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[–]karelb 17 points18 points  (6 children)

Hello.

I was publicly threatened by mr. Jiříkovský with a libel case (libel, in Czech Republic, is a criminal offense, not just a civil/common offense, for retarded reasons, so it's slightly more serious than it looks like), so I will cease to comment on anything in that article, or mr. Jiříkovský, or Sheep Marketplace in general. However, I think it's fine to just translate the article without any commentary, so everybody understands 100%.

note: Lidovky.cz is a server of one of the biggest and oldest Czech "offline" newspapers, Lidové Noviny. Lidové Noviny means "Newspaper of the People", despite being right-wing and conservative; the word "lidovky" is an informal version of "Lidové noviny".


I am innocent. Czech, suspected from stealing three quarters of a billion [implied Czech crowns] from drug cartels, fights back.

PRAGUE - The internet is hunting him. When the word got out, that virtual money "bitcoin" in the amount of circa 800 million crowns from an anonymous on-line marketplace ended up in an unknown place, the first clues went to Czech programmer Tomáš J. In an exclusive statement for server Lidovky.cz, Tomás is trying to clean up his name. He has a real reason - the robbed dealers, that sold their goods around the whole world, now go „po krku“ [untranslatable - "after his life", word by word is "after his neck"].

Server Lidovky.cz informed about the lost bitcoins on monday. The admins of "sheep market" [translated to Czech here] first spoke about hacker attack, then they blocked the bitcoin withdrawals and then they stopped communicating altogether.

Very soon after that, there was a series of proofs that started to spread through the internet, that should reveal the author of the anonymous marketplace - Tomáš J. from Czech Republic. Now he is genuinely afraid of his life, because there was all kind of illegal goods on Sheep Marketplace, including drugs. And robbed sellers and buyers are really angry now.

"People thinks that it's our project. They are prompted to think that also by a document, that shows my history on the Czech internet. On both Nette forum and Root forum. (discussions for programmers - ed.) We tried to solve one project with a pirate party on their forum too", wrote Tomáš to server Lidovky.cz after throwing off the "libels" seen on social networks.

Die, or pay!

Now, angry users from the whole world are messaging him: "There were a few people that threatened our lives, or want money." He wants to make legal steps against the allegations, too.

Tomáš asked the experts around the internet, how, for example, he can secure an internet marketplace that uses bitcoin payments. He wanted to use that with his new project AnonymousTrade.com. At the same time he provided space for a webpages, promoting Sheep Marketplace.

"My first encounter with Sheep was, when our users warned us, that the fanpage sheepmarketplace.com is using our hosting. That web was turned off, because it was against Czech laws," Czech programmer continues.

Volavka? [literally: heron bird; idiom, used for "agent" or "agent provocateur" in Czech]

The situation is very unclear at this moment and given the fact, that illegal trades were being done on Sheep Marketplace using encrypted anonymous deep web environment, there are not that many ways to prove things.

There are even speculations, that the whole project is just a trap by FBI, that focused on the drug trade after the revelation of the operators of the well-known on-line marketplace Silk Road [Silk Road translated also to Czech].

Questions and answers [the actual interview, on a different background]

Server lidovky.cz showed Tomáš eleven pieces of evidence that show him as a creator of "sheep marketplace [in Czech]". It was put on the internet by a researcher Gwern Branwen [with link on the pastebin]:

[the "evidence points" are translated to Czech, I will use the original English version here instead of translating it back to English again because that would be stupid]

1. Tomas owns the hosting service for the sheepmarketplace.com VPS server. There were very few domains hosted there as well, and he controlled several of them.

"It was not a VPS server, but a physical server, that is now on Slovakia in DataCube. On this server, there is 17 projects. The server has slightly dated hardware, so there are some limitations of how many projects can be run there."

2. The site itself seemed to be very closely connected to SMP, using the same basic technologies and possibly a non-public API

"I am not sure what the author means by that, but I think he is talking about my ability to use PHP and Nette."

3. The official excuse does not wash as sheepmarketplace.com was set up not long after SMP itself

"We don't know when the official marketplace Sheep Marketplace was created, so we can't comment on that."

4. Tomas is the earliest known promoter of SMP (1 February 2013), and recommened SMP & BMR over Silk Road (11 April 2013)

"I have no idea what kind of promotion is meant by that, so it's hard to comment on that."

