Convicted Silk Road operator asks judge for leniency as prosecutors demand lengthy sentence to set example for would-be deep web entrepreneurs

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Ross Ulbricht, the man convicted of operating the deep web drug emporium Silk Road, has begged a judge to “leave a light at the end of the tunnel” in his sentence, which will be handed down on Friday in a federal courthouse in New York.



After a speedy trial, Ulbricht was convicted in February on charges which include drug trafficking, money laundering and operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

In March, it emerged that two undercover FBI agents had extorted thousands of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin from Ulbricht during the course of the investigation.

In its heyday, Silk Road was by far the largest drug emporium on the deep web. Estimates of its traffic ranged from $15m to as much as $50m in transactions every month. Using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, users could buy practically every kind of drug imaginable, from ecstasy to LSD to heroin.

After the Silk Road conviction, Tor must be protected Read more

Vendors were reviewed by buyers to ensure quality, and the site was only accessible via the Tor encryption service. Drugs constituted most of the goods on sale, but users could also buy erotica, cigarettes and other legal services.

The deep web has become notorious as a potential haven for darker services than just drugs, such as child pornography, stolen credit and ID cards, and even murder-for-hire; however, under terms of service those things were banned on Silk Road.

Nonetheless, Ulbricht faces a minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In a separate trial still pending in Maryland, Ulbricht is accused of trying to procure a murder-for-hire.

In a letter sent to judge Katherine Forrest on Wednesday, Ulbricht expressed deep regret for founding the site, something he called a “naive and costly idea”.

“Silk Road was supposed to be about giving people the freedom to make their own choices, to pursue their own happiness,” he said. “I learned from Silk Road that when you give people freedom, you don’t know what they’ll do with it.”

He said that a life sentence was “more similar in nature to a death sentence than it is to a sentence with a finite number of years” and begged Forrest: “I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age.

“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 before I meet my maker.”

In another letter, however, prosecutors demanded that the judge set “a lengthy sentence, one substantially above the mandatory minimum” for Ulbricht, to set an example for those setting up other similar marketplaces which have proliferated since the shuttering of Silk Road.