Biography:Ross Ulbricht

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Short description: American founder of the Silk Road website
Ross Ulbricht
File:Ross Ulbricht passport photo.jpg
Ulbricht's 2012 passport photo
Born
Ross William Ulbricht

(1984-03-27) March 27, 1984 (age 40)[1]
Austin, Texas , U.S.
Other namesSilk Road Admin, SR Admin, Dread Pirate Roberts, DPR, Frosty, Altoid
Alma materUniversity of Texas at Dallas (BS)
Pennsylvania State University (MS)
OccupationDarknet market operator
Years activeFebruary 2011 – October 2013
Known forCreator of Silk Road
Conviction(s)
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus $183,961,921 fine (May 29, 2015)
Date apprehended
October 1, 2013
Imprisoned atUnited States Penitentiary, Tucson[3]
Websitefreeross.org

Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American serving life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013.[4] The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal products and services.[5][6] Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts", after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.

In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and Silk Road was taken offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.[7][8] He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht's appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.[9][10][11] He is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson.[12]

Early life and education

Ulbricht grew up in Austin, Texas . He was a Boy Scout,[13] attaining the rank of Eagle Scout.[14] He attended West Ridge Middle School[15] and Westlake High School both near Austin, graduating from high school in 2002.[16]

Ulbricht attended the University of Texas at Dallas on a full academic scholarship[14] and graduated in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in physics.[16] Ulbricht received an additional scholarship to attend Pennsylvania State University, where he was in a master's degree program in materials science and engineering and studied crystallography.[15] By the time Ulbricht graduated, he had become interested in libertarian economic theory and adhered to the political philosophy of Ludwig von Mises, supported Ron Paul, promoted agorism and participated in college debates to discuss his economic views.[15][17][18] Ulbricht graduated from Penn State in 2009 and returned to Austin. He tried day trading and started a video game company but both ventures failed.[15] He eventually partnered with his friend Donny Palmertree to help build an online used book seller, Good Wagon Books.[15]

Silk Road

Creation and operation of Silk Road

Palmertree, cofounder of Good Wagon Books, eventually moved to Dallas, leaving Ulbricht to run the bookseller by himself. Around this time, Ulbricht began planning Silk Road (initially called Underground Brokers).[19] In his personal diary, he outlined his idea for a website "where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could lead back to them."[19] Ulbricht's ex-girlfriend said, "I remember when he had the idea ... He said something about ... the Silk Road in Asia ... and what a big network it was ... And that's what he wanted to create, so he thought it was the perfect name."[20] Ulbricht alluded to Silk Road on his public LinkedIn page, where he discussed his wish to "use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind" and claimed, "I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force."[17]

Silk Road ran as an onion service on the Tor network, which implements data encryption and routes traffic through intermediary servers to anonymize the source and destination Internet Protocol addresses. By hosting his market as a Tor site, Ulbricht could conceal the server's IP address and thus its location.[5][6] Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, was used for transactions on the site. While all bitcoin transactions were recorded in a public ledger called the blockchain, users who avoided linking their legal names to their cryptocurrency wallets were able to conduct transactions with considerable anonymity.[21][22] Ulbricht used the "Dread Pirate Roberts" username for Silk Road, although it is disputed whether only he used that account.[23][24] He attributed his inspiration for creating the Silk Road marketplace to the novel Alongside Night and the works of Samuel Edward Konkin III.[18]

Arrest

The Glen Park branch of the San Francisco Public Library, where Ulbricht was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Law enforcement broke Silk Road's cover in a number of ways. A drug agency investigator infiltrated the site and became an admin, thereby gaining inside information about the site operations, and finding Ulbricht's chats showed Pacific time, narrowing down his likely location.[25] Law enforcement seized a Silk Road server in Iceland[26][27] and gained a trove of chat logs, further enriching their knowledge.[28][unreliable source?] Ulbricht was connected to "Dread Pirate Roberts" by Gary Alford, an Internal Revenue Service investigator working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on the Silk Road case, in mid-2013.[29][30] The connection was made by linking the username "altoid", used during Silk Road's early days to announce the website, and a forum post in which Ulbricht, posting under the nickname "altoid", asked for programming help and gave his email address, which contained his full name.[29] On October 1, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Ulbricht at the Glen Park branch of the San Francisco Public Library and accused him of being the "mastermind" behind the site.[31][32][33]

