On Tuesday, President Donald Trump granted a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, who was serving a life sentence for operating an underground online marketplace where illegal transactions worth over $200 million were conducted using bitcoin. Ulbricht, 40, was arrested in 2013 and sentenced in 2015 after the US government cracked down on the Silk Road, which had been running since 2011.
Trump, who had promised during his campaign to secure Ulbricht’s release, confirmed the pardon was “full and unconditional” and shared the news with Ulbricht’s mother. Ulbricht’s attorney, Brandon Sample, expressed hope that Ulbricht would soon be released, adding that the pardon gives him the chance to rebuild his life after more than a decade in prison.
Ulbricht created Silk Road to foster a free-market environment, but prosecutors accused him of running a black-market marketplace for drugs and other illegal goods, using the Tor network and bitcoin to shield users’ identities. He was convicted in 2015 for crimes including drug distribution and money laundering.
The pardon came after the Libertarian Party and advocates for drug legalization had long lobbied for Ulbricht’s release, arguing that his case exemplified government overreach.
