Ulbricht, sentenced to life in prison in 2015, given ‘full and unconditional’ pardon by president
      • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Of course they do. This is how they cope with anything Trump related. They come up with conspiracy theories.

              • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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                2 years ago

                I don’t think that Ulbricht had the capability to bribe Trump. I think that Lemmy and Reddit users are trying to justify Trump’s pardon by saying it was done through illegal activity (bribery) instead of campaign promises. That’s why I say they are making up conspiracy theories. Now I believe he can be bribed because of all the felonies he got from issuing bribes.

                • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Gotcha, I still think he got paid for this because Ross was in for hiring a hitman which is an odd thing for Trump to pardon.

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          2 years ago

          Soooo…. Do you not know what lawyers and trusts are and what they do? If not, have an adult explain these things to you when you can, and if so….

          Why embarrass yourself wish such an ignorant comment?

        • Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works
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          2 years ago

          Kodak black paid 2mil for a pardon the first time. This is highly likely to be true, you are either uniformed, a bot, or in on the grift.

          • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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            2 years ago
            1. How did he pay all that money while in prison?
            2. Where are you getting your facts about Ross from besides your ass?
              • Eezyville@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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                2 years ago

                This is incredibly stupid. Prison officials will do everything they can to prevent an inmate from moving around assets for VERY OBVIOUS reasons. But, after thinking about it, it may not be so obvious for this echo chamber so let me explain the obvious.

                You are an inmate in prison. You made millions doing your illegal thing while free but you hare now doing hard time. You don’t like hard time, you want easy or no time. How do you make your life better while in prison. Wait, you have millions. You’ll just use that money to have your way with the guards and prison system. Guard giving you trouble? Use your assets that you’ve amassed to “get rid of them”.

                The prison system has protocols and processes in place to prevent all inmates from being able to control any assets they have on the outside. This prevents them from committing further crimes, exerting influence, or running an enterprise (criminal or legal) while incarcerated.

            • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              Lawyers or anyone that has power of attorney can make payments on your behalf. How do you think people pay mortgages or make payments in jail?

                • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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                  2 years ago

                  I never said it was. I specified who can make payments for you while you are serving time. The fact you think this can’t happen or that the prison has any involvement in this is really off

                  edit: It should say Lawyers OR not ir perhaps that’s the confusion?

          • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comdeleted by creatorEnglish
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            2 years ago

            Ross was an idiot, that’s why he was caught. They seized all his remaining bitcoin, what hadn’t been stolen by hackers because, again, he was an idiot and the Silk Road was slapped together from code cobbled from other places. There’s no way the dude was smart enough to set some aside for bribes in case he got caught, because he was so sure he wouldn’t that he advertised the Silk Road using his personal email with his real name in forum posts.

            While I don’t think he deserved life in prison, he sure as hell ended up there because of how ridiculously idiotic he was. The dude isn’t smart enough to be a manager at Arby’s, let alone run a criminal enterprise.

            • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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              2 years ago

              isn’t smart enough to be a manager at Arby’s

              Hey buddy, chill, there’s almost certainly talented doctors from other countries who couldn’t afford to recertify managing at least 2 Arby’s…and those will be the only 2 you don’t get food poisoning from.

              • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comdeleted by creatorEnglish
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                2 years ago

                That is completely missing my point. I’m sure there’s literal rocket scientists who have had to work at Arby’s to make ends meet, but that has nothing to do with Ross lacking the intellect to properly manage one. We’re not talking about immigrant doctors in this thread.

            • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 years ago

              they didn’t catch him because of bad opsec, unless you consider Tor to be bad opsec. they caught him with a parallel reconstruction after the NSA illegally spied on him.

              change my mind

    • MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Yeah, you know the kids smart enough to have some hidden like thousands of them or something crazy and made a deal.

      It’s not out of the kindness of his heart.

  • nomy@lemmy.zipEnglish
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    2 years ago

    Wow, holy fuck, I never thought it’d happen. Even a broken clock is right twice a day I guess.

    This dude is about to have a very lucrative career.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 years ago

      You’re saying it’s the right move to release a man convicted of (I believe) several counts of attempted murder?

              • nomy@lemmy.zipEnglish
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                2 years ago

                We don’t actually know as those charges were dropped. In this country you’re innocent until proven guilty, therefore he’s innocent.

                I’m not making any statements on his personality or character, just that he’s not guilty.

                • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Absolutely, he is legally innocent of this, as the charges were indeed dropped.

                  However, it’s all publicly documented. You can read the DMs where all of this occurred if you’d like. It includes the transaction IDs and wallets in which this all occurred. The paper trail is all there. This happened, whether legally recognized or not. I do completely agree with you that he is legally innocent, but the evidence that this happened is overwhelming.

                  The reason he wasn’t found guilty of this specifically is because the prosecution, in the case in which he was found guilty, didn’t even include this in his charges, but instead used it as an example of his character in relation to the charges he did receive. Considering there was no actual murder that took place, they probably felt they had significantly better odds with other charges that they could easily get a guilty verdict (and significant sentence) with. This isn’t uncommon procedure.

                  Meanwhile, the Maryland case in which he was being charged in relation to this, was dropped once he’d already been found guilty in NY and sentenced to two life sentences.

