The creator of Silk Road website Ross Ulbricht age 31 was jailed for life by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan. Ulbricht's website was responsible in making million dollar drug deals. The judge found him guilty selling illegal drugs online, unlawful acts of computer hacking and money laundering.
The authorities said that Ross Ulbricht's systematic plan of drug trafficking in the secret part of the Internet called as the dark web - is unreachable by law enforcement. Silk Road website operated its illegal transactions for nearly three years. Running off for over 1.5 million transactions, including a thousand seller accounts and 100,000 buyer accounts.
Judge Katherine Forrest stated during the sentencing, that six people who bought from his website were killed from drug overdose.
One victim of the overdose happened in Boston 2013 was named Bryan B. in court papers.
U.S. District Judge Forrest said to Ross Ulbricht: "What you did was unprecedented," "And in breaking that ground as the first person, you sit here as the defendant having to pay the consequences for that."
Ulbricht was speechless as the judge read him his sentence, and was adamant in making the legal decision to forfeit the $183.9 million proceeds.
But before being sentenced Mr. Ulbricht refuses to admit the he broke the law by saying that he is not the creator of the Silk Road website.
"I wanted to empower people to make choices in their lives and have privacy and anonymity," Ulbricht said.
Joshua Dratel (Ulbricht's lawyer) said of the case that, "We have issues with the prejudice of uncharged unproven conduct that drove this sentence dramatically. It was not about the crime that he was convicted of. This was about appeals to emotion." He also added, "I'm disappointed tremendously."
Ulbricht apologized to the victim's family after the trial, saying he didn't intend to harm anyone.
