Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

by Andy Greenberg

Overview

From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. “I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.” (Michael Lewis)

Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.

But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could uncover an entire world of wrongdoing.

Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak, a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur, and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet.

Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385548106
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	73,373
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Andy Greenberg is a senior writer for Wired magazine. He's written about hackers, cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy for more than 15 years, and is the author of three books: Tracers in the Dark, Sandworm, and This Machine Kills Secrets. Tracers in the Dark and Sandworm, along with excerpts of the books published in Wired, have won several honors including two Gerald Loeb awards for distinguished business and financial reporting. This Machine Kills Secrets was named by The Verge as one of the top ten greatest tech books of all time. Greenberg lives in Brooklyn with his wife, documentary filmmaker Malika Zouhali-Worrall.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

Prologue Proof of Concept 3

Part 1 Men with No Names

Chapter 1 Eladio Guzman Fuentes 9

Chapter 2 Nob 20

Chapter 3 The Auditor 27

Chapter 4 Cryptoanarchy 37

Chapter 5 Silk Road 44

Chapter 6 The Dread Pirate 51

Chapter 7 The Puzzle 61

Chapter 8 Men with No Names 73

Chapter 9 Cyber Narc 87

Chapter 10 Glen Park 97

Chapter 11 The Double Agent 102

Chapter 12 Receipts 112

Chapter 13 FrenchMaid, DeathFromAbove 121

Chapter 14 The Trial 129

Part II Tracer for Hire

Chapter 15 Collapse 139

Chapter 16 Dirty Money 152

Chapter 17 Noise 158

Chapter 18 The Second Agent 169

Chapter 19 A Hole in the Vault 180

Chapter 20 BTC-e 187

Chapter 21 WME 195

Chapter 22 Vinnik 202

Chapter 23 Consolation Prizes 208

Part III Alphabay

Chapter 24 Alpha02 219

Chapter 25 The Tip 230

Chapter 26 Gazes 239

Chapter 27 Thailand 250

Chapter 28 Tunaflsh 260

Chapter 29 Rawmeo 273

Chapter 30 Hansa 287

Chapter 31 Takeover 300

Chapter 32 "Advanced Analysis" 310

Chapter 33 The Athenee 318

Chapter 34 Takedown 324

Chapter 35 Captivity 338

Chapter 36 Postmortem 349

Chapter 37 The Trap 357

Chapter 38 Aftermath 365

Chapter 39 Suvarnabhumi Airport 374

Part IV Welcome to Video

Chapter 40 Five Characters 379

Chapter 41 "Serach Videos" 390

Chapter 42 Octopus 399

Chapter 43 Test Cases 408

Chapter 44 Seoul 420

Chapter 45 The Net 427

Chapter 46 Ripples 435

Part V The Next Round

Chapter 47 Open Season 445

Chapter 48 Limits 459

Chapter 49 Gray Zones 474

Chapter 50 Rumker 489

Epilogue 499

Acknowledgments 513

Source Notes 517

Notes 519

Index 555

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/26/2022

In this sobering account, cybersecurity reporter Greenberg (Sandworm) delves into the efforts of law enforcement agencies and cybersleuths to trace criminal activity involving cryptocurrency, starting with the takedown in 2013 of Silk Road, “the sprawling, Bitcoin-based, billion-dollar online black market for dark web narcotics sales, created by a pseudonymous figure known as the Dread Pirate Roberts.” It took the FBI, IRS, and DHS two-and-a-half years of dogged research to identify the site’s founder as Ross Ulbricht, a 29-year-old Texan with no criminal record, and arrest him in a San Francisco library. Other operations have targeted child pornography websites and ransomware attacks. Greenberg examines in fascinating detail how criminals have employed technology for their nefarious ends, along the way providing a history of Bitcoin and a look at a possible future technology that would make “truly untraceable and anonymous finances possible.” He brings to vivid life the assorted players, including the agents who cracked the crimes, those in law enforcement who succumbed to the allure of fast money on the dark web, and the private citizens who ushered in the golden age of cryptocurrency tracing. This is a must-have for the true crime shelf. Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Co. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
 
