Post: #1

Quote:The convicted mastermind behind the world's largest online narcotics emporium has been sentenced by a federal judge to two terms of life in prison and three lesser sentences, USA Today reports.
The judge also ordered Ross Ulbricht, 31, to forfeit $184 million dollars. The website made over $187 million before it was shut down in 2013.

The government estimated that roughly $1.2 billion in illegal drug transactions took place on Silk Road.

The judge said it was a "demand expanding operation" and that what Ulbricht did was thoughtful, as opposed to just being an economic experiment. She added that he often referred to it as his life's work and a worldwide criminal enterprise.

"Silk Road was about creating demand and fulfilling demand," the judge said. "You don't fit the criminal profile" — noting that he was well educated — "but you are a criminal."

"I don't know that you feel a lot of remorse," the judge added. "I don't think you know that you hurt a lot of people."

Ulbricht’s defense team said it would seek an appeal, Wired reports, noting that two DEA agents on the case allegedly stole bitcoin used to make payments on the site.

Ulbricht's lawyer called life sentence "unreasonable, unjust, unfair."

The pained Ulbricht family outside the courthouse after life sentence in #SilkRoad trial pic.twitter.com/6zep2F7oCW

— Erica Fink (@ericafink) May 29, 2015
Ulbricht faced anywhere from 20 years to life in prison for his role in running Silk Road under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts," a reference to the cult classic "Princess Bride."

Ulbricht was convicted in February of all seven counts, including trafficking drugs on the internet, narcotics-trafficking conspiracy, running a continuing criminal enterprise, computer-hacking conspiracy, and money-laundering conspiracy, according to Bloomberg.

"I'm not the man I was when I created Silk Road," Ulbricht told the court before the sentencing. "I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path."

The guy's website grew to astounding levels, at a certain point you become so huge you're going to get noticed and caught. Life without parole seems very harsh in my opinion. But I guess its whats necessary to protect all of us from the evils of mind-altering substances. Even though the silk road and several other sites like it are still running.

Edit:

There are also questions being raised about how the servers based in Iceland and Germany were able to be seized by US authorities, which is was what eventually led to Ulbricht's arrest.

Post: #2

(05-29-2015 04:57 PM)Laurifer Wrote:  The guy's website grew to astounding levels, at a certain point you become so huge you're going to get noticed and caught. Life without parole seems very harsh in my opinion. But I guess its whats necessary to protect all of us from the evils of mind-altering substances. Even though the silk road and several other sites like it are still running.

God damn those substances! Why can't people learn to stick to alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, and all the lovely prescription candies?!

Post: #3

You get life in prison for making a website for selling drugs ? Is there more to this story ?

Post: #4

(05-29-2015 05:08 PM)LINUX Wrote:  You get life in prison for making a website for selling drugs ? Is there more to this story ?

Not really, early on when he was arrested they put a spin on the story that he had offered a hit-man $150,000 to murder an informant. None of that ever appeared in court and doesn't appear to be true. Just an attempt to demonize him.

Post: #5

(05-29-2015 05:08 PM)LINUX Wrote:  You get life in prison for making a website for selling drugs ? Is there more to this story ?

If I remember right, the website wasn't selling drugs per-say. It was a Bitcoin exchange where people could anonymously exchange money/launder money using Bitcoin.

Post: #6

(05-29-2015 05:12 PM)Onto Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 05:08 PM)LINUX Wrote:  You get life in prison for making a website for selling drugs ? Is there more to this story ?

If I remember right, the website wasn't selling drugs per-say. It was a Bitcoin exchange where people could anonymously exchange money/launder money using Bitcoin.

Exactly. It's got nothing to do with illicit substances. The war on drugs is really a war on cash.

Post: #7

well Julian Assange is wanted for a "rape" charge that basically stems from not using a condom, so what did you expect from the West/US' current corrupt legal system?

What a farce though.

Post: #8

(05-29-2015 05:53 PM)Peregrine Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 05:12 PM)Onto Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 05:08 PM)LINUX Wrote:  You get life in prison for making a website for selling drugs ? Is there more to this story ?

If I remember right, the website wasn't selling drugs per-say. It was a Bitcoin exchange where people could anonymously exchange money/launder money using Bitcoin.

Exactly. It's got nothing to do with illicit substances. The war on drugs is really a war on cash.

With the recent arrest of Dennis Hastsert for the bullshit crime of "structuring" I am inclined to agree with you. There is a war on cash in the US. You can pay your taxes, have a legal job, and be an honest man- pull out $9,999 from your bank account and the feds will come knocking on your door.

Post: #9

I find the American justice system absolutely terrifying.

Post: #10

Post: #11

(05-29-2015 06:26 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I find the American justice system absolutely terrifying.

You are supposed to.

Post: #12

Life in prison without parole? Running a website that allows people to sell whatever they want on it (and yes he made a profit).. still doesn't seem like the crime fits the punishment. Thats a prison sentence for murderers, terrorists, etc.. not a guy who was "selling drugs".

Post: #13

(05-29-2015 06:54 PM)RawGod Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 06:26 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I find the American justice system absolutely terrifying.

You are supposed to.

It's just so excessive in its punishment.

Doesn't seem to work either.

Maybe I'm just a Eurofag.

Post: #14

In this case I think the sentence is justified. The guy created a platform that supported international drug trafficking, arms sales and a whole host of other illegal trade.

The guy was also a racketeer, taking a cut of everything that was sold on his 'patch'.

Other traffickers / racketeers get similarly long sentences so this doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary.

