“Dread Pirate Roberts,” the mastermind behind the notorious black-market website Silk Road, was sentenced to the maximum of life in prison Friday as a federal judge bashed him as “no better a person than any other drug dealer.”
Ross Ulbricht, 31, was convicted in February on drug-trafficking and money-laundering raps for creating and running Silk Road, which let its clientele buy and sell methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and other illicit goods by using the encrypted virtual currency bitcoin.
“The testimony of those parents was incredibly moving. I never wanted for that to happen,” Ulbricht said in Manhattan federal court Friday, his voice choked with emotion.
“I’m so sorry to the families of the deceased.”
Prosecutors didn’t ask for Ulbricht to get life in prison — the sentence recommended by the Probation Department — but they did ask for a sentence significantly longer than the 20-year mandatory minimum.
“He was emulating a traditional drug kingpin because he was essentially in the same business,” Assistant US Attorney Serrin Turner said in court.
And two parents of people who suffered fatal overdoses from drugs bought on Silk Road also stood up in court to give victim impact statements.
“I strongly believe my son would be here today if Ross Ulbricht never created Silk Road,” said Boston dad Richard, whose son died of a heroin overdose after ordering the drug from Silk Road.
The Manhattan federal jury deliberated just over three hours in February before finding the so-called “Dark-Web” kingpin guilty on all seven counts related to his operating Silk Road from January 2011 until October 2013.
He operated under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,” fashioned after a character in the 1987 film “The Princess Bride.”
Prosecutors have said Ulbricht enabled over 1 million illegal drug deals worth about $213 million and pocketed 144,336 bitcoins that were worth $18 million.
He was busted by FBI agents in a San Francisco library in 2013.