“Now we’re hearing from President Donald Trump, issuing yet another pardon for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht”

[Simone Del Rosario]

The “day two” pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht made headlines. But it’s been a decade since Silk Road was really in the news. If you’re thinking, “Remind me what Silk Road is again?” I got you.

[Donald Trump]

If you vote for me, on day one, I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbrich to a sentence of time served. (Leave in some crowd cheers)

He’s already served 11 years, we’re going to get them home.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Libertarians latched on to the freedom cry for Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for crimes connected to Silk Road.

Silk Road came about in the dark web’s heyday. It was a website hosted through the Tor Browser, which is “designed to prevent websites from fingerprinting or identifying you based on your browser configuration.” In simpler terms, Tor lets people surf the web without revealing who or where they are.

Silk Road the website was named after the ancient trade route linking China with the West. But this modern trade happened on the online black market. People used Silk Road to sell and buy hard drugs, like heroin and cocaine. You could also buy other illegal items like hacking equipment and stolen passports. It was like the eBay for illicit items, trading in Bitcoin to complete hard-to-trace transactions.

The original site, which was shut down in 2013, had just under one million registered users, according to the FBI.

As for how much business they did, get a load of this. According to the criminal complaint against Ulbricht, over roughly two years, “The total revenue generated from these sales was [about 9.5 million] Bitcoins, and the total commissions collected by Silk Road from the sales amounted to [more than 600,000] Bitcoins.”

That’s a lot of bitcoin. But remember … back then, it wasn’t the six-figure score it is today.

In July 2013, Bitcoin traded at $94.50. That would put revenue from sales just shy of $900 million, ($899,608,248) and Silk Road commissions in excess of $58 million (58,051,822.50)

Ok, just for fun, with Bitcoin trading today around $103,000, that amount of Bitcoin revenue would approach one trillion dollars ($980,525,392,000) and Silk Road’s commission would be $63 billion ($63,273,415,000).

Ok, one more math configuration and then we’ll get on with it.

In 2013, the FBI seized a total of nearly 174,000 (173,991) Bitcoin linked to the Silk Road case. At the time, it was worth $33.6 million. If the FBI subscribed to HODL – crypto slang for buy-and-hold – the seized Bitcoin is worth more than $18 billion today.

Ok back to it.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her he pardoned her son “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement,” adding “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”

Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle said, “Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade. I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off.”

Ulbricht went by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to the main character of the classic 1987 film The Princess Bride.

“Inconceivable.”

“You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Simone Del Rosario:

Not him…

“Have you ever considered piracy?”

Simone Del Rosario:

That’s more like it.

Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco in 2013 as part of an elaborate sting operation. He was later found guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. The government says he also solicited six murder-for-hire schemes, including one against a former Silk Road employee.

Despite running a site on the dark web, he apparently wasn’t that skilled at hiding his own identity. The FBI says he touted running the underground marketplace on LinkedIn, Tried to hire a contract killer that turned out to be a cop, and even tried to troubleshoot some coding problems with the site using his real name.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in federal prison in 2015. He was also ordered to forfeit more than $183 million.

At the time, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said, “Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people.”

For more on the thousands of pardons issued by both presidents in just the past week, search pardon at SAN.com or the Straight Arrow News app today.