US Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht - He actually fulfilled his promise

Link https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o
Archive https://archive.ph/EtxaB

Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht
BBC

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had called Ulbricht's mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son.

Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using the virtual currency Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me," Trump said in his post online. "He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!"

During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht's website, hosted on the hidden "dark web", sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously.

The Silk Road took its name from the historic trade routes spanning Europe, Asia and parts of Africa.

The site achieved notoriety through media reports and online chatter. But users could only access the site through Tor - a system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in.

Court documents from the FBI said the site had just under a million registered users, but investigators said they did not know how many were active.

Sentencing Ulbricht - who has two college degrees - District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was "no better a person than any other drug dealer".

She said the site had been his "carefully planned life's work".

The judge noted the lengthy sentence also acted as a message to copycats that there would be "very serious consequences".

"I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity," Ulbricht said at his sentencing hearing in May 2015.

Trump previously teased he planned to commute Ulbricht's sentence during a May speech at the Libertarian National Convention.

The Libertarian party had been advocating for Ulbricht's release and said his case was an example of government overreach.

 

[Vect]

...The names familiar, but didn't Trump push for the death penalty for drug dealers? Or was this a political hit or something?

 

[Marvin]

...The names familiar, but didn't Trump push for the death penalty for drug dealers? Or was this a political hit or something?

He wasn't really a drug dealer. If it was actually him, he was more of a drug dealer dealer.

That matters to some people.

More importantly, it really seems that his prosecution was mostly an ego trip by the DoJ to prove they could break the anonymity of tor and cryptocurrency, and they wanted a prosecution, whether or not they actually had the right guy.

 

[Strix454]

...The names familiar, but didn't Trump push for the death penalty for drug dealers? Or was this a political hit or something?

He set up a supposedly anonymous marketplace accessed via TOR with all transactions done in bitcoin. The site took a cut of all transactions so in that way he was financially tied to the drug dealing.

The site was promoted as a place where anything could be sold. But the operators quickly got scared off doing alot of other different illegal things and went all-in on drugs.

The government for alot of different reasons went after them. As maybe was already said, they wanted to make an example out of someone and demonstrate that neither TOR nor bitcoin was as anonymous as some people seemed at the time to foolishly think it was.

Ross Ulbricht's trial was very much a political show-trial. They wanted to make a big deal out of him being caught and being given a massive sentence. It wasn't really as much about punishing him as it was making a big statement about privacy and anonymous activity on the internet.

Over the years, his imprisonment became more about money and the bitcoins he held. The numbers I've seen is that the total revenue generated by the Silk Road site was in the 13 million range. But in 2021, he made a deal with the government where he handed over 3.4 billion dollars in 2021-value bitcoins to the government.

He was a dumb guy who did alot of dumb things and IMO deserved to get caught and serve some time. But he has been in prison for 10 years and that was more than enough punishment for what he did. His original sentence of life without parole was excessive. I think he deserved to be released by Trump with a commutation of sentence rather than a full pardon. But it doesn't really matter much.

I mean Sam Bankman-Fried only got a 25 year sentence for something (IMO) alot worse and certainly larger financially. Its hard to justify life without parole for Ross Ulbricht.

 

[Glowing In The Streets]

Libtards be like: bbbbut it took more than 12 hours!

 

[Mettaur]

He's fulfilled more promises in a couple of days than he did for 4 years

 

[Vect]

He set up a supposedly anonymous marketplace accessed via TOR with all transactions done in bitcoin. The site took a cut of all transactions so in that way he was financially tied to the drug dealing.

The site was promoted as a place where anything could be sold. But the operators quickly got scared off doing alot of other different illegal things and went all-in on drugs.

The government for alot of different reasons went after them. As maybe was already said, they wanted to make an example out of someone and demonstrate that neither TOR nor bitcoin was as anonymous as some people seemed at the time to foolishly think it was.

Oh, I see he was an anti-regulation guy. I supposed Silk Road was a proof of concept of an open marketplace that ran hidden from government oversight. I agree that's a very tricky precedent to allow, but Trump pardoning him is at least consistent with his libertarian streak.

 

[Strix454]

Oh, I see he was an anti-regulation guy.

He was more of a Ludwig von Mises inspired economic idealist. He was inspired in part to set up silk road as a real-world instance of a "true" free market. But he was really weak in terms of following through on his political beliefs:

1) He quickly instituted policies about things which could and could not be traded on the site. He talked about a free market but ended up creating a regulated one,.
2) He organized the site around transaction taxes. This put alot of money in his hands, but it wasn't a model that lined up with his economic idealism.
3) The site quickly become dominated by drug sales. Rather than a true open market for everything, it became really narrowly focused on one type of merchandise.

The history of Silk Road is actually an interesting case study in the real-world problems of setting up idealistic free markets.

 

[mold]

This is such good news.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I mean Sam Bankman-Fried only got a 25 year sentence for something (IMO) alot worse and certainly larger financially. Its hard to justify life without parole for Ross Ulbricht.

