Silk Road darknet mastermind seeks leniency

Kevin McCoy | USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Convicted Silk Road darknet mastermind Ross Ulbricht on Friday broke his public silence about the sprawling electronic drug-trafficking site he founded and ran, writing that it "turned out to be a very naive and costly idea that I deeply regret."

In a pre-sentencing letter submitted to U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, Ulbricht wrote that "Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness, however they individually saw fit."

"What it turned into was, in part, a convenient way for people to satisfy their drug addictions," added Ulbricht. "While I still don't think people should be denied the right to make this decision for themselves, I never sought to create a site that would provide another avenue for people to feed their addictions."

Facing at least 20 years in prison and potentially far longer at his scheduled May 29 sentencing, Ulbricht, 30, asked Forrest for mercy.

"I've had my youth, and I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age," wrote Ulbricht. "Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself in the free world before I meet my maker."

Ulbricht did not testify during the more than three-week federal court trial that ended in February with a jury of six women and six men finding him guilty of drug conspiracy and other charges. The trial featured evidence that Ulbricht used the nom de Net Dread Pirate Roberts to run Silk Road as an encrypted electronic bazaar for everything from heroin, cocaine and LSD to phony IDs and computer-hacking programs.

The site required all transactions to be conducted using bitcoins, an electronic currency that preserved the anonymity of drug dealers and customers. Trial evidence showed that Ulbricht reaped millions of dollars worth of bitcoins from the operation.

Returning the verdict after little more than three hours of deliberations, jurors rejected defense arguments that Ulbricht founded Silk Road, in 2011, but soon turned it over to others who in turn lured him back to take the fall as federal investigators closed in two years later.

Ulbricht's two-page missive was part of pre-sentencing submissions that included dozens of letters from his parents, relatives, friends and even fellow detention inmates. Writing that her son had been "a young idealist who was passionate about the concept of personal and economic freedom," Lyn Ulbricht added: "I know he regrets his actions very deeply."

Defense attorney Joshua Dratel argued in an 84-page legal brief that Ulbricht should receive a sentence far shorter than the life term behind bars called for in federal sentencing guidelines — which judges must consider but may deviate from as they craft their final decisions.

Dratel wrote that Ulbricht's background as an Eagle Scout, devoted family member and good student " demonstrate that he "is far more multifaceted than merely the conduct for which he has been convicted, has expressed genuine remorse for his conduct related to the Silk Road web site, and can make – and is committed to making, as his own letter attests – a positive contribution to society after completion of a sufficient but not unnecessarily lengthy prison term."

Federal prosecutors are scheduled to file their final pre-sentencing brief next week. They have already filed for Forrest's consideration details of six drug-overdose deaths of people who bought narcotics through the Silk Road website.

Dratel countered last week by submitting a declaration from Fernando Caudevilla, a Spanish physician who used the name "Doctor X" as he provided expert advice on drug use and abuse to Silk Road users on the darknet site's safety forum.

Dread Pirate Roberts encouraged the safety effort, wrote Caudevilla, recounting how the mastermind paid him $500 a week to continue providing advice to Silk Road customers and also explored drug testing to ensure dealers on the site sold only "safe, non-toxic substances."