Silk Road creator found guilty on all counts
A jury has ruled Ross Ulbricht, the 30-year-old who founded the black market website Silk Road, guilty on all counts.
The FBI arrested Ulbricht in a sting operation in October 2013 accusing him of being the criminal mastermind running Silk Road where items such as narcotics, fake IDs and other illegal goods were sold using Bitcoin for payment.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged Ulbricht with seven counts including money laundering, drug trafficking and computer hacking among other things.
During the trial the prosecution said that Ulbricht was "Dread Pirate Roberts," which was the alias for Silk Road's operator, and said that he received a portion of every transaction that occurred on the black market website. By the time Silk Road was shut down by the feds in 2013, it had generated almost $213.9 million in sales and $13.2 million in commissions, prosecutors said.
Ulbricht conceded that he was indeed the creator of Silk Road, but his defense attorney Joshua Dratel argued that Ulbricht intended for the site to be a "freewheeling, free market site" where almost anything could be sold, barring a few harmful items like firearms.
However, Ulbricht's defense said that just a few months after creating the marketplace he handed over control to others using the platform. But was lured back right before the FBI busted the operation, thus making Ulbricht the "fall guy," Dratel said.
Prosecutors, however, argued that there was no evidence that Ulbricht walked away from the black market as he claimed.
After a three-week trial, the jury began deliberations on Wednesday.
A jury has ruled Ross Ulbricht, the 30-year-old who founded the black market website Silk Road, guilty on all counts.
The FBI arrested Ulbricht in a sting operation in October 2013 accusing him of being the criminal mastermind running Silk Road where items such as narcotics, fake IDs and other illegal goods were sold using Bitcoin for payment.
Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged Ulbricht with seven counts including money laundering, drug trafficking and computer hacking among other things.
During the trial the prosecution said that Ulbricht was "Dread Pirate Roberts," which was the alias for Silk Road's operator, and said that he received a portion of every transaction that occurred on the black market website. By the time Silk Road was shut down by the feds in 2013, it had generated almost $213.9 million in sales and $13.2 million in commissions, prosecutors said.
Ulbricht conceded that he was indeed the creator of Silk Road, but his defense attorney Joshua Dratel argued that Ulbricht intended for the site to be a "freewheeling, free market site" where almost anything could be sold, barring a few harmful items like firearms.
However, Ulbricht's defense said that just a few months after creating the marketplace he handed over control to others using the platform. But was lured back right before the FBI busted the operation, thus making Ulbricht the "fall guy," Dratel said.
Prosecutors, however, argued that there was no evidence that Ulbricht walked away from the black market as he claimed.
After a three-week trial, the jury began deliberations on Wednesday.