Eh, dude was also trying to hire hitmen to deal with people who were ripping him off/damaging the site's reputation and believed he had actually gotten a hitman to commit at least one murder (one of his moderators who was compromised by the DEA, with the agent assigned to the moderator becoming dirty himself) and I think at least one other (IIRC he was communicating with a supposed Hells Angel in British Columbia to kill someone who scammed some people on Silk Road.)

He's no Tse Chi Lop, but he's pretty scummy, regardless of what his intentions were/are.

E: I'm somewhat skeptical that he was 'only' targeted because of anonymity/internet regulation stuff. If there is stuff out there covering that I would be really interested in reading on that. I feel it is more that the system he put into place enabled guys like Alaa Mohammed Allawi to make it stupid easy to distribute fentanyl and other drugs.

 

[mold]

he's not any different than a whole lot of people in a whole lot of state governments, except he's not taxing me

 

[Dead Lion]

Eh, dude was also trying to hire hitmen to deal with people who were ripping him off/damaging the site's reputation and believed he had actually gotten a hitman to commit at least one murder (one of his moderators who was compromised by the DEA, with the agent assigned to the moderator becoming dirty himself) and I think at least one other (IIRC he was communicating with a supposed Hells Angel in British Columbia to kill someone who scammed some people on Silk Road.)

He's no Tse Chi Lop, but he's pretty scummy, regardless of what his intentions were/are.

E: I'm somewhat skeptical that he was 'only' targeted because of anonymity/internet regulation stuff. If there is stuff out there covering that I would be really interested in reading on that. I feel it is more that the system he put into place enabled guys like Alaa Mohammed Allawi to make it stupid easy to distribute fentanyl and other drugs.

That was never proven in the court of law, it’s all alleged. He was convicted purely on drug offences, money laundering and hacking. All non-violent.

You shouldn’t get life for non violent offences. Most of the other people involved that actually sold drugs got single digit sentences.

 

[stupid frog]

He's fulfilled more promises in a couple of days than he did for 4 years

He knows how to play President this time.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

It's one of the cases I'm torn about, drugs are horrific though it's not like there is a shortage of dealers or avenues to buy those. Plus the people being able to use the network are probably not that far gone with their mental capacity.

Basically the punishment is BS but the guy wasn't a saint.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

I'm pretty well to the Right of Stannis Baratheon on crime and punishment but even I thought DPR's sentence was unjust. They should've just confiscated everything and given him 10 years max.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

He's fulfilled more promises in a couple of days than he did for 4 years

Yeah, now if Trump can find a way to end the Ukraine war asap and get Zelensky to GTFO.

 

[The Skeksis Emperor]

His original sentence of life without parole was excessive. I think he deserved to be released by Trump with a commutation of sentence rather than a full pardon. But it doesn't really matter much.

Yeah, I agree. There were valid reasons to go after him and valid reasons for him to serve time. But his sentence was so ridiculous and unfair I can't help but be happy that he is released now, even if it is with a pardon. Prosecutors and judges should learn from this, but they probably won't.

 

[Mettaur]

Yeah, now if Trump can find a way to end the Ukraine war asap and get Zelensky to GTFO.

he just needs to stop sending them military surplus. That'll eventually put an end to it likely before the year is out.

 

[DuckofDoom]

Eh, dude was also trying to hire hitmen to deal with people who were ripping him off/damaging the site's reputation and believed he had actually gotten a hitman to commit at least one murder (one of his moderators who was compromised by the DEA, with the agent assigned to the moderator becoming dirty himself) and I think at least one other (IIRC he was communicating with a supposed Hells Angel in British Columbia to kill someone who scammed some people on Silk Road.)

It's also important to remember that the supposed hitman stuff was all orchestrated by a FBI/DEA (can't remember which agency was involved at that point) agent who had gained Ulbricht's trust. It wasn't quite textbook entrapment, but it was damn close.

 

[Well Intentioned]

It's also important to remember that the supposed hitman stuff was all orchestrated by a FBI/DEA (can't remember which agency was involved at that point) agent who had gained Ulbricht's trust. It wasn't quite textbook entrapment, but it was damn close.

That was the instance with the moderator, and I'd disagree that it was entrapment. The other one I was talking about didn't have the dirty DEA agent involved.

That was never proven in the court of law, it’s all alleged. He was convicted purely on drug offences, money laundering and hacking. All non-violent.

I mean, we have access to the chat logs. Plus,

https://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/ULBRICHT-ca2-20170531.pdf

"At the sentencing hearing, the district court resolved several disputed issues of fact. 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. The district court characterized the evidence of the murders for hire, which included Ulbricht’s journal, chats with other Silk Road users, and the evidence showing that Ulbricht actually paid a total of $650,000 in Bitcoins for the killings, as “ample and unambiguous.” "

You shouldn’t get life for non violent offences. Most of the other people involved that actually sold drugs got single digit sentences.

The guy I linked to, Allawi, got 30 years. Ostensibly due to the volume of drugs he was manufacturing and distributing.