Who Is Ross Ulbricht, Founder Of Silk Road Darknet Marketplace, Pardoned By Trump?

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for operating an online black market, which facilitated over $200 million in illegal sales using Bitcoin.

Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, was arrested in 2013 and convicted in 2015 of charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering. Prosecutors alleged he operated the site under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts" and took extreme measures to protect it. Ulbricht admitted to creating the Silk Road but argued he became a scapegoat for its later operators.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponisation of government against me," Trump stated on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Who is Ross Ulbricht?

• Ross William Ulbricht was born on March 27, 1984, in Austin, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006 and pursued a master's degree in materials science and engineering at Pennsylvania State University, where he developed an interest in libertarian economic theory. He graduated in 2009.
• In 2011, Ulbricht launched Silk Road, a darknet marketplace. The site allowed users to buy and sell illegal products and services, including poisons, drugs, hacking tools and stolen passports, using Bitcoin for transactions. Ulbricht operated under the pseudonym 'Dread Pirate Roberts', inspired by the movie The Princess Bride. The name 'Silk Road' was derived from the historic trade routes spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• Silk Road was shut down in 2013 after Ulbricht was arrested at a San Francisco public library in an FBI sting operation. Court documents revealed Silk Road had nearly one million registered users and facilitated over $200 million worth of anonymous transactions.
• In 2015, Ulbricht was convicted of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, money laundering, and other charges. Evidence suggested he hired six murders-for-hire, though no evidence showed that any killings occurred.
• Ulbricht was sentenced to double life imprisonment plus 40 years without parole on May 29, 2015. He appealed to the US Court of Appeals in 2017 and the US Supreme Court in 2018 but those were unsuccessful. He was in prison for almost 12 years until Donald Trump granted him a full and unconditional Presidential pardon on January 22, 2025.