Ross Ulbricht, founder of the notorious online marketplace Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in Manhattan. Considered as the mastermind behind the underground website Silk Road, the marketplace was used to sell and buy drugs anonymously.
Silk road was an unregulated online market place used for the sale of LSD, heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs. As much as $214 million worth of transactions were facilitated over the network in its three years of lifespan before it was shut down in 2013 by FBI. Working in the so-called dark net, the platform allowed complete anonymity and secrecy keeping the store out of law enforcement.
According to authorities, over 1.5 million transactions were carried out on the website involving over 100,000 buyer and several thousand seller accounts. These transactions were paid through Bitcoins and according to officials, Ulbricht under his pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts took millions of dollars in commissions.
Ulbricht had earlier pleaded for leniency,
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Reprinted from WCCFTech.com