This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Ross Ulbricht, Founder Of Bitcoin Bazaar Silk Road, Sentenced To Life In Jail
Bitcoin was supposed to be perfectly anonymous and completely untraceable: so much so that its true believers, such as libertarian Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, felt empowered to launch the Silk Road, an underground online shopping bazaar similar to Amazon only one selling drugs and various other illegal paraphernalia.
The Silk Road quickly became massively successful and extremely profitable: so much so that Ulbricht promptly forgot the idealism that made him launch the project and quickly subverted the power and wealth it provided him for his own selfish ways, among which ordering the assassinations of subordinates who crossed him.
It turned out neither Bitcoin, nor the project, were as safe and anonymous as Ulbricht had hoped, and moments ago the Dread Pirate was sentenced to life in prison: a heavy sentence which according to the WSJ signals "the government’s seriousness in combating Internet crime."
The Silk Road founder faced a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison, but federal prosecutors asked the judge to give him “substantially” more than that, arguing that a harsh sentence is necessary to deter others from following in Mr. Ulbricht’s footsteps.
The punishment is a heavy price to pay for the 31-year-old, who had pleaded with the judge to spare him his old age and “leave a small light at the end of the tunnel.”
The sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest followed an emotional three-hour hearing. Judge Forrest said she spent more than 100 hours grappling with the appropriate sentence, calling the decision “very, very difficult.”
But ultimately, she gave Mr. Ulbricht the harshest sentence allowed under the law, saying Silk Road was “an assault on the public health of our communities” by making it easy for people around the world to buy illegal drugs.
“What you did with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric,” Judge Forrest said.
Judge Forrest said Mr. Ulbricht was “no better a person than any other drug dealer” and that his high education and privileged upbringing didn’t put him above the law.
Silly pirate: in America the only companies that are allowed by law to sell you drugs are the 'legal' pharmaceutical corporations, whose dealers owners use all those Obamacare-funded reimbursements from selling FDA approved anti-depressants and other mind-altering substances, to then go ahead and buy back their own stock.
And yet, it is a little troubling:
For manipulating "markets", rigging and defrauding tens of billions from ordinary investors many of whom lost their life savings because they trusted regulators would do their duty and keep "markets" honest and efficient, the US Department of Justice arrested precisely zero bankers.
For granting the 2018 World Cup to Russia, the same Department of Justice decided to make a loud political statement and arrest virtually the entire pinnacle of FIFA, even if the harshest sentence that will be handed down is some deferred prosecution settlement.
For creating his own marketplace outside the domain of the conventional monetary regime, the US unloaded a ton of bricks on a 31 year old and sentenced him to life behind bars. Because, you know, it will deter all illegal transactions hereafter.
For those who are interested in the full story of the Silk Road and how a 29-year-old revolutionized drug distribution, the following 2-part mini series by Wired is a must read.
»
- 39524 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Free Ross!
This was an expected outcome: Ross got life because when it comes to money creation and drug dealing, the US government hates competition!
Fuck this "woman" judge. Social fabric my ASS!
Yes she is speaking for the social fabric of cyberspace? What a daft cunt...
This was a fully-rigged show trial from the beginning.
Chucky Schumer stands behind it all.
The USSR coundn't have done better.
"...arguing that a harsh sentence is necessary to deter others from following in Mr. Ulbricht’s footsteps."
All they did was outsource some more jobs. The monopoly uncle satan has on the drug trade will come to an end, like every other delusion that flows from dc.
Ziogangbanksters who stole trillions and impoverished the western world still at large.
Bitcoin Bitchez.
Somebody had to say it.
/sarc
(OT) Netanyahu said on Thursday that banning Israel from Fifa would lead to its destruction
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/137027/netanyahu-warns-blatter-expe...
On topic: how come ZH repeats the prosecutor's propaganda about the murders he allegedly ordered? He wasn't convicted of it, and none of those supposed murders even took place.
Plus he didn't get caught because of a problem with Bitcoin or Tor, but because he had bragged about writing the platform's code. (Morality: the only fish who get caught are the ones that open their mouth).