“[Greenberg] deftly assembles a rogues’ gallery of characters… [An] absorbing narrative… Each key section of the book—the Silk Road story; the dismantling of its successor, AlphaBay; the massive theft of Bitcoin from the Mt. Gox exchange; and, finally, the bust of the Welcome to Video child porn emporium—unfolds like a compact mystery.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Immensely readable... Greenberg is known for his ability to explain complicated technology in a way anyone can understand, and he doesn’t disappoint when he tackles crypto…. The whole smoky world of crypto starts to open up... [He] takes readers on a romp through some of the most infamous dark web takedowns in recent memory.”
—Washington Post

"Greenberg sketches the evolution of a wholly new discipline in the surprisingly lively real-life police procedural [that] deftly teases out technical detail without slowing the narrative."
—Associated Press

“A pivotal story of the internet, the dark web and policing in the Digital Age. The book demonstrates in gripping, and sometimes thrilling detail, how law enforcement agencies such as the IRS Criminal Investigations unit have harnessed powerful emerging technology to trace cryptocurrency, which once seemed anonymous, right to the doorsteps of some of the world’s most wanted criminals… Tracers in The Dark raises essential questions about the future of cryptocurrency.”
—CyberScoop

“I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.”
—Michael Lewis, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Big Short

“Brilliant. Should be required reading for anyone in the ‘follow the money’ and investigative sphere. Gobsmacked by how good it is.”
—Congressman Denver Riggleman, New York Times bestselling author of The Breach

"Andy Greenberg has turned a prescient lens on the investigators, technology, and budding industry that may just be the most powerful weapon we wield in the fight against cybercriminals and illicit nation states who mistakenly believed that the blockchain and cryptocurrency offered them cover. Greenberg tells the tale of this new weapon with his usual eye for technical accuracy and gift for storytelling. This is how the good guys win."
—Nicole Perlroth, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

“A gripping, stranger-than-fiction tale of how a small team of geeks and federal agents cracked what was once thought to be untraceable cryptocurrency. Page after page, Tracers in the Dark proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there is no better reporter covering the wild west of the internet than Andy Greenberg.”
—Garrett M. Graff, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky and Watergate

“A riveting non-fiction thriller from an exceptional reporter and storyteller. Tracers in the Dark shines a light on how cryptocurrency has been used to hide human rights abuses and trafficking by global crime syndicates—and how a team of crypto tracers learned to expose those schemes by finding a new way to follow the money.”
—Alex Gibney, Academy Award-winning director of Going Clear and Zero Days

"A master-class in the tactics and countertactics of financial cyberwarfare, laid out in a tense, exciting technothriller."
—Cory Doctorow, New York Times bestselling author of Attack Surface and Red Team Blues

"An immersive look into cryptocurrency and crime... Greenberg’s book is often thrilling, but it will also leave you with plenty to think about once you’ve finished it—making for the best kind of page turner."
—InsideHook

"The best cybercrime book of the last decade."
—Rick Howard, host of the Cyberwire Podcast

"I’ve been covering security for 22 years and I’ve read a whole pile of books on the subject... Tracers in the Dark is as good as it gets."
—Dennis Fisher, host of the Decipher Podcast

“A true, detailed, behind-the-scenes look at high-stakes police operations.”
—Tech Crunch

“[An] absorbing narrative…fascinating.”
—Wired

“A must-read...I was completely enthralled.”
—Laura Shin, host of the Unchained podcast and author of The Cryptopians

"In his exciting new book, [Greenberg] shows how cryptocurrency became a double-edged sword for the criminal sphere."
—L'Express (France)

"A probing investigation...that reads like a whodunit."
—Le Point (France)

"The thrilling tale of a technological race between surveillance authorities and cybercriminals...burning with topicality."
—L'Echo (France)