To prevent Ulbricht from encrypting or deleting files on the laptop he was using to run the site as he was arrested, two agents pretended to be quarreling lovers. When they had sufficiently distracted him,[34] according to Joshuah Bearman of Wired, they quickly moved in to arrest him while a third agent grabbed the laptop and handed it to agent Thomas Kiernan.[35] Kiernan then inserted a flash drive into one of the laptop's USB ports, with software that copied key files.[34]

Ulbricht was ordered held without bail.[33]

Trial

Image placed on Silk Road after seizure by the FBI

On February 4, 2014, Ulbricht was charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.[36] On August 21, 2014, a superseding indictment added three additional charges.[37] On February 4, 2015, Ulbricht was convicted on all counts after a jury trial that had taken place in January 2015.[38] On May 29, 2015, he was sentenced to double life imprisonment plus 40 years, without the possibility of parole. Ulbricht was also ordered to pay about $183 million in restitution, based on the total sales of illegal drugs and counterfeit IDs through Silk Road.[39][40][41]

Murder-for-hire allegations

Federal prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht had paid $730,000 in murder-for-hire deals targeting at least five people,[33] allegedly because they threatened to reveal the Silk Road enterprise.[42][43] Prosecutors believe no contracted killing actually occurred.[33] Ulbricht was not charged in his trial in New York federal court with murder for hire[33][44] but evidence was introduced at trial supporting the allegations.[33][45] The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht did commission the murders.[46] The evidence that Ulbricht had commissioned murders was considered by the judge in sentencing Ulbricht to life and was a factor in the Second Circuit's decision to uphold the sentence.[45]

Ulbricht was separately indicted in federal court in Maryland on a single murder-for-hire charge, alleging that he contracted to kill one of his employees (a former Silk Road moderator).[47] Prosecutors moved to drop this indictment after his New York conviction and sentence became final.[48][49]

Attempts to reverse the trial outcome

Appeal

File:2nd Cir. oral argument. 15-1815 US v Ulbricht - audio extracted.ogg Ulbricht appealed his conviction and sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in January 2016, claiming that the prosecution illegally withheld evidence of DEA agents' malfeasance in the investigation of Silk Road, of which two agents were convicted.[50] Ulbricht also argued his sentence was too harsh.[51] Oral arguments were heard in October 2016,[52][45][53] and the Second Circuit issued its decision in May 2017, upholding Ulbricht's conviction and sentence in an opinion by Judge Gerard E. Lynch.[45] In a 139-page opinion,[45][54] the court affirmed the district court's denial of Ulbricht's motion to suppress certain evidence, affirmed the district court's decisions on discovery and the admission of expert testimony, and rejected Ulbricht's argument that a life sentence was procedurally or substantively unreasonable.[45][53]

In December 2017, Ulbricht filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, asking the Court to hear his appeal on evidentiary and sentencing issues.[55][56] Ulbricht's petition asked whether the warrantless seizure of an individual's internet traffic information, without probable cause, violated the Fourth Amendment, and whether the Sixth Amendment permits judges to find facts necessary to support an otherwise unreasonable sentence.[57] Twenty-one amici filed five amicus curiae briefs in support of Ulbricht, including the National Lawyers Guild, American Black Cross, Reason Foundation, Drug Policy Alliance, and Downsize DC Foundation.[58] The U.S. government filed a response in opposition to Ulbricht's petition.[58][59] On June 28, 2018, the Supreme Court denied the petition, declining to consider Ulbricht's appeal.[60]

