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Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

nytimes.com

231–240 of 641 posts

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Hey everybody, icelander hired someone to kill multiple people. Hey icelander, now you, too have allegedly hired someone to kill multiple people.

>Hey everybody, icelander hired someone to kill multiple people.

Better find that icelander guy. What a jerk. (Probably should read my username a bit closer next time.)

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#232
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people supposedly "murdered" never existed... the names did not belong to real people, nor did the photo id's match anyone of record, etc. It's a rumor that they were Fed baiting him... and likely why the Fed never tried to charge him on the murder-for-hire counts.

You can still be charged with soliticing a minor if you happen to be a star on To Catch a Predator. Just because the minor in question never existed doesn't mean it's not a crime.

Is it not known as entrapment to present a false situation in order to get a conviction or indictment, even if it's to confirm on behalf of the target a tendency or willingness to participate in the activity were to be real - and illegal because of its implications for abuse and its lack of real damage?

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#233

The fact that he explicitly paid for the murder and torture of former employees and their roommates is enough for me to feel like life in prison is fair. Yes, an actual murder is a worse outcome than a murder-for-hire that never materialized, but if you're a rich and sophisticated drug-kingpin attempting to commission torture and murder to secure your criminal enterprise, the punishment should be the most severe. Mur…

It's also a case where I don't think the fact the hitmen were part of a sting would vindicate him. I can understand the argument you were pressured into buying drugs. But actually paying money to have someone murdered? That would pass a moral barrier most people have. You can't use the fact it's a sting as an opt-out there.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#235
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See: Portugal Instead of imprisoning for drug usage - provide treatment and rehab. It's cheaper and has better results. One could argue culture differences in drug usage, but that looks like an attempt to "knock it before you try it". That's without going into how broken the US prison system is! See: privately owned prisons that require a quota to be filled [0]. [0] http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/article/criminal…

So if someone opened a website in Portugal and sold illegal drugs, weapons and stolen financial data, that person would be looking at a few months of talk therapy? Don't think so.

Context of who I was responding and what they were saying is extremely important when reading. You should give it a try! Or do you enjoy making silly strawman attacks against things that were never said?

Try reading the parent I responded to once more - then my response. If it isn't clear how they correlate, focus especially on the closing sentences of the parent before reading my response to them. If still confused - press the "Panic!" button and I'll do my best to assist you.

E:

I see the "Panic!" button was pressed. Do you require assistance?

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#236

It looks like the lessons here are 1) Be careful how your promote your criminal enterprise (early bitcoin talk pages about silk road are from Ross) 2) Don't commit a crime to cover up a lesser crime (Covering up running silk road by trying to commit murder by hire) 3) regularaly check the IP of your service that is running a TOR site. Requests sent to that IP should have been blocked.

The real lesson should be don't serious commit crimes. I don't know any organization that has never had a security fuck up.

The real lesson should be don't serious commit crimes.

The whole of morality is not contained by the law. How about those folks who broke apartheid law by going to the University of Alabama? I stipulate that operational security is not exactly part of breaking apartheid laws, but still...

Copyright laws are going way way overboard. How about breaking those laws in order to expose corruption? That could happen, easily. "Don't commit serious crimes" is advice for the conformist.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#237

So let's get this straight for the justice system: 1. misleading the American public into going to a series of costly wars through lies about WMDs -> not punishable 2. Weakening Glass-Stegal and encouraging questionable and irresponsible risk-taking at major banking institutions -> not punishable 3. Fraudulent evaluation of risk-ratings by trusted agencies for the sake of profit leading to worst financial disaster si…

Also let's not forget:

5. Apples are red

6. Oranges are orange

You're comparing facts: "Ulbricht ran The Silk Road," with your own conjecture: "Banks encouraged 'questionable' risk taking." You're making a lot of extraordinary claims that are very very difficult to prove with no evidence to back them up.

And you're using this conjecture as evidence of... something? You don't really make a point. You just repeat popular internet tropes.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#238
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

So alleged hearsay is now enough to raise the sentence to a life in prison in US? O.o

It's just amazing to me how just alleging something by press release then withdrawing the allegation from the trial is enough to sentence somebody in the mind of the public. Just look at how people here are voting.

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#239

Jyoti Saran had 15,000 customers a week, made 200 million dollars, and was filling 3,000 orders per day. Sentence? 12 years. Rick Ross was sentences to life. For 100kg of cocaine. Sentence was reduced to 20 years. So, we will see what happens to Ulbricht. My guess is that the life will stick, though. After all, this involved computers.

A cursory Google search does not reveal much about this Jyoti Saran other than the details of his indictment [1] and the auction of his Arlington mansion[2].

Is little else known about this figure, even as he is nearing completion of his prison term?

[1] http://www.justice.gov/usao/txn/PressRel09/saran_sen_pr.html

[2] http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527487038592045755264...

Re: Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

#240
post #94

Wouldn't the USPS/FedEx/UPS also be liable as a drug courrier?

No, because they took reasonable precautions and tried to stop drug parcels etc.

They're not liable because a few snook through their defences. They'd be liable if they had no defences.

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