Ross Ulbricht is the founder of the Silk Road, an online black market where users could buy and sell illicit goods anonymously.
But in 2013 he was arrested and found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Who is Ross Ulbricht?
Ross Ulbricht was born in 1984 and grew up near Austin, Texas.
He studied physics at the University of Texas before going on to do a Master’s degree in material science at the Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 2009.
Ulbricht’s early attempts at becoming an entrepreneur were unsuccessful, after he failed at stock trading, developing video games and selling books online.
But it was during this time Ulbricht first developed the idea of creating an online marketplace using Tor encryption (free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication) and Bitcoin, which was still in its infant stages.
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Ulbricht saw that using Bitcoin would give users anonymity and security, allowing them to avoid government scrutiny.
Ulbricht founded Silk Road in 2011, aged 26, and called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts online.
He wanted Silk Road to be used as a “means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind.”
He said he was “creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force.”
Silk Road blew up in a very short period of time after a number of media outlets published stories on the marketplace in mid-2011.
In early 2013 an Australian drug dealer became the first person to be convicted of crimes linked to the Silk Road.
From that, the FBI uncovered Ulbricht was the founder and arrested him on October 2, 2013, in a San Francisco library.
According to the prosecutors, by the time the Silk Road was shut down, the website had generated almost $215 million in sales and $13.2 million in commissions for Ulbricht.
Ulbricht’s trial started in January 2015 in Manhattan, and he was convicted on seven counts including conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to traffic narcotics by the means of the internet, and operating a criminal enterprise.
On May 29, 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms plus 40 years to be served concurrently without the possibility of parole.
The judge also ordered Ulbricht to pay nearly $184 million.
Ulbricht appealed to the Supreme Court, but they refused to hear his case.
Since Ulbricht was sentenced, over 500,000 people have signed an online petition created by his mother Lyn Ulbricht to reduce his sentence.
The petition reads: “My son, Ross Ulbricht, is a first-time offender serving a double life sentence without parole, plus 40 years, for an anonymous e-commerce website he made when he was 26 years old and passionate about free markets and privacy.
“Ross – an Eagle Scout, scientist and peaceful entrepreneur – had all non-violent charges at trial.
“He was never prosecuted for causing harm or bodily injury and no victim was named at trial.”
In late 2020, President Donald Trump was reportedly considering reducing Ulbricht’s sentence but didn’t.
In 2021, Ulbricht said: “I thought with Bitcoin, I could try and do something that actually makes a difference.
“Back then, I was impatient.”
“I rushed ahead with my first idea, which was Silk Road.
“That’s a 26-year-old who thinks he has to save the world before someone beats him to it. I had no idea Silk Road would work, but now we all know it caught on.
“It was used to sell drugs, and now I’m in prison.”
“The irony is that I made Silk Road in the first place because I thought I was furthering the things I cared about freedom, privacy, equality.”
“But by making Silk Road, I wound up in a place where those things don’t exist.”
What is Ross Ulbricht’s net worth?
If Ross Ulbricht were to be released from jail he’d have a net worth of more than $1 billion.
This is providing he has access to the 45,000 Bitcoins that are unaccounted for.
While running Silk Road, Ulbricht amassed over 144,000 Bitcoins as payment for processing $9 billion in transactions.
On the day of his arrest in October 2013, the price for one Bitcoin was $121 meaning Ulbricht was worth $17.4 million.
In mid-2014 the United States Marshals Service conducted nine auctions for 30,000 of Ulbricht’s Bitcoin.
Venture capitalist Tim Draper bought all of them for $19 million, but today, those Bitcoins are worth more than $500,000,000.
In November 2020, another 69,000 of Ulbricht’s Bitcoins were seized by the US Department of Justice.
In exchange for Ulbricht’s agreement to waive any ownership of these Bitcoins, they will be used to pay off his restitution of $184 million.
The remaining 45,000 Bitcoin haven’t been found.