Back in 2011, a 27-year-old man from Austin in Texas was brainstorming business ideas, after earning a masters’ degree in material sciences and engineering. His two start-up ventures related to day trading and video gaming had flopped and in a post-recession America, there weren’t too many options for budding entrepreneurs.
However, the third venture idea finally clicked and soon snowballed into a million-dollar business. The idea was about starting a website on dark web where people can purchase just about any commodity or service, beyond the purview of law, using world’s first decentralized digital currency- Bitcoin.
Yes, we are talking about ‘Silk Road‘, the infamous online marketplace, that facilitated sale of every illegal narcotic from marijuana to cocaine, every illegal weapon from “clean handguns” to RPGs and had premium services available including murder for hire.
Its creator was Ross Ulbricht, a bright engineering graduate with libertarian views, who believed in personal autonomy and denounced any concept of a nation state trying to control a person’s thoughts. He believed every human should be free to do as they please, even when they face the wrong side of law. Therefore, he chose a currency to trade on Silk Road, that will not be controlled or monitored by any government or bank.
The website had a dream run from 2011 to 2013, however, not everyone shared the same libertarian views of Ross and in October 2013, he was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and ultimately handed two back to back life sentences by a judge.
Cut to January 21, 2025, Ross, now 40, has finally walked out of prison as a free man, after the President elect Donald Trump granted him “full pardon.” In fact, getting Ross Ulbricht out of jail on day 1 of Trump administration was one of the poll promises made by Trump during 2024 US presidential election campaigning.
If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to a sentence of time served. He’s already served 11 years. We’re gonna get him home,” said Trump during his election campaigning.
Finally, on January 21, Trump informed Ross’ mother that her son would be free as he had signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross.
Trump stated in his Truth Social platform post “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me” He added “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
The Libertarian party had been urging Ulbricht’s release for a long time and stated that his case was an example of government overreach. This was the story till now but many out there don’t know who Ross Ulbricht was and why he was sentenced to prison. So let’s dive deep into this topic and explore Ross’ story.
Who is Ross Ulbricht?
Ross William Ulbricht is an American libertarian who was born on 27, March 1984 and is popular for operating Silk Road, the largest online marketplace for illegal drugs in history. The Silk Road was operated on the dark net by the help of the TOR (The Onion Ring) network which allows users to buy and sell illegal goods keeping them anonymous.
The marketplace has generated a massive $214 million in sales through Bitcoin between January 2011 to October 2013. Ulbricht has a hardcore libertarian mindset. He believed in a political philosophy that advocated individualism and minimal state involvement in people’s lives. This mindset and thinking escalated him to create the Silk Road marketplace.
Ross Journey As Creator Of Silk Road
Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, named it Silk Road, which is a reference to the ancient trade routes that connected China to Europe beginning in the 2nd century BC. He launched this marketplace in early 2011 which was run on the darknet on the TOR network.
To attract the customers, Ulbricht used different marketing techniques such as posting about the marketplace on magic mushroom forums, and Bitcoin forums describing Silk Road as “an anonymous amazon.com”.
Soon he attracted thousands of customers as well as the attention of Law Enforcement agencies. The FBI’s investigation into Silk Road began after they noticed a unusual shipping patterns and found drug packages linked to this site.
FBI agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan dug deep into the investigation, posed as a buyer and made a whopping 52 undercover purchases. Moreover, he also seized thousands of drug packages and arrested several peoples linked to the site. After this, he tracked down one of the site employees named Cirrus, forced her to give custody of her account.
In May 2013, FBI investigators noticed coding errors and vulnerabilities on the Silk Road website that leaked IP addresses and found there servers were housed in a data center in Iceland. Later on, agents traced the usernames that Ulbricht used to market the Silk Road and traced his real identity.
However, they still needed concrete evidence and had to catch Ulbricht red-handed while using the laptop and logging onto the silk road account. So the agents planned an operation with Homeland Security agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan who was still pretending to be a Silk Road member
On October 1st, 2013 Der-Yeghiayan saw Ulbricht was logged on with his fake name “Dread Pirate Roberts”. Ulbricht was sitting in the San Francisco public library’s Glen Park branch. Der-Yeghiayan started up a conversation with Ulbricht while posing as Cirrus. As the conversation was ongoing other agents arrested Ulbricht and took his laptop where he logged in as “Dread Pirate Roberts” the mastermind behind the Silk Road.
Ulbricht’s trial commenced on January 13, 2015. Despite his defense claiming he had handed over control of Silk Road the jury found him guilty on all counts by February 5, 2015. On May 29, 2015, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest.
Why did Donald Trump Pardon Ross Ulbricht?
President Donald Trump pardoned Ross William Ulbricht and fulfilled a campaign promise he made to his Libertarian supporters, who viewed Ulbricht as a victim of governmental overreach and a pioneer in the cryptocurrency space. There are three main reasons why Trump pardoned Ross William Ulbricht.
Libertarian support
Ulbricht was a hardcore Libertarian. His case had become a prominent issue among all libertarians and crypto enthusiasts. Moreover, the community also viewed Ulbricht as a victim of government overreach
Political Strategy
Trump acknowledged the strong support his campaign received from the Libertarian Movement and wanted to honor that support.
Personal Conviction
Trump believes he and Ulbricht are both as the victims of a “weaponized” government and he stated this in his post also.
Final Thoughts
The victory of Donald Trump in US presidential elections 2024 and the subsequent pardoning and release of Ross Ulbricht is a precursor to the coming times where majoritarian principles will override rule of law and even supercede judiciary, not just in U.S. but other parts of the world as well.
Also Read: Silk Road Founder Ross Walks a Free Man as Trump Pardons Him
