Ross Ulbricht has formally been behind bars for ten years, a grim milestone for the Silk Highway founder who’s serving a double life sentence — plus 40 years — with out parole.
His X account, up to date along with his fiancée’s assist, reminded the world of his conviction with a Sunday night put up.
“I generally concern I’ll spend the remainder of my life behind concrete partitions and locked doorways. However I’ve nobody else accountable. It’s my poor selections that led me right here,” the put up learn. “All I can do now could be pray for mercy.”
Ulbricht, now 39, created the Silk Highway on-line market, named for the traditional Eurasian commerce route, again in 2011. Modeling itself after eBay, Silk Highway provided customers the power to transact anonymously with each other utilizing bitcoin.
The positioning, which was accessible via Tor, facilitated gross sales totaling 9.5 million bitcoin (valued at $1.2 billion on the time of transaction) from February 2011 to July 2013, in response to a 2013 FBI felony grievance towards Ulbricht.
Ulbricht considered himself as an “idealistic libertarian” and a passionate advocate free of charge markets. He alleges that ideology impressed him to create an internet market based mostly on the non-aggression precept. It could enable customers to purchase and promote something they desired, even when the gadgets could be dangerous to the customer, as long as no third celebration was harmed within the course of. Ulbricht claims that the positioning labored to ban quite a few gadgets falling exterior of this standards, together with youngster pornography, acts of violence-for-hire, stolen property, and something used to “hurt or defraud” others.
Learn extra: DOJ will get Silk Highway cash price $305M caught in Bitcoin mempool
However fairly than changing into a hub for the free and nameless sale of books, artwork, clothes and electronics — the sorts of things Ulbricht claims he meant the positioning to be for — Silk Highway turned synonymous with the unlawful drug commerce.
US authorities shut down Silk Highway in October 2013, and the FBI arrested Ulbricht on Oct. 1, 2013. The federal government additionally seized 144,336 BTC, price about $30 million on the time.
Ulbricht was later convicted of drug trafficking, pc hacking and cash laundering in February 2015. He was sentenced to life in jail on Could 29, 2015.
“Ross has expressed heartfelt regret for creating Silk Highway and accepts duty for the error he made. Though he by no means meant hurt, he has realized how even well-meaning and idealistic actions can have unintended penalties,” a weblog put up on freeross.org acknowledged.
The remorseful tone that Ulbricht has struck has, at instances, been shared by Sam Bankman-Fried — whose trial is about to start Tuesday, days after Ulbricht’s tenth yr of incarceration. The 2 share further commonalities.
Learn extra: US authorities dumps bitcoin stolen from Silk Highway, $1.2B to go
Each have been main figures within the crypto area, although Ulbricht was concerned at a time when bitcoin was far more underneath the radar. Whereas they have been within the public eye, each Bankman-Fried and Ulbricht have been younger, idealistic and have been in the end accused of some related crimes, together with cash laundering.
Notably, there isn’t any equal motion behind the previous chief of FTX to free him from jail or to drop the costs towards him like there’s with Ulbricht. A Change.org petition requesting clemency for the Silk Highway founder has garnered over half 1,000,000 signatures.
Whereas Ulbricht was initially accused by the US authorities of involvement in a number of sensational and violent crimes, together with a murder-for-hire plot, he was by no means formally charged with any violent crimes in court docket.
Ulbricht claims these allegations are false and that he by no means deliberate successful towards anybody. Prosecutors went on the report in 2013 saying they believed not one of the alleged killings transpired.
There have additionally been complaints that Ulbricht’s sentence is disproportionate when in comparison with others concerned with Silk Highway and subsequent “darknet” marketplaces.
For instance, Cornelis Jan “SuperTrips” Slomp, who made a reputation for himself as essentially the most prolific drug seller on Silk Highway, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail in Could 2015. In 2021, he was granted a compassionate launch because of Covid-19 almost six years into his sentence, in response to Vice.
The 2 males who tried to resurrect Silk Highway — Blake Benthall and Thomas White — additionally obtained a lot lighter scrutiny than Ulbricht. White was sentenced to over 5 years in jail by UK authorities in 2019 for his function in working Silk Highway 2.0. Benthall was charged in November 2014 however is believed to have prevented jail time over Silk Highway 2.0 because of a responsible plea that requires him to cooperate with legislation enforcement.
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