  • jeffw@lemmy.worldM
    0·
    2 years ago

    Anyone else remember the panic when you logged in and saw the notice that the site was seized by the feds?

    I mean, certainly not something I experienced but I’m sure if I had it would’ve been terrifying to think the feds could find your info

    • oldfart@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      All sellers had pgp keys published, everyone just used these and feds could not see shit.

      Not like the later honeypots where the market published fake pgp keys on sellers’ profiles and MITMed the communications.

          • BilboBargains@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            The judicial system in America is obviously not about what is written in their legal statutes or the veracity of the evidence presented. Otherwise war criminals, fraudsters and rapists like Bush, Cheney, Trump and Clinton would be in prison. It is about advancing an agenda for a white male US hegemony and that explains most of the outcomes, e.g. black people being enslaved in prison. Ulbricht thumbed his nose at the establishment and they got pissy. Assange and Snowden revealed their crimes and they hunted them to the ends of the earth. The CIA and their stooges, the Swedes, fabricated a rape allegation against Assange that was quietly dismissed, unfulfilled, seven years later. This establishment will stop at nothing to assert their authority and you wonder about evidence in the Ulbricht case?

            • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              No I don’t wonder because again that evidence was used to convict the DEA agents that stole from Silk Road. You are linking a bunch of things that have nothing to do with each other. The pattern you are seeing is an illusion

      • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 years ago

        it was to kill competition who were threatening to kill him. id say if the law won’t protect you, you are free to protect yourself

        • AugustWest@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Edit: I wrote a whole comment about this and the corrupt DEA agents involved in pushing him into a murder-for-hire scheme who were also working as moderators for the Silk Road, and later went to prison for crimes surrounding the ordeal.

          But I decided against it, because the fact remains that it is likely he did attempt to have people killed. It was due to threats of exposing him, not threats on his life. And the fact is that him likely being entrapped is a good legal defense but not a good moral one.

          If we ignore everything involving the possible contract murder deals, I say that his release is wonderful. Considering he was never convicted of any of the murder for hire stuff, his sentence was draconian, and marked a real shift in the freedom of the internet. As to Trump, even a broken clock is right twice every 78 years.

          But this release is not so sweet knowing what Ross may have and likely tried to do in order to hang onto his crumbling empire.

            • AugustWest@lemmy.world
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              2 years ago

              I really don’t know, but I doubt they would. It’s possible for the original 5 instances he was accused of, as he was never tried but the district court conceded he probably did it.

              The 6th, later and more famous instance? Probably not. He was actually indicted for that in Maryland, but it was a weak case that was dropped once he was convicted of his other drug and financial crimes. In the later incident, the hitman who he purportedly hired was Carl Force; the corrupt DEA agent. At best, Force’s action constituted entrapment. At worst, the whole story is unreliable. Either way, I can’t see any government agency thrilled about dragging the details of that situation out of obscurity.

  • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
    0·
    2 years ago

    Trump said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her he would pardon her son “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”.

    Wildy transactional.

    So… does “full and unconditional” mean he’s also pardoned for the murders-for-hire? Or just for being a drug lord and America’s Next Top Website Boy?

      • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
        0·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, it’s insane that he’s just openly being like, “I promise to use the powers of my office to solely benefit myself,” and the Supreme Court’s just like, “Get it, grrrrrl”

        Although, to be fair, it did also benefit a guy who tried to murder five people.

      • TimLovesTech@badatbeing.socialEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        His part is signing a piece of paper with a Sharpie that one of his handlers puts in front of him. That phone call had to be horrible, Trump trying to explain to a mom he is setting her son that he knows nothing about, free because he once said he would to a large group of people he wants to grift.

        Because 0% he knows the guy’s name, who he was, or why he was in prison.

        Edit - autocorrect =(

        • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 years ago

          I mean, I’m just going to go with the most obvious grift. Ulbricht is going to go right back to operating a crypto street pharmacy. Hell, he’ll do it on the open web now. He’ll call it “The New Silk Road” or similar.

          And then there’s an agreement for the feds to not go after them. In exchange, Ulbricht uses a good portion of his earnings to become the largest single investor in Trumpcoin ever. If asked, the feds can either ignore the question or hide behind some fig leaf excuse they come up with.

          It’s not like Trump didn’t run blatant undeniable cons in the last administration.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Didn’t Donald the Jester say something about fighting crime before the election? And then he drops thousands of hard criminals back on the street?

  • AlDente@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    This was one of the biggest requests of the Libertarian Party and Trump followed through with it. Could you imagine the Democratic Party agreeing to any demand from the Green Party in an attempt to get votes?

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Then you should probably care about him. He gave people around the world access to medicine that was illegal

      • Glasgow@lemmy.mlEnglish
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        2 years ago

        Silk Road wasn’t the first darknet market ya know. I helped launch the first couple that were .onion prior to Ross, but the movement has been about since the 90s at least and would’ve happened without any of us. We were working on a decentralised version that would’ve been unstoppable but people moved on and got other priorities when SR took all the media attention and spotlight. I’m guessing it’ll emerge out crypto soon now the tech has caught up with the theory.