Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison

A federal judge sentenced Ross Ulbricht to life in prison today in New York City for his role as the mastermind of Silk Road, once the largest online black market for illegal drugs on the Internet.

A jury convicted Ulbricht, who pioneered the secure sale of illegal goods online, in February on seven felony counts, including drug trafficking, money laundering, computer hacking, and identity fraud.

Silk Road, which ran from January 2011 to October 2013 before the FBI seized the site and its assets, was an anonymous marketplace used to sell illegal goods, the vast majority of which were drugs, including heroine, methamphetamine, MDMA, LSD, and others. The website hid the location of itself and its users by utilizing the Tor anonymity network, privacy software developed and funded in part by the U.S. government that's used by police, criminals, journalists, soldiers, and activists worldwide.

Prior to sentencing, Ulbricht, clearly upset, apologized for any lives ruined by overdoses caused by drugs purchased off of Silk Road. "I never wanted that to happen," he said, adding, "I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path."

Sales on Silk Road were entirely conducted in Bitcoin. From February 2011 through July 2013, Ulbricht and other Silk Road staffers collected 614,305 bitcoins, or $145,516,568.40 at today's exchange rate, in commissions from sales on the site, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. At the time of Ulbricht's arrest, the total Silk Road commissions were worth just under $80 million.

In a memo to the court, U.S. prosecutors said Ulbricht owes the government $183,961,921 based on the total number of transactions on Silk Road.

Ulbricht's defense team has repeatedly promised an appeal, meaning this saga is far from over. Years after Ulbricht's 2013 arrest, many questions remain about the police investigation including how they found Silk Road's servers and whether police violated the law in doing so.

Federal prosecutors have continuously pushed for harsh sentencing beyond the minimum 20 years against Ulbricht in order to "send a message" to other Dark Net criminals.

“Ulbricht’s conviction is the first of its kind, and his sentencing is being closely watched,” the prosecution wrote in a letter to Judge Katherine Forrest. “The Court thus has an opportunity to send a clear message to anyone tempted to follow his example that the operation of these illegal enterprises comes with severe consequences.”

Ulbricht and his defense team have pushed in the other direction, arguing that Silk Road reduced the dangers of drug use.

“In contrast to the government’s portrayal of the Silk Road website as a more dangerous version of a traditional drug marketplace, in fact the Silk Road website was in many respects the most responsible such marketplace in history, and consciously and deliberately included recognized harm-reduction measures, including access to physician counseling,” Joshua Dratel, Ulbricht's lead defense attorney, wrote to the court. “In addition, transactions on the Silk Road website were significantly safer than traditional illegal drug purchases, and included quality-control and accountability features that made purchasers substantially safer than they were when purchasing drugs in a conventional manner.”

Ulbricht also wrote a personal letter to judge Katherine Forrest in which he pleaded with her to “leave a light at the end of the tunnel” with sentencing that does not take away the rest of his life.

“I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age," Ulbricht, now 31, wrote. "Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself before I meet my maker.”

Despite Ulbricht's arrest and the turbulence experienced on the Dark Net ever since, similar black markets grew 37 percent in the last year.

Source: http://www.dailydot.com/crime/ross-ulbricht-sentencing-silk-road/

 

Its saddening to me. There is a demand for drugs. He provided a safe & discreet marketplace where users can know what they're getting.

Not sure about the hitman allegations though, if true that's prison worthy definitely.

 

I heard Ulbricht Try'd Hiring a Hitman From the Hell's Angels To Merk a Customer out on Silkroad Idk how true that it is but wouldn't doubt it he deserves Life haha.

 

Damn.. so now they got him..

 

How did they catch him?

 

Guess that's what happens when you live the high life. It all comes crashing down.

HA GET IT? LMFAO

 

I heard this, too. Supposedly, he tried to hire a hitman to get rid of a drug dealer who had obtained a list of Silk Road drug customers.

 

Yep, I read the chatlog. It is a fucking amazing read. At one point he sends $500k USD bitcoin to the fake hitman like if it was nothing.

 

It was going to happen sooner or later. I mean you have to get out while you're on top, when people get greedy that is when they fall.

 

Incredibly disappointed with the sentencing. His trial was ehh too with the amount of information that the defense was forbade from using.

They're appealing the sentence, but I think it's unlikely it'll be changed.

 

thats life, idk why people get addicted to these drugs, knowing it will land them in a coffin or jail.

 

1. He wasn't a drug addict, he created silk road and allegedly ran it until it was shut down (note: he was found guilty of running it.)

Regarding addiction:
It's easy to say "why would people do that" when you're not in their situation.

 

Are you even sure who Ross Ulbricht is?

 

Where did you read the chatlog? I'm interested in reading it. Tried using Google, but I didn't find it.

 

If he didn't try to hire hitmen (all hitmen on the internet are scammers or cops), I'd have sympathy for him.

 

Didn't read the court case in detail, was he actually convicted of that?

Because if not the sentence is inexcusable. And even if he was life in prison for unsuccessfully trying to hire a hitman? People go to prison for less time for straight up murder.

 

There were two federal employees that were stealing from DPR/Users/SilkRoad/along those lines. This was found out after the case had been tried, but the individuals stole a few $100,000 leading to DPR to suspect a specific staff member (whom was working with authorities.) He ordered a hit on that guy, due to some individuals in the government trying to steal some money.
Note: Not a justification, but explaining the circumstances.

If my memory serves right, DPR actually hired two hitmen, the first being a claim of his, but not substantiated by any proof. The second, being the aforementioned one.

I still think it is possible Ross was a fall guy. It is plenty possible to plant such materials on a computer, the live IM conversation, all of it. In all likliehood this is not the case, and Ross is DPR; either way, I do not think he deserve a life sentence at any rate.

Also:

"Ulbricht was convicted in February of all seven counts including trafficking drugs on the internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, running a continuing criminal enterprise, computer-hacking conspiracy, and money-laundering conspiracy."

So no. Even if he was, the hit didn't go through and attempted murder does not carry a life sentence (I think it is more like 10-15, but depends on federal level and then state laws depending on where you're going to trial.)


If anyone is interested in the actual trial:
http://www.forbes.com/silk-road-trial/

 

Yeah fair enough he wasn't convicted on charges related to the hitmen. However the judge did note that there was, "powerful evidence presented to us that the defendant has attempted to secure the murders of a number of people," during his bail hearing. It could be that the issue just went into the money laundering charge.

 

SR founder is crazy :S

 

that's pretty harsh,

silkroad was safer than buying the drugs on the streets i heard