Share on social networks
Ross William Ulbricht, born on March 27, 1984, is the creator of a black market on the deep web, according to the authorities of the United States, called Silk Road, which operated until the day of his arrest in 2013.
Ulbricht used the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, which is a fictional character who inherits his nickname from other people.
He was convicted of money laundering, hacking and conspiracy for drug trafficking in February 2015, and now serves a perpetual prison term with the possibility of parole.
Ulbricht grew up in Austin, was a Boy Scout and reached the rank of Eagle Scout. He attended West Ridge School and Westlake Institute, in Texas.
In 2006 he graduated with a degree in physics. In the State University of Pennsylvania, he obtained a master’s degree in material sciences and engineering and studied crystallography.
In 2009 he graduated from Penn State and returned to Austin, where he was not satisfied with the job he had, for what he tried with entrepreneurial projects, although his first businesses failed, he had some success with an online book store, Good Wagon Books, sin embargo, luego de una ruptura sentimental y sin alcanzar el éxito deesado, Ulbricht no estaba contento consigo mismo.
SILK ROAD
At the beginning of 2009, Ulbricht had in mind the construction of an online black market, through the TOR network and using the virtual currency Bitcoin as a means of payment.
In 2010, he began to develop the website and was writing a diary about the operational history of Silk Road, in his first entry, he predicted that 2011 would be “a year of prosperity” through his adventures.
In mid-2013, Ulbricht, a member of Dread Pirate Roberts, was contacted by Gary Alford, an IRS investigator working with the DEA in the Silk Road case. In October 2013, Ulbricht was arrested and charged by the Federal Investigation Agency for being the “mastermind” behind the site. His arrest occurred on October 1, 2013 at 3:15 a.m., Pacific time, in the Glen Park library.
The young man was charged with the crimes of money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy for drug trafficking and the hiring of a hitman, although this last charge was dropped from the accusation, although the corresponding evidence was presented, but the authorities never confirmed whether it was from Dread Pirate Roberts himself.
The trial ended on February 2015 and Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole on May 29, 2015. His lawyers filed an appeal on January 12, 2016, alleging that evidence from DEA agents was illegally withheld. undermining the investigation of Silk Road, for which they were condemned.
The prosecutor believed that none of the six paid murders occurred even though Ulbricht had been paid 730 thousand dollars.
Ulbricht is currently serving his sentence in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
In a documentary entitled “Deep Web”, about the history of this young man, it is said that the authorities obtained the information from the servers of the website illegally, in violation of the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
In the same way, he claims that FBI agents stole several million dollars in Bitcoin that belonged to Ulbricht, and sent them to his personal accounts.
Share on social networks
