WASHINGTON — An Austin native who was sentenced to life in prison for founding a dark web marketplace that specialized in illegal drug sales has been pardoned by President Donald Trump.
The president announced Tuesday that he has pardoned 40-year-old Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road. President Trump said on Truth Social that he had spoken to Ulbricht’s mother on his first full day in office. He called Ulbricht’s prison sentence “ridiculous” and said, “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.”
Ulbricht’s pardon comes as the result of a promise the president made during a speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention in May 2024. Activists with the party have long believed that government investigators overreached when building their case against Silk Road, and many at the convention held “Free Ross” signs.
Background on Ulbricht’s case
In February 2015, Ulbricht – a Westlake High School graduate – was convicted in New York of creating and operating Silk Road, an underground website where users bought and sold drugs and other illicit materials using cryptocurrency.
Ulbricht’s defense attorney argued that investigators arrested Ulbricht in San Francisco on insufficient evidence in 2013 because they were pressured to make an arrest and shut down Silk Road. The prosecutor in the case said overwhelming evidence proved Ulbricht was the leading force behind the marketplace, operating it under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”
Ulbricht was convicted on all seven counts he was charged with: distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the Internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents and conspiring to commit money laundering.
Federal prosecutors also alleged Ulbricht was involved in at least five murder-for-hire deals, but believed no contracted killing actually occurred. Ulbricht did not face any charges related to the alleged deals.
In May 2015, a federal judge sentenced Ulbricht to two terms of life in prison and three lesser sentences.