Plea deal

In a 2020 Vanity Fair article Nick Bilton claimed that Ulbricht had rejected a plea deal that would have potentially given Ulbricht a decade-long sentence. Bilton writes "According to more than a dozen investigators and attorneys involved in the case who I spoke to for the book, Ulbricht’s sentence could have been a lot less severe..."[61] Assistant US Attorney Timothy Howard, who was co-responsible for prosecuting the case, testified that "...no such plea offer was ever extended to Ross William Ulbricht, or conveyed to his then-counsel..." before Ulbricht's indictment. Howard stated that a plea deal with a mandatory minimum of 10 years was, "...discussed at the final pretrial conference on December 17, 2014...", but that the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was strongly recommended based on the sentencing guideline.[62]

After the conviction

Incarceration

During his trial, Ulbricht was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.[63] Starting in July 2017, he was held at USP Florence High.[64] His mother, Lyn, moved to Colorado so she could visit him regularly.[65] Ulbricht has since been transferred to USP Tucson.[66][67]

Restitution paid from seized assets

In 2021, Ulbricht's prosecutors and defense agreed that Ulbricht would relinquish any ownership of a newly discovered fund of 50,676 Bitcoin (worth nearly $3.4 billion in 2021) seized from a hacker in November 2021.[68] The Bitcoins had been stolen from Silk Road in 2013. Ulbricht had been unsuccessful in getting them back. The U.S. government traced and seized the stolen bitcoin. Ulbricht and the government agreed the fund would be used to pay off Ulbricht's $183 million debt in his criminal case, while the Department of Justice would take custody of the bitcoins.[69][70]

Documentaries and films

Deep Web is a 2015 documentary film chronicling events surrounding Silk Road, bitcoin, and the politics of the dark web, including Ulbricht's trial. Silk Road—Drugs, Death and the Dark Web is a documentary covering the FBI operation to track down Ulbricht and close Silk Road. The documentary was shown on UK television in 2017 in the BBC Storyville documentary series.[71]

The film Silk Road was released on February 19, 2021. Directed by Tiller Russell, it follows Ulbricht's creation of the website and the FBI and DEA investigations. Ulbricht is portrayed by American actor Nick Robinson.[72]

NFT sale

Ulbricht's family raised money for efforts to release him from jail via the decentralized autonomous organization FreeRossDAO, which accepted donations from the public. In December 2021 the family auctioned a collection of his writings and artwork as an NFT, which FreeRossDAO bought for 1,442 Ethereum, worth about $6.27 million at the time.[73][66]

Calls for commutation

Ulbricht's conviction became a cause célèbre in libertarian circles. In May 2022, Congressman Thomas Massie called for a commutation of Ulbricht's conviction.[74] The libertarian-oriented Reason Foundation attempted to raise funds, citing Ulbricht's case[75] without taking any legal action, and 2020 Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen made a campaign pledge to pardon Ulbricht.[76]

See also

  • Variety Jones and Smedley: pseudonyms of people reported to have been closely involved with Silk Road's founding
  • USBKill: kill-switch software created in response to the circumstances of Ulbricht's arrest
  • Kevin Mitnick