I think that the Roman Republic was onto something when it came to how its day to day laws were enforced. I'm not a fan of having legions and the like, but day to day law was enforced by the very people who were victims of the crimes. That, and they executed the magistrates who accepted bribes if said magistrates got caught.
Digital Currency is 100% traceable, believe that, just the way the elite want it.
I am pleased with the final verdict. Next to get prosecuted: all adopters of Digital Currency except for the creators of Bitcoin in Israel.
"There is But One Crypto-Currency and it is My Crypto-Currency" Pronounceth the Lord God Mammon from the Marriner Eckles Building.
He got fucked becuase he's a libetarian...if he was a liberal democrat he'd be hanging out at the country club snorting coke and slappin hoes on the ass with Corzine.
he got fucked because the silk road didn't go through mena, arkansas
You guys are forgetting one detail. He tried to have a man killed. This joker belongs in prison.
Gobbler
Funny, that's not what he got convicted for.
Douche
Cocaine Importing Agency:
http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/news/cia.drug.html
indeed. heroin from afghanistan too.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/ed-follis-dea-afghanistan-opium
Oooh...oooooh, 'he tried to have a man killed' oooh...oooh.
Because we wouldn't see the authorities commit that kind of heinous crime either home or abroad, now would we.
Wake the fuck up numb nuts.
Ahh, the ole' "everybody else is doing it, therefore we shouldn't prosecute this self-described 'pirate'" argument. Argumentum ad pupulum.
Public schools failed you, eh Dame Ednas?
Agree with that. this has nothing to do with libertarian bullshit or whatever. The thing he setup and continnued to work on was simply to much. Selling drug is already not ok, but weapons and mercenarys that is really terrible.
No, but keep up the good work. Wait, I mean, keep putting your boot in your own arse.
Agreed. Libertarians should proceed with great caution when trying to hold Mr. Ulbricht up as the poster child of government overreach victimology. This guy is a criminal, whose "work" undoubtedly caused the deaths of the people whose family members testified against him, while simultaneously making him very wealthy. I'm glad he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison.
Moronic. Drugs don't cause death, Misuse of drugs causes death. Drug users will find drugs regardless, and we're they legal we could focus on regulation and education. Too much salt can kill you, and yet salt is legal miraculously - because people don't take the position that it's a salt miners fault if someone decides to consume a pound of salt.
Well! Who could argue with that fucking logic!?
.
They already got their stern warnings to not do it again...
How can a judge use the words "justice" and "example" in the same sentence? By very definition examples are exceptional, thus unjust.
With doublethink, anything is possible. It's been 1984 for many years now.
Fuck the State.
I think I recall a documentary which once showed how the justice system in China was so much worse than what they had in the west. Their entire argument was how in China, the judges usually gave stiff sentences in order to make examples of the criminals. While in the west, the punishments were usually balanced with the crime. It was unthinkable that a judge in the west would trample a persons rights and due process by making an example out of him. Oh the irony.
First off, everyone knows my thoughts on BitCoin, so I'm not going in that direction.
His first "crime" was setting up a "market place" outside of the predominate cartels jurisdiction and regulation.
The second, accepting "a currency" for wanted/needed goods & services unsanctioned by the prevailing gang, errr, cartels market place.
Thirdly, he paid no "taxes" on his profits in "the coin of the realm" to the top gang membership, tribute to the regent if you will.
Statist gang members had to make an example of him "building that" ;-)
deleted duplicate post
So the guy was a dick and yes I believe he tried to have some people killed.
But let's not forget he showed the drug 'war' for what it was - empty rhetoric. You can now use the internet to buy your drugs faster, purer, cheaper and with less contact with scummy criminal dealers than ever before.
The government doesn't want you to realise that buying drugs can be easy and safe. They actually want you to face a risk to your life every time you get high.
"Assault on our public health" "damaging to the fabric of our society"
Collectivist, statist statements like that make me sick. That's why liberty is dead in this country. If he really tried to have people killed, then he deserves to be punished, but attempted murder doesn't carry a life sentence like that. People get less than 10 years for worse shit than trying to hire a hitman. Not that I really buy that anyway, I don't believe anything that comes out of this government.