5. Tomas is a C++ QT Nette Framework Czech developer who runs Ubuntu, exactly like the SMP developer

"I made some C++ programs about a year ago, see link - http://forum.root.cz/index.php?topic=4256.msg35989 - or link - http://forum.root.cz/index.php?topic=4944.msg42917 - that was a MAMP project (Manager Apache MySql PHP). If someone wants to, I can show him the source code of the unfinished projects. If you ask about Nette and my questions there - they are absolutely work-related questions about projects, that I made either for myself or for my customers: I was working on Šnekweb webhosting and I was interested in how exactly to automate the registration of customer and his requirements"

6. Tomas has complained about the memory demand of bitcoind on a VPS server, and discussed the difficulties of functionality like email from hidden services

"Yes, in the past, I solved the difficulty of bitcoin wallet on server, because of the project AnonymousTrade.com. But in this project I was more concerned about the problem - link https://forum.pirati.cz/piratska-poradna-f285/anonymoustrade-com-t18584.html - if it's possible to have this service at all. Unfortunately not many lawyers adviced me [I think he means on the pirate party forum] and I had no other chance than to ask more experienced lawyers elsewhere."

7. Tomas or his girlfriend are active users of Tor, as evidenced by screenshots of their computer

"The fact that there is a cat next to a computer with a Tor icon is really dangerous (irony). Tor is a basic part of bitcoin wallet because of the risks of a server being attacked. The bigger exchanges and other services use Tor to avoid attacks from outside. If there is a problem with installing Tor because of my work, there is something wrong."

8. it's not clear what Tomas's current job is 9. but it is clear that as of October, he was working on an ecommerce site which was having problems with buggy accounting of deposits

10. Tomas posted a .htaccess file which has the same (buggy) functionality as that of SMP

11. He is an accused Bitcoin scammer

"The poins 8,9,10,11 are very unclear and I really have no idea what to say to them."


That's the whole article.

[–]gwern 12 points13 points  (4 children)

I like his excuses. So, the tech stuff is all due to his AnonymousTrade project, and as for the rest, he has no idea!

My first encounter with Sheep was, when our users warned us, that the fanpage sheepmarketplace.com is using our hosting

Serious question for the Czechs here: what is this 'fanpage' term that keeps getting used? The Sheep admin used it in explaining away sheepmarketplace.com, and now Tomas uses it. Is this as unusual & idiosyncratic as it looks, or is it reflecting some Czech quirk where some/all people would naturally employ that term?

"It was not a VPS server, but a physical server, that is now on Slovakia in DataCube. On this server, there is 17 projects. The server has slightly dated hardware, so there are some limitations of how many projects can be run there."

This is not a reply or refutation, and it actually makes it worse: if it was a VPS, he has a natural excuse that his sites and the SMP clearnet mirror simply happened to get allocated to the same physical server. But it's a physical server, implying more integration and oversight.

"I am not sure what the author means by that, but I think he is talking about my ability to use PHP and Nette."

I was perfectly clear about it. This is also a complete non-reply.

"We don't know when the official marketplace Sheep Marketplace was created, so we can't comment on that."

You would think he might look it up a little? He certainly is able to look up when the clearnet was created, and some googling turns up indications of SMP. And Tomas knew in February about Sheep... Speaking of which:

"I have no idea what kind of promotion is meant by that, so it's hard to comment on that."

"What is this link to me talking about Sheep in February and elsewhere telling people that Sheep is way more awesome than SR? I have no idea!"

If someone wants to, I can show him the source code of the unfinished projects.

Completely irrelevant. The point was that he has the knowledge the Sheep operator did. Also, thanks for confirming that you are a Ubuntu C++ Nette Qt using developer.

If you ask about Nette and my questions there - they are absolutely work-related questions about projects, that I made either for myself or for my customers: I was working on Šnekweb webhosting and I was interested in how exactly to automate the registration of customer and his requirements

This is a little more convincing.

Yes, in the past, I solved the difficulty of bitcoin wallet on server, because of the project AnonymousTrade.com.

This, however, is not. AnonymousTrade seems to not exist, judging by how the domain is empty and redirects you elsewhere. So if AT.com is not operational, how is Tomas learning that bitcoind doesn't run well under limited resources...?

The fact that there is a cat next to a computer with a Tor icon is really dangerous (irony).

No, the point is that you are an active user of Tor. Like only a small fraction of the population.

Tor is a basic part of bitcoin wallet because of the risks of a server being attacked. The bigger exchanges and other services use Tor to avoid attacks from outside.

Whaaaatttt....? What on earth exchanges use Tor to avoid attack? A normal legitimate service will be securing its non-public servers with things like SSH key-based logins. They don't set up hidden services or whatever Tomas is proposing here and routing all their private traffic out over the public network, incurring huge latency losses, when they could get equal security for their purposes with a simpler and more efficient SSH setup! This is either being translated badly or Tomas has some very poor sysadmin ideas or he's just bullshitting.

"The poins 8,9,10,11 are very unclear and I really have no idea what to say to them."

Not a reply.

[–]RivieraKid[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This is either being translated badly or Tomas has some very poor sysadmin ideas or he's just bullshitting.

