Back روس أولبريخت Arabic রস উইলিয়াম উলব্রিখ Bengali/Bangla Ross Ulbricht Czech Ross Ulbricht German Ross Ulbricht Spanish راس اولبریکت Persian Ross Ulbricht Finnish Ross Ulbricht French Ռոսս Ուիլյամ Ուլբրիխտ Armenian Ross Ulbricht ID
Ross Ulbricht | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ulbricht leaving prison after being pardoned in 2025 | |
| Born | Ross William Ulbricht March 27, 1984 Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Other names | Dread Pirate Roberts, Frosty, Altoid |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Darknet market operator |
| Known for | Founder of Silk Road (marketplace) |
| Criminal status | Pardoned by Donald Trump on January 21, 2025 |
| Website | freeross |
Ross William Ulbricht (/ˈʊlbrɪkt/; born March 27, 1984)[1] is an American who created and operated the darknet market Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Silk Road was an online marketplace that facilitated the trade in narcotics and other illegal products and services. Sales were anonymous, using bitcoin. It operated as a hidden service on the Tor network.[2][3] Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. In 2015, he was convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking.[4][5] He was sentenced to double life in prison plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. Many decried the sentence as excessive, most notably members of the Libertarian Party and the "Free Ross" movement. Ulbricht's appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful.[6][7][8] He was released from prison in January 2025, when he received a full and unconditional pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.[9]
- ^ Ulbricht, Ross [@RealRossU] (March 28, 2022). "I turned 38 yesterday" (Tweet). Retrieved August 28, 2023 – via Twitter.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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USA Today shutdown infowas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Jury Verdict". Docket Alarm. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ "Ross Ulbricht, The Creator And Owner Of The "Silk Road" Website, Found Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court On All Counts". www.justice.gov. May 13, 2015. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
- ^ "Silk Road founder loses his appeal, will serve a life sentence for online crimes". Techcrunch.com. May 31, 2017. Archived from the original on May 31, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ "Certiorari Denied" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. p. 5. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
- ^ "Judgment in a Criminal Case (Sentencing)". Docket Alarm. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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