The hitman stuff is pure garbage hoax dirty cop extortion. ZH needs to read up and edit that out
He attempted to have a few folks killed but they were not killed.
Nor, as per the Wired articles, was he tried by the Feds for murder.
This was exclusively for the drugs, money laundering, etc.
aka the Capone Syndrome
I feel like maybe he wouldn't be attempting to have blackmailers killed if people... couldn't blackmail him... You know like... if he didn't have to fear the government
Source? I'm curious.
yep, like Irwin Schiff
Every now and again, those in control have to show that they are in control.
Make an example of someone. Doesn't matter who, really. It's about demonstrating power.
His real crime was not paying off the right people.
The war on drugs is more of a hoax than the war on terror.
His other real crime was not working for Pfizer or GSK. And yes. The war on drugs is a complete farce. The real criminal cartels are the companies I listed. But the govt is winning it's war on freedom and prosperity, that's for sure. Pretty sure those things are the real target anyway.
Don't steal, the government hates competition.
https://bluewallpapers.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ron-paul.jpg?w=984
The social fabric of the internet:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ABMackay/media/penny-arcade-shitcock.jpg...
"Judge Forrest said she spent more than 100 hours grappling with the appropriate sentence"
Uh huh, and, if you believe that, I got a poppy field in Afghanistan to sell you. For a few dollars more, you can buy a slightly used Lear jet, too.
http://www.madcowprod.com/09102008.html
He is a politcal prisoner, like many around the world. Unfortunately he did not maintain the moral high ground.
how so?
The question is did attempt to have someone offed? Is there substantial evidence of this?
I am undecided on this point.
But in the trial, that isn't a question - because he wasn't on trial for that.
Did his actions increase libertarian freedom around the world or did he line his own pockets with Gold/bitcoins until the moment he was arrested. Did his actions inspire copycats ? Was his website software copies and sprung up under various names around the world ?
Nope, he sold out for the riches and power.
But is becoming rich inherently immoral? He only became rich on the back of an aribtrary law, not any real immorality.
But is becoming rich inherently immoral? He only became rich on the back of an aribtrary law, not any real immorality.
what do you mean by "sold out"?
engaging in commerce, and creating a website that enables others to engage in commerce, is a great thing, it is a true wealth creator. it benefits both buyers and sellers.
unless you believe that those buyers and sellers are unable, or don't have the right, to make the determination as to what is beneficial to themselves. do you believe that?
The argument against the line of thinking you appear to be following is: There are always going to be a minority of people in a society who make extremely poor decisions that cross the line into the self-destructive and severe societal harm categories. Shooting heroin into one's vein clearly is one of those decisions. (Where smoking a tobacco cigarette or drinking a beer clearly are not.) It is the duty of government to curtail the mechanisms of distribution for these substances, which convey no benefit to society or to the individual who uses them, whether or not the heroin user himself believes it. Part of this duty entails imprisoning folks such as Mr. Ulbricht.
So, smoking, drinking, and obesity are not doing major damage to society, but "drugs" are? How about we just leave people alone? When someone causes harm to another by committing crime with a victim, they should be held responsible. Otherwise, no victim - no crime.
Invalid analogy.
As I wrote in my previous post, consuming tobacco cigarettes and beer doesn't cross the line into self-destructiveness and/or severe societal harm. I didn't mention obesity; but one might include "food" as the substance that, once consumed in sufficient quantities, causes a condition that a government would consider regulating for illness-prevention purposes.
The difference between tobacco, alcohol, and food; and... umm... heroin, should not be difficult to understand.
The first three, consumed in moderation, convey a benefit. (Difficult to argue this in the case of cigarettes; but the nicotine buzz might lighten one's mood or have a calming effect, and I would lump tobacco products into the same category as caffeine.) True, one might smoke, drink, or eat too much; but this isn't something that the government needs to outlaw on the grounds that serious destructive consequences would follow inaction.
Heroin, on the other hand, conveys no benefit. Its affects on the body are immediate and disastrous. Its effects on society are immediate and disastrous. The victim is the poor sap who showed the bad judjment to get started shooting up. The criminal who profits from this is... well, Mr. Ulbricht.
