Silk Road creator sentenced to life imprisonment

Ross Ulbricht / photo Yoni Heisler

Ross Ulbricht, creator and administrator of the infamous Silk Road website, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday by the court . The minimum term for which he could count as a major drug dealer was 20 years.

But he was convicted on seven counts, including drug trafficking and money laundering.

In addition to the site, Ulbricht is accused of trying to hire a killer to “remove” one of his employees, whom Ulbricht suspected of stealing store funds. But the "hit man" turned out to be an FBI agent. This charge will be considered by the court.

The prosecution immediately insisted on a long time, being convinced that the accused did not "show understanding of responsibility and remorse for the deed." From Ulbricht they needed to make an instructive example. As a result, the deadline set by the judge even exceeded the expectations of the prosecution.

It is known that Ulbricht wrote a long letter to the judge , and also took the floor for 20 minutes in court, asking the judge not to deprive him, along with the middle of life, of its ending.

Silk Road website operated from 2011 to 2013 as a hidden Tor service. 70% of the goods presented in the store were various narcotic substances. The site was known for the fact that it was forbidden to sell certain things on it - including child pornography, stolen credit cards, weapons and services of hired killers. During the work through the site, more than $ 1.2 billion went (calculated at the rate of bitcoins). The commission of the site was about $ 80 million.

After the FBI agents revealed the identity of the site owner and closed the service, Silk Road 2.0 appeared on the network, managed by former Ulbricht assistants. But it was quickly closed as part of the Onymous operation , during which agents confiscated the server hardware of several pirated sites.

Ulbricht's defense said it would appeal. The 31-year-old entrepreneur had a mother left , who promised not to stop fighting for her son.