Post: #15

The US government doesn't want its people being able to buy goods online without some sort of record.
Bit coin is highly secure.
You can literally buy anything on the dark web and bitcoin is the currency.

Post: #16

(05-29-2015 07:16 PM)007 Wrote:  In this case I think the sentence is justified. The guy created a platform that supported international drug trafficking, arms sales and a whole host of other illegal trade.

So what?
Majority of business done on there constituted victimless crimes, most of the hitman and hacker stuff was either a scam or a honeypot.

(05-29-2015 07:16 PM)007 Wrote:  The guy was also a racketeer, taking a cut of everything that was sold on his 'patch'.

By this logic I guess eBay and Amazon are engaged in massive racketeering.
How does charging people that voluntarily use your website a fee equate to racketeering?

Post: #17

The whole trial was a farce. There was secret evidence and certain "allegations" that were levied against Ross that claim he wanted to murder some people. The court didn't have any evidence though. Ulbricht's legal team couldn't cross examine certain witnesses as well!

I expect the appeals process to be a lengthy one.

Post: #18

(05-29-2015 07:38 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The whole trial was a farce. There was secret evidence and certain "allegations" that were levied against Ross that claim he wanted to murder some people. The court didn't have any evidence though. Ulbricht's legal team couldn't cross examine certain witnesses as well!

I expect the appeals process to be a lengthy one.

This. It also really doesn't help at all the Ulbricht's defense lawyer utilized a historically bad defense strategy. Compentent counsel could have almost certainly killed all of the prosecution's evidence pretrial utilizing the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. Ulbricht's lawyer Dratel though... He neglected to file the required papers necessary for anyone at all to have privacy rights on the Silk Road servers. Maybe this sort of case was new to him, but more probably Dratel just wanted to be able to bill all of those crowdfunded dollars and stretch out the case as long as possible.

Just that one missing filing early in the case could have sent this potentially as far as the Supreme Court before nearly all of the Government's evidence would have been fit for trial.

I just really don't get the reason for the Manhattan Jurisdiction other than Preet Bharara, the DOJ's king SJW wanting to eventually make a run at Attorney General.

Post: #19

(05-29-2015 07:14 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 06:54 PM)RawGod Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 06:26 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I find the American justice system absolutely terrifying.

You are supposed to.

It's just so excessive in its punishment.

Doesn't seem to work either.

Maybe I'm just a Eurofag.

Even by US standards the life in prison and nearly two hundres million in restitution is extreme. Guy actually cuts off his girlfriend's head and mounts in on a pike dude and dyke molesting a girl she was hired to care for could both live long enough to serve their sentences. Yet guy who promoted freedom a reduced risks for both customers and merchants is so irredeemable as to face a life of incarceration.

Even the goddamned Oklahoma City and Boston marathon bombers at least had the privilege of setting a date to leave prison in a coffin.

Post: #20

The sentence is so harsh because the $1.2 billion in transactions didn't go into the pockets of the people that control the drug trade. DEA and the cartels and their politicos.

Post: #21

Why isn't anyone talking about the sale of weapons via the silk road? The drug charges are minor compared to letting people buy and sell things like RPG's, Assault Rifles, and Claymore Mines.

Post: #22

(05-29-2015 06:26 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  I find the American justice system absolutely terrifying.

The U.S. justice system went full retard a long time ago. If you really want to have a heart attack from anger read about asset forfeiture.

Now compare this guy's sentence with those of big time wall street hedge fund and bank CEOs who pilfer hundreds of millions and are responsible for some extremely shady shit which impacts the entire nation.

It's become cliche now at how easily these guys get away with their thieving which makes the silk road debacle look like nothing.

Post: #23

(05-30-2015 01:14 AM)Samseau Wrote:  Why isn't anyone talking about the sale of weapons via the silk road? The drug charges are minor compared to letting people buy and sell things like RPG's, Assault Rifles, and Claymore Mines.

Was this man personally involved in any of these illicit transactions? If not, I see no reason why building a platform that others used to carry out illegal activities makes him responsible for those activities.

I would imagine something like 80%+ of the drug trade, the arms trade, the human organ trade, whatever have you, is conducted in US dollars. Why aren't the Federal Reserve fags serving 200 consecutive life sentences each, since they're the purveyors this evil tool (the dollar) that is enabling all of these criminal transactions?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But that's exactly what we're talking about here.
1)Dude builts an online platform that enabled anonymized transactions using cryptocurrencies.
2)Some (completely unrelated) people used the platform he built to perform illegal activities.
3)?????
4)He is sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Post: #24

(05-29-2015 07:38 PM)Ziltoid Wrote:  

(05-29-2015 07:16 PM)007 Wrote:  The guy was also a racketeer, taking a cut of everything that was sold on his 'patch'.

By this logic I guess eBay and Amazon are engaged in massive racketeering.
How does charging people that voluntarily use your website a fee equate to racketeering?

Furthermore, receiving compensation for creating a secondary market is a very natural part of many occupations, and life in general.

The entire edifice of financial markets is built on this principle--a straightforward example is when you go to the airport, the the foreign currency exchange kiosks buy currency X at a lower price than they sell it. A non-financial example would be used car sales. They're "taking a cut," and rightfully so, for going through the trouble of creating a market by connecting buyers and sellers.

Post: #25

(05-30-2015 01:32 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  Now compare this guy's sentence with those of big time wall street hedge fund and bank CEOs who pilfer hundreds of millions and are responsible for some extremely shady shit which impacts the entire nation.