It's not our place to say if someone should destroy their body with drugs, it's our responsibility to make sure they're educated on the risks associated and that it isn't the only avaLiable solution to a problem (in the way unheaLthy food is the only solution to the problem of needing to eat for many)
It absolutely IS our place to say whether or not we, as a society, are going to allow people to destroy their bodies with heroin.
Educated on the risks MY ASS.
i am not a part of your "society".
i am a sovereign individual, i will make my own choices regarding my own life, and you can make your own choices regarding your life.
however, if you should try to impose your views on me, be warned that i have the right to defend my sovereignty, with deadly force if necessary.
There is no such thing as a "sovereign individual." Every one of us is an element of a larger whole: family, neighborhood, community, city, county, state. If you think that you can behave in whatever manner your fickle minute-to-minute whims compel you, ignoring the natural responsibilities that are inextricably intertwined with natural rights, you're not fit to live amongst anyone but yourself on your own little one-palmtree island in the ocean.
This "whatevah, I do what I want" bullshit is a disease.
Have you completely lost sight of the fact that what you're essentially arguing is for your supposed "right" to shoot heroin into your veins, and for Mr. Ulbricht to profit off of that endeavour? Do you really want to defend that? If so, this discussion can serve no further purpose, as you are hopelessly lost.
I guess as long as judges can make such decisions without personal repercussions then they will continue to do so.
I'm just so afraid that these poor judges might someday find themselves the targets of zero squads.
Of course, I am even more afraid of what zero squads will do to whomever it is for which the judge actually works.
It must have been this that swayed her:
"In emotional statements at the hearing, the parents of drug users who had overdosed and died from drugs purchased from the Silk Road called for a long sentence for Ulbricht. “I strongly believe my son would still be alive today if Mr. Ulbricht had never created Silk Road,” said one father whose 25-year old son had died from an overdose of heroin, requesting “the most severe sentence the law will allow.”
Of course! It is the dealers fault! Not the parents! Or the individiual using the drugs! No personal responsibility to see here, move along!
That is why I like China. This guy would have gotten a bullet to the head.
China's government understands the evils of drugs, especially heroin.
USSA gov is complicit in the proliferation of heroin and ultra potent marijuana. The people should off the fucking USSA federal government to save ourselves!
I like China too, but they have probably the most organized and widest organized crime syndicate of the world...
All drugs should be legal, and the money spent on the war on drugs diverted to something that makes sense. There aren't many drugs that can be distinguished as absolutely good/bad. (There are a few, but not popular ones, these are more like actual poisons). Adults should have sovereignty over their mind/body - and culture should focus on proper drug and addiction education and support. Stats are on the side of this stance, as countries with legalization/decriminalization see positive numbers all around. The prison industrial complex could wither and die, and we could stop empowering the cartels and other criminals (the CIA). We could also finally do more research into MDMA/psychedelics in a therapeutic or medical setting.
Dude, coke, meth. X are openly sold in China and all over Asia. It's a show....
I've lived in Chang mai, Thailand and have spent a bit of time in Cebu, RP (Phils). Coke, and meth are not sold openly.
In Thailand selling meth can be a death sentence.
I don't know about China, maybe you are correct there, but not Thailand or RP
Just because someone gets a bullet in the head does not mean there is no illicit drug industry in China.
"it's for the children" ...bullshite.
Holy Crap! Someone just asked me about zero squads, and I could not find a link! I just did a Google search and "zero squads" has been scrubbed from the Internet!
They are from Johnstone's book "Out of the Ashes". In it, there has been a total collapse and a fairly libertarian country has arisen in the northwest and the new US government demands that it submit or die. No surprise there. however, the new country has formed zero squads, which are 3 member cells, whose members are known only to each other. Each cell has sworn their lives to kill a different top level member of the new aggressor government if that member voted to initiate war against their free and peaceful country.
