Ross Ulbricht, the 31-year-old creator of the internet marketplace Silk Road, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a Manhattan judge.
Silk Road, an anonymous internet marketplace known for selling illegal narcotics and forged documents, launched in 2011. Buyers paid sellers using Bitcoin, and more than a million drug deals were done before the FBI shut it down in 2013.
Ulbright was arrested in a public library in San Francisco in October 2013, and in February this year, was convicted on seven felony charges, relating to money laundering and narcotics.
He was also convicted of “engagement in a continuing criminal enterprise”, a charge on the Tony Soprano level, usually reserved for the bosses of organised crime syndicates.
Prosecutors had alleged that Ulbricht, who went by the name Dread Pirate Roberts, sought to solicit murders for hire, although no charges were brought in relation to this.
The parents of people who overdosed on drugs purchased via Silk Road spoke at Ulbricht’s sentencing hearing, and he reportedly wept saying, “I never wanted that to happen, I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path.”
Ulbricht knew that a harsh sentence was coming his way, and begged Judge Katherine Forrest to grant him a sentence that would see him freed from prison when he reached old age.
“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 in the free world before I meet my maker,” he said.
Judge Forrest was not swayed by any of this, and rejected his pleas for mercy, handing down the toughest terms possible as she noted that “the stated purpose [of Silk Road] was to be above the law.”
Ulbricht was also ordered to pay $183 million to the US government.
Wired wrote an extensive, two-part investigative piece into the rise and fall of Silk Road, which is definitely worth reading if you’re curious.
via The Guardian
Image via The Guardian
