Ross Ulbricht – To Walk The Plank
Ross Ulbricht has been officially confirmed as the”Dread Pirate Roberts.” and found guilty by a jury of his peers for running the notorious Silk Road black market place website.
It took less then a month after his trial began in a Manhattan, New York courtroom and just over three hours for the jury to comeback with its decision. Ulbricht was found guilty on all seven counts he was charged with which included the ever infamous “Kingpin” charge that’s normally reserved for Mafia bosses.
Joshua Dratel, Ulbricht’s attorney, said evidence proved his client was not “Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht quit Silk Road when it became overrun by drug dealers.” He said.
Ulbricht built an underground online empire with his silk road market place generating millions in sales of illegal drugs and weapons using mostly bitcoin currency. Within a year he was paying off or hiring “Hells Angels” to kill online blackmailers that threatened to out his existence and market place.
From AP: “U.S. Attorney Serrin Turner said Ulbricht operated the site from beginning to end and was willing to do anything to protect it. He cited emails that he said showed Ulbricht was willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill as many as five people he thought were threats to his operation.”
Sentencing is scheduled for May 15. If convicted, Ulbricht could spend life in prison. He also awaits trial in Baltimore in a murder-to-hire plot.
For more on this story: Ulbricht Convicted of All 7 Charges