Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road Creator, Sentenced To Life In Prison

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was sentenced on Friday to life behind bars for creating a website that turned into an anonymous online drug bazaar.

Ross Ulbricht Sentenced

Ulbricht, who faced a minimum sentencing of 20 years for his involvement with Silk Road, was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole, reported Wired. The sentencing was handed down by Judge Katherine Forrest, who determined that Ulbricht deserved a punishment even greater than what the prosecution has requested.

In addition to his prison sentence, Ulbricht was also ordered to pay more than $183 million in restitution. The sum is the estimated total of the drug and counterfeit ID sales that were conducted through Silk Road.

“The stated purpose [of the Silk Road] was to be beyond the law. In the world you created over time, democracy didn’t exist. You were captain of the ship, the Dread Pirate Roberts,” Forrest told Ulbricht upon delivering his sentence. “Silk Road’s birth and presence asserted that its…creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous.”

Joshua Dratel, Ulbricht’s lead attorney, has stated his intention to appeal Ulbricht’s conviction and sentencing, calling the sentencing “unreasonable, unjust, unfair and based on improper consideration with no basis in fact or law.”

Ulbricht’s mother Lyn Ulbricht spoke to uInterview earlier this year, stating her ardent belief that the government failed to give her son a fair trial in February– from suppressing evidence to disallowing a proper cross-examination.

“Evidence favorable to Ross, exculpatory evidence, was suppressed. It wasn’t permitted to come out. Witnesses were stopped from testifying on the behalf of the defense,” Lynn told uInterview in an exclusive interview. “And also, the defense attorney was hamstrung by evidentiary rules that were put into place the fourth day of the trial from properly cross-examining and establishing reasonable doubt, which is his job. So, yes I’d say it was an unfair trial.”

Prior to hearing Forrest’s sentencing, Ulbricht attempted to plead his case one more time, telling the judge that he had changed since he launched Silk Road, but also that his intentions in creating the anonymous site were based on his libertarian beliefs and nothing more sinister.

“I’ve changed. I’m not the man I was when I created Silk Road. I’m a little wiser, a little more mature, and much more humble,” he said. “I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives…to have privacy and anonymity. I’m not a sociopathic person trying to express some inner badness.”

Despite his pleas, Ulbricht received the maximum penalty for the crimes for which he was convicted, including money laundering conspiracy, drug trafficking, computer hacking conspiracy and running a continuing criminal enterprise.