Draft:Blake Benthall

Blake Benthall (born in Houston, Texas) is an American software engineer who allegedly served as the administrator of Silk Road 2.0 under the pseudonym "Defcon". Benthall was arrested on November 6, 2014 by the FBI in San Francisco as part of Operation Onymous, a joint operation between the FBI and Europol, aimed at shutting down illegal goods trading on the deep web.. He was released from federal custody on November 21, 2014.

Early life
Blake Benthall was homeschooled and had a traditional Christian upbringing. Growing up, Blake was an Eagle Scout and was a computer programmer from the age of nine. According to a LinkedIn account seemingly belonging to Benthall, he attended Florida College, a private Christian school, from 2007 to 2009. During this time, he participated in college theater groups, was a keyboardist and vocalist for a school promotional touring band, and extensively traveled the country while working as a freelance programmer. On his personal website, he claims to have "founded [his] first web business at age 15," and he adopted a nomadic lifestyle, turning down various job offers from recruiters.

Benthall moved to San Francisco in 2009 and began his career in the technology field, working at startups such as Quicktate, Momentum Design Lab, RPX Corporation, and Carbon Five. He was described by a former colleague as "a talented developer." He then began working at SpaceX, an aerospace company, helping to develop rocket flight software, where he worked from December 9, 2013, to February 21, 2014 - around the same time he allegedly took over Silk Road 2.0.

Silk Road 2.0 and Arrest
Blake Benthall was arrested in San Francisco on November 6, 2014, through Operation Onymous, on charges of allegedly running the Silk Road 2.0, an online marketplace designed to allow people to buy and sell illegal drugs and other illegal products and services anonymously. Benthall, under the username "Defcon," allegedly revived Silk Road after the original site was shut down by the FBI the previous year and its alleged operator was arrested.

According to the FBI complaint, Benthall allegedly controlled "all aspects of Silk Road 2.0...including...the computer infrastructure and the programming code underlying the site; the terms of service and commission rates imposed on the site's vendors and customers; the small team of forum administrators and moderators who assisted in the site's daily operation; and the huge profits generated by the business operation."

The site operated on the Tor network, a network designed to allow online anonymity. Silk Road 2.0 had about 150,000 users per month and facilitated about $8 million in transactions of illegal or controlled products, such as narcotics. The site's server was seized, and the page was taken down.

In May 2019, a Vice report revealed that the Department of Justice is negotiating a plea deal whereby Benthall would cooperate with investigators, and in return, he would only face tax-related charges and be free from more serious charges.