American Kingpin

<p><b> <br>A <i jquery111106562287189601657=339>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER<br><br>The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom &#150; and almost got away with it.<br><br></b>In 2011 a twenty-six-year-old programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything &#150; drugs hacking software forged passports counterfeit cash poisons &#150; free of the government&#146;s watchful eye. While the federal government were undertaking an epic two-year manhunt for the site&#146;s elusive proprietor the Silk Road quickly ballooned into a $1.2 billion enterprise.<br><br>Ross embraced his new role as kingpin taking drastic steps to protect himself &#150; 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&#146;t sure even existed searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.<br><br>Drawing on exclusive access to key players and two billion digital words and images Ross left behind <i jquery111106562287189601657=348>New York Times</i> bestselling author Nick Bilton offers a tale filled with twists and turns lucky breaks and unbelievable close calls. It&#146;s a story of the boy next door&#146;s ambition gone criminal spurred on by the clash between the new world of libertarian-leaning anonymous decentralised Web advocates and the old world of government control order and the rule of law.</p>