References

  1. ↑ Ulbricht, Ross [@RealRossU] (March 28, 2022). "I turned 38 yesterday" (in en). https://twitter.com/RealRossU/status/1508504339714875392. 
  2. ↑ "Ross Ulbricht, A/K/A "Dread Pirate Roberts," Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To Life In Prison". May 29, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ross-ulbricht-aka-dread-pirate-roberts-sentenced-manhattan-federal-court-life-prison. 
  3. ↑ "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator". United States Department of Justice. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/. "BOP Register Number: 18870-111" 
  4. ↑ Raymond, Nate (February 4, 2015). "Accused Silk Road operator convicted on U.S. drug charges". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-bitcoin-trial-idUSKBN0L82H920150205. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mullin, Joe (May 29, 2015). "Sunk: How Ross Ulbricht ended up in prison for life". Condé Nast. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/05/sunk-how-ross-ulbricht-ended-up-in-prison-for-life/1/. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Leger, Donna Leinwand (May 15, 2014). "How FBI brought down cyber-underworld site Silk Road". USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/21/fbi-cracks-silk-road/2984921/. 
  7. ↑ "Jury Verdict". Docket Alarm. https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/New_York_Southern_District_Court/1--14-cr-00068/USA_v._Ulbricht/183/. 
  8. ↑ "Ross Ulbricht, The Creator And Owner Of The "Silk Road" Website, Found Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court On All Counts" (in en). 2015-05-13. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ross-ulbricht-creator-and-owner-silk-road-website-found-guilty-manhattan-federal-court. 
  9. ↑ "Silk Road founder loses his appeal, will serve a life sentence for online crimes". Techcrunch.com. May 31, 2017. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/ross-ulbricht-silk-road-appeal-denied/. 
  10. ↑ "Certiorari Denied". Supreme Court of the United States. p. 5. https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/062818zr_k425.pdf. 
  11. ↑ "Judgment in a Criminal Case (Sentencing)". Docket Alarm. https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/New_York_Southern_District_Court/1--14-cr-00068/USA_v._Ulbricht/269/. 
  12. ↑ "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator". United States Department of Justice. https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc/. "Register Number: 18870-111" 
  13. ↑ "Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht: Drug 'kingpin' or 'idealistic' Boy Scout? " CNN/Money. May 28, 2015. Retrieved on June 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Segal, David. "Eagle Scout. Idealist. Drug Trafficker? " The New York Times . January 18, 2014. Retrieved on June 10, 2015.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 "The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 1". Wired. April 2015. https://www.wired.com/2015/04/silk-road-1/. Retrieved June 9, 2015. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Man with Austin ties charged with running vast underground drugs website" (Archive). Austin American-Statesman. October 2, 2013. Retrieved on June 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Dewey, Caitlin. "Everything we know about Ross Ulbricht, the outdoorsy libertarian behind Silk Road ". Washington Post. October 3, 2013. Retrieved on June 15, 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Greenburg, Andy (April 29, 2013). "Collected Quotations Of The Dread Pirate Roberts, Founder Of Underground Drug Site Silk Road And Radical Libertarian". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/04/29/collected-quotations-of-the-dread-pirate-roberts-founder-of-the-drug-site-silk-road-and-radical-libertarian/. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Mullin, Joe (January 21, 2015). ""I have secrets": Ross Ulbricht's private journal shows Silk Road's birth". https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/01/silk-road-trial-fbi-reveals-whats-on-ross-ulbrichts-computer-in-open-court/. 
  20. ↑ "Ex-girlfriend of dark web mastermind on dating a man wanted by the FBI" (in en-US). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ross-ulbricht-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road-ex-girlfriend-fbi-declassified/. 
  21. ↑ Popper, Nathaniel (May 24, 2015). ""We are up to something big": Silk Road discovers Bitcoin". Salon. http://www.salon.com/2015/05/24/we_are_up_to_something_big_silk_road_discovers_bitcoin/. 
