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Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

nytimes.com

191–200 of 641 posts

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#191
So he gets life for starting and operating a shady business that was "terribly destructive to our social fabric" and "lowered the barriers to obtaining illegal [goods and services]".

Great. Now that we have a solid benchmark for the minimum level of criminality possible to get a lifetime imprisonment sentence, we can finally start prosecuting those responsible for the financial fraud that caused the last recession. It was pretty destructive to our social fabric. There was a lot of bar-lowering going on, too.

Right?

Hello?

Anyone?

[mic goes dead, and house lights shut off]

I guess I'll just go home, then.

In light of the differential between the outcomes of prosecutions of highly publicized crimes, I think perhaps he was convicted for "failing to pay the minimum campaign contributions tax and lobbying tax on filthy lucre" and also got the mandatory minimum sentence for "we need to make a really big example of this guy because we are totally unprepared to handle anyone smarter and more cautious than him", with just a little shot of "X on the Internet is a thousand times worse than X in person".

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The murder for hire scheme was the second overt act charged in Count One (an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy is an element of conspiracy.) [0] [0] see p. 5 of the indictment: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-sdny/legacy/...

So a murder is hidden under a less serious offence? Just search for the phrase murder in the document you linked. How many hits? Zero

[deleted]

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#194
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I've been seeing the other comments about that. As I said I'm not 100% up to speed on the details. I'd like to see more evidence that he actually was being convicted of that though and not just that it was a factor in determining sentencing. I don't doubt it's possible he was trying to contract a hit but the stories about the FBI stinging him, etc. make me a bit suspicious.

[deleted]

His entire comment is about being unable to make a decision because he lacks all the evidence. If that's judgement its of the most benign sort.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I see. unfortunately there is no "killing for pay" in the document you linked either. Just stop making shit up.

> unfortunately there is no "killing for pay" in the document you linked either. Actually the document uses the phrase "murder-for-hire". Your word search probably failed because its an image scan and has no searchable text. You actually need to read it. Which should be helped by the fact that where I linked it, I told you where in the document the murder-for-hire scheme was addressed.

Ok thanks. Where is the text where he is actually sentenced for it?

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#196

That seems way too harsh to me. I have strong opinions on the US War on Drugs and it's failure to meaningful deal with drug use/abuse in the USA. And I feel even worse about how it's spilling out into the rest of the world as we go "global" with everything. I can't say I know every detail of the case but I don't recall anyone getting killed or even hurt by Mr. Ulbricht so in my mind the punishment does not fit the cr…

He allegedly hired someone to kill multiple people, by the way. http://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-boss... I agree with you that drug trafficking is way overprosecuted, but...

What is really interesting about this transcript is the people are named in full, with some addresses and other details (married, etc.) The hits, I'm assuming, were fake because the contact was undercover, but what happened with the targets? Did the one threatening him have to play along and no longer send the threatening e-mails once the undercover told him the job was done? Were they prosecuted in any way?

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, it's right at the very beginning of the exact page that he linked you. The fact that it says "murder-for-hire" with hyphens doesn't somehow make it not say "murder". EDIT: Whoops I see that zorpner said basically the exact same thing just a couple minutes before me.

Yes, but was he sentenced for it?

> Yes, but was he sentenced for it?

Yes, it was a factor in his sentencing (the whole debate about whether or not it was charged was because it was included as a factor in the proposed calculation for sentencing.)

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#199

I strongly believe that my son would be here today if Ross Ulbricht had not created Silk Road Wrong, you're son would be here if you were a better parent.

You don't know that.

For some kids better parents mean better behavior. But some kids will act badly no matter what their parents do.

It sucks to say this, but some people just have bad genes, and there is nothing someone outside can do to help.

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