"Reads like a thriller...In this fine investigative book, corrupt cops, hardened crooks and Russian criminals intersect with intrigues pulled straight from a John LeCarré novel."
—Challenges (France)

"Fascinating and so enthralling...[A] highly recommended book."
—Library Journal (starred review)

"Greenberg examines in fascinating detail how criminals have employed technology for their nefarious ends...He brings to vivid life the assorted players, including the agents who cracked the crimes, those in law enforcement who succumbed to the allure of fast money on the dark web, and the private citizens who ushered in the golden age of cryptocurrency tracing. This is a must-have for the true crime shelf."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Spellbinding.... Written with great enthusiasm and with an ear for the dramatic turn of phrase...this is the kind of book that yanks the reader’s eyes wide open.... Lively, highly relevant, and more than a little scary.”
—Booklist

"A sinuous, eminently readable story of the darker corners of cyberspace...  Reminiscent in all the best ways of Clifford Stoll’s Cuckoo’s Egg, smoothly blending crime writing with matters of the deepest techno-geekery. An absorbing work of true crime.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2022

Many readers do not understand how cryptocurrency works nor know that federal agents are attempting to take down a criminal empire of digital black markets. Greenberg (Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers) methodically and meticulously explains the way cryptocurrency functions. He documents how Bitcoin has been used to conduct illegal activities and the agencies that follow it. The author debunks the myth that cryptocurrency is untraceable through a discussion of cases that agents have cracked by going after the heads of a dark website, which included the work of dirty agents trying to stay one step ahead of being caught. Since this illegal activity has developed only in the past decade, federal government agencies have a learning curve to fight it. These stories are fascinating and so enthralling, it is hard to distinguish real people from the aliases used to protect identities and privacies. Greenberg shows that tracking cryptocurrency is at once a cat-and-mouse game and a whack-a-mole situation. VERDICT This highly recommended book has been picked up by Jigsaw Productions to develop into a scripted screen adaptation, a documentary, and a podcast. There are few books on the crypto underworld, making this a must for all libraries.—Michael Sawyer

Library Journal

★ 2022-09-28
A sinuous, eminently readable story of the darker corners of cyberspace.

Who would have thought an IRS agent could become a legal superhero? That’s just the case with a criminal investigator named Tigran Gambaryan, who had been assigned to “busting gangs in Oakland who had graduated from dealing drugs to filing fraudulent tax returns with stolen identities,” a switch that had the benefit of bringing in more money while carrying less jail time. Fearing that he’d spend his career chasing down small fry, Gambaryan turned his attention to cybercrimes, which in turn led him to Bitcoin. Then at Forbes and now at Wired, technology journalist Greenberg was exploring cryptocurrency himself and trying to land an interview with the legendary Silk Road mastermind known as the Dread Pirate Roberts, who was “making millions of dollars in highly illegal narcotics sales…while evading every global law enforcement agency.” DPR assumed that cryptocurrency was an impregnable fortress that couldn’t be “de-anonymized.” Not so, and he was finally taken down after e-chatting for months with a supposed online moderator who was in reality a Homeland Security agent. With sometimes competitive agencies working together—even the IRS, which one judge called “the redheaded stepchild of law enforcement”—and spreading the net to include both criminals and police agencies abroad, the chase quickened after DPR fell. Greenberg tells the stories of demolishing crime empires like AlphaBay and Hansa and their bosses with verve that’s refreshing for a book full of computers, code-breaking, and electronic cat-and-mouse games, including one memorable moment in which the object of an international police hunt “had, entirely by chance, arrived at a meeting at the exact hotel where they were staying and sat down at the table next to them.” Greenberg’s book is reminiscent in all the best ways of Clifford Stoll’s Cuckoo’s Egg, smoothly blending crime writing with matters of the deepest techno-geekery.

An absorbing work of true crime—and, as the bad guys will tell you, true punishment.

Kirkus Reviews