  22. ↑ Pagliery, Jose (February 5, 2015). "Bitcoin fallacy led to Silk Road founder's conviction". CNN Money. https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/05/technology/security/bitcoin-silk-road/. 
  23. ↑ Greenburg, Andy (February 9, 2015). "Ross Ulbricht Didn't Create Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts. This Guy Did". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/02/ross-ulbricht-didnt-create-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-guy/. Retrieved May 5, 2018. 
  24. ↑ Koebler, Jason (December 1, 2016). "Someone Accessed Silk Road Operator's Account While Ross Ulbricht Was in Jail". Motherboard. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkjm4m/someone-accessed-dread-pirate-roberts-silk-road-operators-account-while-ross-ulbricht-was-in-jail. 
  25. ↑ Corfield, Gareth. "I helped catch Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht: Undercover agent tells all" (in en). https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/29/how_i_caught_silk_road_mastermind/. 
  26. ↑ McAleenan, Trevor (November 7, 2022). "U.S. v. Ross Ulbricht S1 14 Cr. 68 (LGS), exhibit 5: affidavit in support of government's forfeiture motion". https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1549821/download. 
  27. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (September 5, 2014). "The FBI Finally Says How It 'Legally' Pinpointed Silk Road's Server". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/09/the-fbi-finally-says-how-it-legally-pinpointed-silk-roads-server/. Retrieved 2022-11-28. 
  28. ↑ "Chris Tarbell: FBI Agent Who Took Down Silk Road | Lex Fridman Podcast #340". https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4KiO8GRgwDk&feature=youtu.be. 
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Popper, Nathaniel (December 25, 2015). "The Tax Sleuth Who Took Down a Drug Lord". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/dealbook/the-unsung-tax-agent-who-put-a-face-on-the-silk-road.html. 
  30. ↑ "Silk Road: Google search unmasked Dread Pirate Roberts". BBC News. August 19, 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-40977474/silk-road-google-search-unmasked-dread-pirate-roberts. 
  31. ↑ "Dark net marketplace Silk Road 'back online'". BBC. November 6, 2013. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24842410. 
  32. ↑ Mac, Ryan (October 2, 2013). "Who Is Ross Ulbricht? Piecing Together The Life Of The Alleged Libertarian Mastermind Behind Silk Road [Page 2"]. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2013/10/02/who-is-ross-ulbricht-piecing-together-the-life-of-the-alleged-libertarian-mastermind-behind-silk-road/2/. 
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 "Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht denied bail". The Guardian. November 21, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/21/silk-road-founder-held-without-bail. 
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Bertrand, Natasha (May 29, 2015). "The FBI staged a lovers' fight to catch the kingpin of the web's biggest illegal drug marketplace". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/ross-ulbricht-will-be-sentenced-soon--heres-how-he-was-arrested-2015-5. 
  35. ↑ "Trial Transcript, Day 2, page 856". January 21, 2015. https://freeross.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Day_5-2015_Jan_21_Trial_780-1030.pdf#page=77. 
  36. ↑ "Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces The Indictment Of Ross Ulbricht, The Creator And Owner Of The "Silk Road" Website" (in en). 2015-05-13. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-ross-ulbricht-creator-and-owner-silk-road. 
  37. ↑ "Ross Ulbricht Indictment". U.S District Court Southern District of New York. February 4, 2014. https://freeross.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ross_Ulbricht_superseding_indictment_8-21-2014.pdf. 
  38. ↑ "Accused Silk Road Operator Ross Ulbricht Convicted on All Counts". NBC News. February 4, 2015. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/accused-silk-road-operator-ross-ulbricht-convicted-all-counts-n299606. 
  39. ↑ Thielman, Sam (May 29, 2015). "Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison". https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/29/silk-road-ross-ulbricht-sentenced. 
  40. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (May 29, 2015). "Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/2015/05/silk-road-creator-ross-ulbricht-sentenced-life-prison/. Retrieved 2022-10-24. 