I just Googled it, you have to go deep into the stack to find the reference.
i found it...starting to read it a little:
https://books.google.com/books?id=3k8WBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT157&lpg=PT157&dq=zer...
this is an excerpt from a book on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Northwest-Freedom-Fighters-Shawn-Gilreath-ebook/dp...
while i support everyone's struggle against the oppressive facist state, i'm not keen on this part of the book description:
"This is a fictional account of what white men and women can accomplish when they set out to protect their heritage and way of life."
stupid fucking rednecks and their trashy "white power" bullshit, fuck them.
but i hope they kill lots of feds along the way.
Interesting.
I think in reality it will be more like crowdfunding bounties for killing individuals of various positions, from heads of state all the way down to foot soldiers. Execution could be done by anyone, with an anonymously controlled drone, and the bounty could be claimed by providing a proof of some sort (again anonymously). Heck, that would be a task so simple even a fully autonomous robot could do.
Then this will push all state executives and officers underground, much like it has been in many of the other mafia organizations. Then it will be mostly the foot soldiers who will keep being slaughtered, once again.
This might just work to make statist behavior and aggression in general unattractive and futile.
That Wired article series is very good, btw.
How the fuck can anybody down vote your comment?
I finished the series last night and it takes longer to read the second half alone than it's taken for people to see the topic, glance this article, skip the links to the Wired articles themselves (which are excellent .... except for the explinaiton could have been more detailed as to just how the IP was discovered and what could have been done better so as not to leak it... ie the Holes in TOR, but that's another whole topic, no?) and start commenting.
Talk about Contempt Prior to Investigation!
Hates? How about will not tolerate.
This article is shit and Wired is an AAPL/Cisco/MS/establishment-friendly zine. BTC and TOR were never claiming to be anonymous, they just provide the framework... anonymity is a personal CYA affair.
Yeah, Wired is a sad remnant of what it once was.
...gotta get that corporate ad revenue.
Oh FFS, come on! They advertise $25,000 watches!
PS As long as Silicon Valley works, Mid-Cal works. What's good for Narcissism is good for America (or some such shit, and no, I don't even have a smart phone)
I will say it right here and now. Every last treasonous bastard from the shitty little FBI queers to the judge and bailiffs and any other maggot that had a hand in putting this guy in jail deserve, themselves, to be put in a cage and fed to rats.
If you'd read the article, some of 'em were, for they were just as bent as he was.
If he had associates assassinated, why didn't he get the death penalty?
But the good news is Jamie Dimon and Bernanke are both free !
Their justice will come much quicker like 460m/s. They won't even know what hit them.
Fuck that. They need to squeal for months.
Dimons got full protection of Nsa.Gov.
All banking transactions go through JPMC including EBT.
Corzine is doing great too! If I were the judge doing the sentencing I would consider the victims. I am sure a life sentence for Corzine would have hundreds of people dancing in the streets. Dread Pirate Roberts? Not so much.
Free Corzine for tearing the social fabric, oh wait.. That was just plain robbery not informed adults doing consensual things.. Imprison, no Kill, yeah kill Ulbricht..
Idiocracy has arrived the history books will point to today as the arrival of Brawndo.
He shoulda known better:
The CIA just hates competition - and will do anything to protect their turf.
Yep. Just ask this guy:
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/beyond-bernard-von-nothaus/88958/
Who run Bartertown?
Let me get this straight - this guy gets life without parole for hosting a marketplace that drug dealers/purchasers operated in at their discretion - not because he allegedly ordered assasinations?
Sounds about right.
The moral?: Don't interfere with the organized illicit drug trafficking trade, the government hates competition.
I think the assassinations convictions were more problematic... Did anyone else read the wired series? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone was actually harmed. He ordered a hit from an undercover agent on yet another undercover agent....
Starts to smell a little funky, IMO.
The assassinations were an elaborate hoax/noise by some corrupt Feds in Maryland running extortion. They are being tried in their own case.
Ross eventually was surrounded by rats and his own isolation that led him off the plank of his own ship.
He fixed a problem that the Feds don't want fixed.
But the genie is out of the bottle...the new street corners are virtual like everything else these days...
This verdict was theater of kings begone projecting their might to the sheep that will never seek the truth or want to know it even if provided.
Free Jon Corzine!!
