Ross Ulbricht, the 40-year-old founder of the notorious online black market Silk Road, was pardoned by former President Donald Trump after serving 10 years of a life sentence. Ulbricht’s platform facilitated over $214 million in illegal transactions, using bitcoins to obscure the activities of drug dealers, money launderers, and traffickers. Despite his admission to creating and initially running Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ulbricht claimed he had handed over control to others and was being framed. His sentence was handed down in 2015, with the judge emphasizing the unprecedented nature of using cryptocurrency to mask such extensive illegal trade. Ulbricht’s pardon came after Trump’s promise at the Libertarian National Convention to address what supporters viewed as an example of government overreach.
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