  41. ↑ "Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, sentenced to life in federal prison for creating, operating 'Silk Road' website" (Press release). U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. May 29, 2015.
  42. ↑ "Silk Road Drug Vendor Who Claimed To Commit Murders-For-Hire For Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Charged With Narcotics And Money Laundering Conspiracies" (Press release). United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. May 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  43. ↑ Klasfeld, Alan (January 29, 2015). "Silk Road Murder Threat Shown as Case Nears End". Courthouse News Service. https://www.courthousenews.com/silk-road-murder-threat-shown-as-case-nears-end/. "Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is not charged with murder for hire in his New York trial, but federal prosecutors have long accused him of hiring a hit-man to kill those who threatened his underground online drug empire. Minutes before the second week of Ulbricht's trial ended on Thursday, a jury saw email records supporting this allegation." 
  44. ↑ Patrick Howell O'Neill (October 22, 2014). "The mystery of the disappearing Silk Road murder charges". http://www.dailydot.com/crime/silk-road-murder-charges-ross-ulbricht/. 
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 45.4 45.5 Andy Greenberg (May 31, 2017). "Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Loses His Life Sentence Appeal". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2017/05/silk-road-creator-ross-ulbricht-loses-life-sentence-appeal/. Retrieved August 19, 2020. 
  46. ↑ United States of America v. Ulbricht, 15-1815-cr, pg 33 (2d Cir. May 31st, 2017) ("For example, because Ulbricht contested his responsibility for the five commissioned murders for hire, the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht did in fact commission the murders, believing that they would be carried out.").
  47. ↑ Joseph Cox, 'Murdered' Silk Road Employee Sentenced to Time Served , Vice (January 26, 2016).
  48. ↑ Doherty, Brian (July 25, 2018). "Ross Ulbricht's Murder-for-Hire Charges Dropped by U.S. Attorney". https://reason.com/2018/07/25/ross-ulbrichts-murder-for-hire-charges-d/. 
  49. ↑ United States District Court for the District of Maryland. "Motion to Dismiss Indictment and Superseding Indictment". https://freeross.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Doc_14_Dismissal_Indictment_7-26-2018.pdf/. 
  50. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (January 12, 2016). "In Silk Road Appeal, Ross Ulbricht's Defense Focuses on Corrupt Feds". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2016/01/ross-ulbrichts-defense-focuses-on-corrupt-feds-in-silk-road-appeal/. Retrieved January 13, 2016. 
  51. ↑ Stempel, Jonathan (May 31, 2017). "Silk Road website founder loses appeal of conviction, life sentence". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-silkroad-idUSKBN18R23A. 
  52. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (October 6, 2016). "Judges Question Ross Ulbricht's Life Sentence in Silk Road Appeal". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2016/10/judges-question-ulbrichts-life-sentence-silk-road-appeal/. Retrieved October 15, 2016. 
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 United States v. Ulbricht , 858 F.3d 71 (2d. Cir. 2017)
  54. ↑ Cassye M. Cole & Harry Sandick, A Long Journey Through "Silk Road" Appeal: Second Circuit Affirms Conviction and Life Sentence of Silk Road Mastermind , Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, Lexology (June 8, 2017): "At trial, the government presented evidence that Ulbricht conspired to engage in multiple murders for hire to protect Silk Road's anonymity. Ulbricht was not charged with these offenses. ... At sentencing, in its Pre-Sentence Investigation Report, the U.S. Probation Office referenced the five commissioned murders, as well as six drug-related deaths connected with Silk Road. On May 29, 2015, the district court sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison, pursuant to the guidelines advisory sentence range, and based on the recommendation of the U.S. Probation Office. ... While the Court recognized that a life sentence for selling drugs was rare and could be considered harsh, the facts of this case involved much more than routine drug dealings—namely that Ulbricht commissioned at least five murders for hire and did not challenge those murders on appeal."
  55. ↑ "The Supreme Court is Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht's last hope" (in en). VICE News. https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/kzn7a9/the-supreme-court-is-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbrichts-last-hope. 