The US government (and the corporations who own them) hate competition. THEY want to be the ones making it easy to buy highly addictive and health-destroying drugs.....
The blatant and disgusting hypocrisy of the "legal" system is truly stomach-churning.... Al Sharpton sells drugs and he's the darling of media and Obama - this guy does it and gets life? WTF....
Arresting and sentencing the infrastructure creator.
Using this logic, shouldn't every Sec. of Transportation be arrested for "an assault on the public health of our communites" for making it easy for people to transport illegal drugs all across the country? Or do we just posthumously arrest Eisenhower?
DOUBLE COMMENT
Talk about “an assault on the public health of our communities” that "was terribly destructive to our social fabric,” didn't we let the tobacco companies off the hook?
"didn't we let the tobacco companies off the hook?"
And the tobacco companies hate legal (for now) and much healthier competition as well: http://casaa.org/
no, no, tobacco is ok now since they pay their tithe to state governments. either way, i'm glad this guy going away for life for creating a digital black market - now no one can buy or sell drugs anymore, and our "social fabric" will be healed from the menace. to celebrate, i think i'm going to do an 8ball tonight.
So many so called Libertarians only give it lip service. They are Libertines not Libertarians.
making it easy for people around the world to buy illegal drugs.
hmmm, who pray tell was flying them in?
there will be no competition!
There are drones for that.
Besides, as I understand it, SR merchants would simply send their merchandise using ordinary mail/shipping and it would get delivered at a good rate of success.
the usa ptb HATE free market capitalism
yes, like in petroDOLLAR
His ONLY hope is that AlCIAd'uh overthrows this USSofA Terrorist Organisation of a .Gov and break him and the other political crimbos from jail like they do in Libya etc
The judge is a sold-out pig.
she is a lying cunt. the federal gubbermint doesn't give a flying fuck about communities. throw her ass in prison for life see how she likes it.
Free Jon Corzine!
Corzine, that fucking pig dog.
Sorry, that would be the Honorable fucking pig dog.
R U free | free R U
And in other Breaking News:
The Mena, Arkansas airport is "open for business" again..
Let's hope he at least gets to have Leonard Pickard or Clyde Apperson as a cell mate/neighbor.
Judge must have been PMSing.
There should be a law that female judges can't give out sentences while on the rag. Certainly should be sufficient grounds to appeal.
And just imagine that charm school graduate Hillary Clinton....gag me....
interestingly, it is the specific reason given for why women should not be judges according to the koran.
Wow, selling drugs and paraphernalia where buyers and sellers could meet. I didn't know there was a market for such things.
Yes it is called your Doctor's Office.
Wow, so my doctor should get life imprisonment, too? But he didn't give me any paraphernalia, so maybe not.
If he had been an ex-Goldman-Sachs employee he would have been pardoned and ordered to run FIFA.
Idiot got between the MIC and its most profitable enterprise.
Just as well he wasn't a financier who swindled billions from the public, he'd never get out of jail.
Oh wait.....
The "Dinosaur 13" DVD documentary shows how Peter Larson was sentenced to two years in federal prison for participating in the discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found. His "crime" was contesting US government ownership claims of the fossil in court. The US government ownership claims were quickly thrown out of court, but then the government brought more than 100 other charges against him and his associates for things like money laundering and wire fraud. They were found innocent of all but 8 of the charges, but he still had to go to prison. He withdrew $15K from a bank to finance a fossil hunting expedition to Peru and gave $8K to Sue Hendrickson and carried the other $7K himself. He didn't declare the money because he was carrying less than $10K, but the government felt that he deserved to spend 2 years in prison for the oversight.
Lesson: don't cross the gov.
And HSBC walks free by laundering drug money. That judge is a fucking hypocrite.
What a fucking dumbshit.
OH PLEASE JUDGE, BLAH BLAH BLAH light at the end of the tunnel.
He should have been an arms dealer, or sub prime mortgage broker.
This has little to do with the drugs, and everything to do with the fact that it existed outside the official global fiscal-monetary system which is totalizing and cannot exist with any competition thus cannot permit any alternatives to exist. The same system permits (quite enormous) black markets, you say? Black markets and the drug trade transact in the official currencies, usually dollars (how convenient).
