President Trump has granted a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder, who was serving a life sentence for his role in an online drug marketplace
New York: So, guess what? Trump just pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the guy behind Silk Road. He was doing life for running that online drug marketplace. Can you believe it?
This all started back in 2013 when Ulbricht got arrested. His site was a huge deal, letting people buy and sell all sorts of illegal stuff using Bitcoin. It racked up over $200 million in sales!
Trump had promised to help Ulbricht during his campaign, and he finally made it happen. He even took to social media to say that the folks who convicted Ulbricht were part of a bigger problem with the government.
It’s interesting because Trump’s administration might change how they handle cryptocurrency compared to Biden’s time. They were pretty strict about it before.
Back in May, Trump hinted at commuting Ulbricht’s sentence during a speech at the Libertarian National Convention. The Libertarians have been all about pushing for drug legalization and saw Ulbricht’s case as a big example of government overreach.
Silk Road was like a black market bazaar from 2011 to 2013, with over 100,000 users. They used the Tor network to stay anonymous and paid with Bitcoin, which made it hard for anyone to track them down.
Ulbricht went by the name Dread Pirate Roberts, which is a nod to a character from “The Princess Bride.” Prosecutors claimed he even tried to have some people killed who were threats to his operation, but there’s no proof any of that actually happened.
He admitted to creating Silk Road but said he later handed it off to others. His lawyers argued he was just a scapegoat for the real operators.
At his sentencing, Ulbricht said he wanted to give people the freedom to make choices and have privacy. But a jury found him guilty of serious charges, including drug distribution and money laundering.
The judge at his trial said what he did was unprecedented, and he had to face the consequences for it. It’s a wild story, and now it’s taken another twist with this pardon!