  56. ↑ Ulbricht, Ross (December 22, 2017). "Ulbricht v. U.S.". https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-950/24860/20171222095855755_Ulbricht%20cert%20petition.pdf. 
  57. ↑ Ulbricht, Ross (December 22, 2017). "Ulbricht v. U.S.". https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-950/24860/20171222095855755_Ulbricht%20cert%20petition.pdf. 
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 "Ulbricht v. United States" (in en-US). SCOTUSblog. http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/ulbricht-v-united-states/. 
  59. ↑ Francisco, Noel (March 7, 2018). "Ulbricht v. U.S.". https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-950/38031/20180307141700560_17-950%20Ulbricht%20FINAL.pdf. 
  60. ↑ "U.S. Supreme Court turns away Silk Road website founder's appeal" (in en-US). Reuters. June 28, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-silkroad/us-supreme-court-turns-away-silk-road-website-founders-appeal-idUSKBN1JO1YX. 
  61. ↑ Bilton, Nick (December 18, 2020). "'You Are a Criminal': The Double Standard of a Trump Pardon for Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht.". Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/the-double-standard-of-a-trump-pardon-for-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht. Retrieved December 20, 2020. 
  62. ↑ "AFFIDAVIT of AUSA Timothy T. Howard". U.S. District Court, S.D. New York. 9 April 2021. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16044166/38/ulbricht-v-united-states/. 
  63. ↑ Bilton, Nick (2017). American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road. Portfolio/Penguin. p. 300. ISBN 9781591848141. 
  64. ↑ "Ross Ulbricht Loses His Appeal. Here's What Happens Next.". Corbett Report. https://www.bitchute.com/video/F1Ka0MDu9mE/. 
  65. ↑ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (July 2018). "Ross Ulbricht Is Serving a Double Life Sentence". https://reason.com/archives/2018/05/31/ross-ulbricht-is-serving-a-dou. 
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Mak, Aaron (2022-01-25) (in en). The Crypto Obsessives Trying to Save a Notorious Internet Criminal From Prison. https://slate.com/technology/2022/01/ross-ulbricht-dao-silk-road-prison.html. Retrieved 2022-01-25. 
  67. ↑ Ulbricht, Lyn. "Trump's visit to Phoenix gives people hope. Mine is he commutes my son's life sentence" (in en-US). https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2020/02/19/trump-prison-reform-ross-ulbricht-commute-silk-road-sentence/4763198002/. 
  68. ↑ Ramey, Corinne (7 November 2022). "Justice Department Announces Seizure of Bitcoin Once Valued at $3.36 Billion". Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-announces-seizure-of-3-36-billion-in-bitcoin-11667845419?. 
  69. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (April 22, 2022). "A $3 Billion Silk Road Seizure Will Erase Ross Ulbricht's Debt" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/silk-road-ross-ulbricht-debt-bitcoin-siezure/. Retrieved 2022-10-23. 
  70. ↑ Smith, Andrew (2022-04-24). "Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht To Forfeit $3 billion worth of BTC To The US Government" (in en-US). https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/04/24/silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht-to-forfeit-3-billion-worth-of-btc-to-the-us-government/. 
  71. ↑ Gibbings-Jones, Mark (21 Aug 2017). "Monday's best TV: Storyville: Silk Road – Drugs, Death and the Dark Web". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/reality-check/2017/aug/21/silk-road-documentary-streetmate. 
  72. ↑ Dujsik, Mark. "Silk Road". RogerEbert.com. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/silk-road-movie-review-2021. 
  73. ↑ "NFT of Silk Road founder's art sells for more than $6 million" (in en). https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/nft-silk-road-founders-art-sells-6-million-rcna8369. 
  74. ↑ Nino, Jose (May 24, 2022). "Thomas Massie Calls for the Biden Administration to Grant Ross Ulbricht Clemency". https://libertyconservativenews.com/thomas-massie-calls-for-the-biden-administration-to-grant-ross-ulbricht-clemency/. 
  75. ↑ Welch, Matt (December 4, 2018). "Help Reason Fight for the Unjustly Imprisoned". https://reason.com/2018/12/04/help-reason-fight-for-the-unjustly-impri/. 
  76. ↑ "Libertarian Jo Jorgensen Talks About Ross Ulbricht". Nov 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F9BntDyk3g&ab_channel=NicholasShankin. 

Further reading



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