Ross Ulbricht convicted of running massive illegal drug marketplace Silk Road
The jury deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before unanimously finding Ross Ulbricht, 30, guilty of running the website as Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was convicted 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.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara released a statement warning that Ulbricht's arrest and conviction should "send a clear message to anyone else attempting to operate an online criminal enterprise," and that the dark net is not a shield for anyone wishing to evade law enforcement.
Another trial against Ulbricht accusing him of murder-for-hire is still happening in Baltimore, according to the Guardian.
Ulbricht was arrested by the FBI at a public library in San Francisco in October 2013. After many delays, his trial began in Manhattan on Jan. 13.
Prosecutors accused Ulbricht of being Dread Pirate Roberts (a reference to the cult movie "The Princess Bride"), the founder and operator of the Silk Road website. Ulbricht pleaded not guilty to charges of hacking, money laundering, and narcotics trafficking, and continued to deny that he was Dread Pirate Roberts up until the very end.
Ulbricht's defense team, led by defense attorney Joshua Dratel, conceded at the trial that Ulbricht was in fact the founder of Silk Road, but had long since given up control of the site when he was arrested. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Serrin Turner and Timothy Howard, denied this, saying that Ulbricht was caught red-handed, "literally with his fingers at the keyboard, running the Silk Road" when agents surrounded him at the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2013.
Prosecutors called four witnesses to testify against Ulbricht and even presented his alleged diary entries that detail what he referred to as a "criminal enterprise." The defense struggled towards the end, especially as the journal entries and chat logs found on Ulbricht's laptop continue to incriminate him.
Here is Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara's statement on Ulbricht's conviction:
"As a unanimous jury has found, Ross William Ulbricht operated Silk Road - a clandestine global marketplace that offered buyers and sellers of illegal goods and services a promise of anonymity. Ulbricht built this black market bazaar to exploit the dark web and the digital currency Bitcoin to allow users to conduct illegal business beyond the reach of law enforcement. Ulbricht's arrest and conviction - and our seizure of millions of dollars of Silk Road Bitcoins - should send a clear message to anyone else attempting to operate an online criminal enterprise. The supposed anonymity of the dark web is not a protective shield from arrest and prosecution."