It's translated quite well, it doesn't make sense in Czech either. Tor is a part of a bitcoin wallet? Most of his answers seem weirdly confused and arrogant, not sure if he's stupid, trolling, on drugs or something else.

[–]karelb 5 points6 points  (2 children)

(again, I am not commenting on either mr. Jiříkovský or Sheep, I am just translating)

Serious question for the Czechs here: what is this 'fanpage' term that keeps getting used?

Isn't "fanpage" an English word, too? Fanpage of some game. Fanpage of a band. He actually uses the word "fanstránka" which is a non-word in Czech, taking the word "fanpage" and translating only the "page" part.

If you use the term "fanpage" in here, it just means that fans make a page about something. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fansite - exactly like that.

This is either being translated badly or Tomas has some very poor sysadmin ideas or he's just bullshitting.

It's exactly translated what he said. Almost word for word.

Tor je základní součástí bitcoin peněženky kvůli rizikům z napadení serveru. Větší směnárny a jiné služby používají Tor, aby se vyhnuly útokům z venku.

Je - means "is"; "základní" means "basic"; "součástí" means "part"; "peněženky" means "(of) wallet"; "kvůli" means "because of"; "rizikům" means "risks"; "z napadení" means "from attack" (he actually uses incorrect Czech here).

"Větší" means "bigger"; "směnárny" means "exchanges"; "a jiné" means "and other"; "služby" means "services"; "používají" means "use"; "aby se" means "in order to"; "vyhnuly" means "to avoid, to mitigate"; "útokům" means "attacks"; "z venku" means "from outside".

[–]gwern 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Isn't "fanpage" an English word, too? Fanpage of some game. Fanpage of a band.

Yes, but my point here is that it's a highly unusual way of describing the clearnet site. As far as I've seen, no one besides Tomas and Sheep describes it in English as a 'fanpage' unless they are quoting them or sarcastically echoing them. We would call it a 'mirror' or a 'copy' or something like that.

If you told me that X.com was a 'fanpage' for Silk Road, I would expect to see upon going to X.com something like 'I love Silk Road to death and I bought this drug and that drug and these drugs!!!', and would be surprised to see a full listing of all SR entries and a complete copy of the user-visible parts of SR.

EDIT: you can see the clearnet site for yourself in the Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20130419160347/http://sheepmarketplace.com and eg http://web.archive.org/web/20131005210438/http://sheepmarketplace.com/item/5g-weed-the-ultimate-8e59dc221b

Hence my question here is whether it's because both Tomas & Sheep are Czech, or whether it's because Tomas=Sheep.

It's exactly translated what he said. Almost word for word.

Alright, so it's probably ignorance or bullshit. (To expand on my previous comment: if you were setting up a service like MtGox or something, you would never use Tor for connecting your servers. To the extent you ever thought about Tor, it would be to block any and all access from Tor-related IPs as probable hackers!)

[–]karelb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh. OK. That is not a proper use of a word "Fanpage" then. A regular use of the word would mean what you say.

[–]dreadly1217 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the translation. I'm sorry to hear that you may possibly be facing legal issues.

Also, I posted the rebuttal Tomas and his gf posted on facebook before they deleted their pages, it contains your information. Let me know if you'd like me to delete it.

[–]4tun8FoOL 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thomas...whats going on buddy... If nothing else you certainly are a dickhead. I don't know why you'd bother trying to explain or clear your name in such a way. Either take the money, run and hide or show us why you couldn't be sheep Admin and responsible for this heist affecting so many. . Thomas, something to keep in mind. If you plan on stealing again, don't steal from thousands of individuals whom collectively have links to just about every Crime organization on the planet. But yeah, i'd kill him just in case.

[–]pimpass 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From all pointed here, you had pretty good reasons to point your finger at this guy... After reading this, not sure he's not involved, maybe as a freelance developer, as part of the scam and probably making money on the BTC side of the operation.

Like, sheep was obviously to make easy BTC. But they need to do something with all this BTC...

Anyway, whoever it was, will die early from aneurism or heart attack. Good luck surviving the paranoia that will consume you.

[–]phattsao 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Eh, kill him anyway just to be sure

[–]Der_Aussenseiter 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Either way, i think somebody will end up being killed over this. Thomas might think he's innocent, but vendors will stop at nothing if its over money.

[–]RivieraKid[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I think it's almost certain that he's the (co-)author of sheep. The question is whether he stole the money.

[–]Der_Aussenseiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He pretty much bullshitted his way out of the accusations in the interview, and wont even acknowledge some of the information. Yeah, signs are saying he was at the very least partly responsible.

[–]Big-Baby-Jesus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That would totally suck if you had to hide from thousands of drug dealers, and didn't even get to keep the millions of dollars. He sounds guilty as hell in the interview. But if he actually stole the money, then he's an idiot for even doing the interview.