Here's the money-shot:
"“What you did with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric,” Judge Forrest said."
In other words, it was, as far as "we" are concerned, a victimless crime, but it (ever so barely) challenged various monopoly activities of the state and its banks.
We have not reached peak hypocrisy, not by a long shot.
Agreed. Not even close. After all, we're sitting on the world's largest proven reserves of righteous indignation.
BINGO!
The current system is afraid - very afraid - of bitcoin.
By making Ross an example, the judge is hoping to scare others.
But it's too late - the genie is out of the bottle.
in America the only companies that are allowed by law to sell you drugs are the 'legal' pharmaceutical corporations, whose dealers owners use all those Obamacare-funded reimbursements from selling FDA approved anti-depressants and other mind-altering substances, to then go ahead and buy back their own stock.
Did you forget Pulitzer Prize Winner Gary Webb who wrote about CIA drug sales of crack cocaine in the ghettos of California to raise money for the Contras? Unhappily, Gary Webb committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the head, the most remarkable feat of his life.
How about the fact that heroin production in Afghanistan is up 4000% since the US invaded?
dummy. his failure was not connecting to the right sources or honoring the proper distribution channels. there was a goldmine there for some properly connected criminal. maybe ross got too arrogant for his own good.
You Do Not Fuck With the Rothschilds! if what you did was legal at the time........... we will make it illegal asap!
That's the meaning of the sentence: "Don't fuck with our franchise. Fleecing the public is our talmudic god given right and all competitors will be terminated.
Ex post facto laws are expressly forbidden by the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law
And your point is ...?
Who runs Bartertown? The guy who has a phone and a pen, that's who. Same guy who will act if Congress fails to act.
Your "expressly forbidden" is wishful thinking as long as the big eared Commie queer is in the WH.
Almost. Should read "we will make it retroactively illegal asap!"
And don't give me any of that ex post facto shit because you can bet your sweet fat ass we have ways around it.
Fridays are usually heavy on the Bullshit but this is a big one.
Well done America, you're plumping new depths as far as your interpretation of "justice" goes. Small hint: Ulbricht's not the Dread Pirate at all. He's just the easier target for the DOJ to say they nailed someone for it. Golf clap for you all.
Someone who had all the BTC from silk road?
If Ross Ulbricht isn't DPR, who's your preferred suspect?
From the verdict, quoted by Wired:
"Silk Road’s birth and presence asserted that its...creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous."
Forrest had, of course, regularly agreed in verdicts that Goldman Sachs really were better than the laws of the United States. What Ross Ulbricht was was a threat to our masters, to be liquidated without mercy. If Forrest had had the authority to send him to the gallows, I don't doubt she would have done it without blinking an eye. Her verdict surpassed the prosecution's wildest expectations.
Ross Ulbricht will never see the outside of a prison again. Katherine Forrest? She's proven she can deliver, right and wrong be damned. Congress awaits.
No news. Jails being filled with people who committed no crime. The corrupt bankers and guvment is walking free. The rest of us are expected to pay our traffic fines and stay quiet.
Well the Judge maybe right. However, if the health of the social fabric is the benchmark (which must include judgement on what is ethical and immoral) then QE money printing must meet the criteria of a crime. Indeed one that would require a life sentence for Bernanke and Yellen at a minimum.
On a fundamental level QE, printing money out of thin air, creating fiat without any value or productivity generating it, is theft of economic society. Indeed it is not a voluntary exercise like Silk Road was, it is an Edict, a forced mandatory action that is by its very nature, immoral.
When does the Bernake trial begin ?
"Indeed one that would require a life sentence for Bernanke and Yellen at a minimum.
On a fundamental level QE, printing money out of thin air, creating fiat without any value or productivity generating it, is theft of economic society."
Monetary Policy and the Constitution
We have to have an example to fall back on.
We will all sleep better tonight knowing he is in jail for life. I was really nervous it would only be 25 years
Ross...youre gunna be the first pirate !!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRER1Rbg9_o