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Silk Road was the biggest marketplace for selling illegal drugs on the dark web from 2011-2013. It was operated behind a Tor hidden service that provides anonymity to buyers, sellers and the server operators. Transactions were done with bitcoin and the drugs were delivered via mail. In total, goods worth 1.2 billion dollars were sold on Silk Road.
In 2013, the FBI shut down the server and arrested Ross William Ulbricht for being the site's founder with the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts". Later in the year, Silk Road 2.0 was created by affiliates and was eventually also shut down.
Ulbricht was indicted on charges of money laundering, computer hacking and the conspiracy to traffic narcotics. He is now sentenced to a life in prison.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/29/silk-road-ross-ulbricht-sentenced
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Rumour has it that you could buy killings there as well. Along with e.g. fake identities etc.
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yeah he was caught in a law enforcement sting trying to order the murders of some old colleagues that threatened the service. lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him
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On May 31 2015 00:25 Catch]22 wrote: Rumour has it that you could buy killings there as well. Along with e.g. fake identities etc.
Don't think that this was the case for Silk Road? Tor yeah, but I'm not so sure about SR
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He was a drug dealer, had drugs at his home and attented to kill someone with a hitman so I think he deserves the life sentence.
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Probably the dodgiest case I've ever read about tbh, one side of law enforcement engaging in something that was so close to entrapment hes now in prison, the other engaging in some interesting illegal wiretappings almost certainly with the aid of the nsa.
200 years in prison aught to sort out these folks who might be thinking about starting a marketplace to get drugs. Pretty blatant miscarriage of justice tbph.
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Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts
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Silk Road got busted because it became too popular. It was even in the normal news when people involved were still anonymous.
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On May 31 2015 00:25 Catch]22 wrote: Rumour has it that you could buy killings there as well. Along with e.g. fake identities etc. http://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-boss-ordering-5-assassinations
Just because the prosecution couldn't muster the evidence to charge him for assassinations doesn't mean he isn't a scumbag, nobody in their right mind gets into casual conversations of planning hits on people as a joke.
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Here are the charges for which he was found guilty:
1. distributing or aiding and abetting the distribution of narcotics 2. distributing narcotics or aiding and abetting distribution over the Internet 3. conspiracy to violate narcotics laws 4. conspiracy to run a "continuing criminal enterprise" 5. conspiracy charges for computer hacking 6. distributing false identification 7. money laundering
+ Show Spoiler [source] +
I really wonder what exactly is the difference between the first 3 charges and even more so, how is the possible to commit any one of them without commiting another one at the same time. Honestly, it feels like he was sentenced 3 times for the same thing... The fourth charge requires a specific set of properties to be true at the same time. Personally, I have a hard time imagining how an online marketplace, albeit a drug market, can satisfy the requirements for such a charge without stretching the definition of the target of this law. Maybe it did though, who knows... Number 5 is scetchy to say the least. Charge 6 seems to be technically correct. However, his guilt here seems to be discretionary considering that he did not personally create or sell false identification, but instead offered a platform for them to be sold. Well, 7 is a given when you profit from an illegal activity.
I do not know anywhere near enough about the case to be able to comment on all the claims online about fabricated claims, entrapment etc. However, even under the assumption that he was guilty of everything, his sentence seems to go way beyond any reason.
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On May 31 2015 04:30 ggrrg wrote: I do not know anywhere near enough about the case to be able to comment on all the claims online about fabricated claims, entrapment etc. However, even under the assumption that he was guilty of everything, his sentence seems to go way beyond any reason.
Obviously the case is a landmark one and the prosecution wanted to set an example to deter copycats and similar enterprises. I agree that the sentencing is way above the minimal (in fact the prosecution specifically asked for this in a letter to the judge), but also consider that this is one of the first and most prominent cases that showed the criminal enterprise world the potential of dealing anonymously on the internet. Him being an opportunist and capitalizing on a previously untapped market probably helped propelled the same methodologies in the "industry" forward dramatically, which make it much more difficult for law enforcement and society to keep track of the same sort of illegal activities. And the taxpayers all get to foot the bills and consequences of that.
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On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him
yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbricht
His punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them?
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On May 31 2015 05:09 AndreWiles wrote:Show nested quote +On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbrichtHis punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them?
C'mon. Don't make this about 'race' and 'privilege'.
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On May 31 2015 05:09 AndreWiles wrote:Show nested quote +On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbrichtHis punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them?
He didn't make the world worse buddy, I highly disagree with that statement, I'm just going to ignore the rest of your nonsense that you wrote too.
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On May 31 2015 08:00 PanN wrote:Show nested quote +On May 31 2015 05:09 AndreWiles wrote:On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbrichtHis punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them? He didn't make the world worse buddy, I highly disagree with that statement, I'm just going to ignore the rest of your nonsense that you wrote too. imo conspiring to kill people is kind of a bad thing to do but maybe thats just me i dunno http://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-boss-ordering-5-assassinations
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On May 31 2015 08:00 PanN wrote:Show nested quote +On May 31 2015 05:09 AndreWiles wrote:On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbrichtHis punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them? He didn't make the world worse buddy, I highly disagree with that statement, I'm just going to ignore the rest of your nonsense that you wrote too.
Comparing what he did, to what the banks were guilty of doing with FOREX or HSBC, the punishment seems really extreme. Seems more like retribution for whoever he was cutting out of the deal.
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United States15275 Posts
On May 31 2015 08:14 PassiveAce wrote:Show nested quote +On May 31 2015 08:00 PanN wrote:On May 31 2015 05:09 AndreWiles wrote:On May 31 2015 01:07 PassiveAce wrote: lot of people think that the punishment is too severe but seems to me he got what was coming to him yes its quite amazing. This guy was born into privilege and used his privilege to make the world worse. All in what he thought was noble intent of course, as you can see from his linkedin profile he wanted to sell drugs to free people from government oppression, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossulbrichtHis punishment is a 1000x more just than the millions of blacks put in jail, yet who cares about them? He didn't make the world worse buddy, I highly disagree with that statement, I'm just going to ignore the rest of your nonsense that you wrote too. imo conspiring to kill people is kind of a bad thing to do but maybe thats just me i dunno http://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-boss-ordering-5-assassinations
No worse than all the "collateral damage" we've seen in Yemen from drone strikes.
I find the concept of the Silk Road far more appealing than seeing thousands die from Fentanyl-laced heroin where there's no control over distribution or customer knowledge.
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Is your point that because the US government gets away with murder Ulbricht should be allowed to get away with murder too?
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United States15275 Posts
On May 31 2015 08:29 PassiveAce wrote: Is your point that because the US government gets away with murder Ulbricht should be allowed to get away with murder too?
The inverse, but thank you for perfectly illustrating my real point. The government gets away with it because we think about in abstract terms, but the "government" is not responsible. A specific set of people following through the chain of command are responsible and because that's not grappled with, any abuse of power is reluctantly accepted and blamed on the unwieldy nature of bureaucracy.
Ordering hits is bad in itself, but it seems rather silly to focus on that as if it should be the deciding factor in whether he's an empathetic figure or not. The true crux in this case, as always, is structured organization and distribution of illegal drugs not overseen by a "recognized" economic entity.
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