A judge has ordered the accused mastermind of nefarious online bazaar Silk Road shipped to New York to stand trial.
Ross William Ulbricht, speaking through a defence lawyer, put off seeking bail and agreed to be taken back to the city where the federal criminal charges against him were filed.
However, he denies being the infamous "Dread Pirate Roberts" who ran underground Silk Road website that openly hawked illegal drugs, forged documents, hacker tools and even the services of hitmen.
"Any aliases we affirmatively deny," said defence lawyer Brandon LeBlanc, who told reporters after the hearing that Ulbricht "is well".
Federal marshals will take Ulbricht to New York, where he will have a new defence lawyer and be eligible to request release on bail pending trial.
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US prosecutors have gone on record in court saying there are no conditions under which they believe it would be safe to free Ulbricht on bail.
Ulbricht was unshaven but alert, saying nothing during the brief proceeding before Magistrate Joseph Spero.
Ulbricht, 29, was arrested last week by US authorities who accuse him of owning and operating an online black market for drug called Silk Road.
Prosecutors also charged that in March, Ulbricht tried to hire someone to kill a Silk Road user who threatened to expose the identities of others using the website.
"We deny all charges," LeBlanc said after a previous hearing before Spero.
Federal agents shut down the website, which used a privacy-protecting Tor network and Bitcoin digital currency to shield the identities of buyers and sellers around the world.
