traceable connection between Ross and the DPR and the Silk Road. This is a very good book, well researched, and well written. I’d recommend it to anyone.

Watch out fir F bombs

Great story and written well other than the numerous F bombs which were not necessary and quickly became a distraction.

Mesmerizing

I was pleasantly surprised by how captivating the story was. Just an excellent book. Highly recommended.

A new favorite

Thorough, detailed, and excellently written. This is a captivating read. It's clear that the author took painstaking efforts to tell this story the way it was meant to be told.