Posted on 05/30/2015 9:30:40 AM PDT by Beave Meister
The convicted mastermind behind the world's largest online narcotics emporium has been sentenced by a federal judge to two terms of life in prison and three lesser sentences, USA Today reports. The judge also ordered Ross Ulbricht, 31, to forfeit $184 million dollars. The website made over $187 million before it was shut down in 2013.
The government estimated that roughly $1.2 billion in illegal drug transactions took place on Silk Road.
The judge said it was a "demand expanding operation" and that what Ulbricht did was thoughtful, as opposed to just being an economic experiment. She added that he often referred to it as his life's work and a worldwide criminal enterprise.
"Silk Road was about creating demand and fulfilling demand," the judge said. "You don't fit the criminal profile" — noting that he was well educated — "but you are a criminal."
"I don't know that you feel a lot of remorse," the judge added. "I don't think you know that you hurt a lot of people."
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
He could get some Cup O’ Noodles and Slim Jim’s.
Its the least I could do....
Saw these headlines yesterday, did not know what Silk Road was.
Government don’t like people cutting into their business.
The guy threatened the ability of the State to extort money from everyone.
I think this is more about tax evasion and power than real harm to real people.
Of course, taxes of some sort are necessary. But It appears to me that the judge is more outraged at the affront to State Power, than he is concerned with “the little people”.
While it can, how would you ever do the research in this shadowy underworld?
All the judge could see is a segment growing under HIS purview. Whether something else shrank was quite out of view.
A common situation between the police and drug runners is that confiscations happen from time to time and it is a kind of rough tax because the offenders never get prosecuted or only get slaps on the wrist.
Silk Road...FIFA...Denny Hastert...anything to avoid going after the Clintons.
This is supposed to be about right and wrong, but green palm grease makes it easy to forget that.
The idea of a prohibition on substances rather than on behaviors is foreign to the Judeo-Christian background that raised America to such success and blessing in the past.
I’ve seen people play mighty violins from time to time over how addictions got out of hand in the late 19th century and following, but this was also a time when ecclesiastical ministry about the issue was weak. In the meantime forcing it all into the shadows out of the sunlight only let it grow to be worse that it was. We could wish that the 19th century addiction problems were all we had today.
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What he said. The Feral Goberment sees this as MUCH worse than murder or baby raping. Can’t allow such a challenge to go unanswered.
That sums this up quite well.
You need to ask yourself, if that's the case why in hell was he not convicted of attempted murder?
Think of the billions in penalties ebay and paypal could face for the bootleg video, CD, and other intellectual properties that are publicly traded on their website.
That's exactly what this is about. A bad guy who made the mistake of stepping on the turf of even worse guys.
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