Creator Silk Road sentenced to life imprisonment

Ross Ulbricht / photo by Yoni Heisler

Ross Ulbricht, the creator and administrator of the notorious Silk Road site, was sentenced by a court to life imprisonment yesterday. The minimum time he could count on as a major drug dealer was 20 years.

But he was found guilty on seven counts, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
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In addition to the site, Ulbricht is accused of trying to hire a killer to "remove" one of his employees, whom Ulbricht suspected of stealing store funds. But the "bounty hunter" turned out to be an FBI agent. This charge will still be considered by the court.

The prosecution immediately insisted on a long term, being convinced that the accused did not "show an understanding of responsibility and remorse for what he had done." From Ulbricht they needed to make an edifying example. As a result, the term appointed by the judge even exceeded the expectations of the prosecution.

It is known that Ulbricht wrote a long letter to the judge , and also took the floor for 20 minutes in court, asking the judge not to take away from him, along with his mid-life, also her ending.

The Silk Road site operated from 2011 to 2013 as a hidden service to Tor. 70% of the goods presented in the store were various narcotic substances. The site was known for the fact that it was forbidden to sell some things on it - including child pornography, stolen credit cards, weapons and services of assassins. During the work through the site passed in more than $ 1.2 billion (in terms of the rate of bitcoins). Site commission was about $ 80 million.

After the FBI agents uncovered the identity of the owner of the site and closed the service, Silk Road 2.0 appeared on the network, managed by former Ulbricht assistants. But it was quickly closed within the framework of the Onymous operation , during which agents confiscated the server equipment of several pirated sites.

Ulbricht’s defense said she would appeal. The 31-year-old entrepreneur has a mother who promised not to stop fighting for her son.