Alleged Silk Road Kingpin Ross Ulbricht Pleads Not Guilty
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2014-02-07 18:40:06 UTC
After more than 125 days in custody, Ross Ulbricht has officially entered a plea: not guilty.
The alleged mastermind of the online drug empire Silk Road denied charges of acting as kingpin of a large-scale criminal enterprise, drug trafficking, hacking and money laundering at his indictment hearing in a New York City courtroom on Friday. Federal prosecutors released a formal indictment against Ulbricht on Tuesday.
The majority of Friday's hearing was dedicated to working out logistics and agreeing on a timeframe for the discovery period of the case. In particular, federal prosecutor Serrin Turner and Ulbricht's defense attorney Joshua Dratel discussed the technical details of transferring electronic evidence from the government to the defense, so the defense can review it and build its case.
Turner said the government is in possession of around 10 terabytes of data from the seized Silk Road servers, in addition to the laptop they seized from Ulbricht when he was apprehended.
FBI agents arrested Ulbricht in a San Francisco public library on Oct. 1. Soon after, authorities moved Ulbricht to New York to face charges.
Law enforcement officials have accused Ulbricht of running the $1.2 billion drug operation under the alias "Dread Pirate Roberts" between January 2011 and his arrest, the same day Silk Road was seized and shut down.
If found guilty of all four charges, Ulbricht would face a minimum of 30 years in prison and a maximum of life. The "kingpin" charge is the most severe one Ulbricht faces in this case; if found guilty of that charge, he could face a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. He could also face life in prison from the drug trafficking charge. Both the hacking and money laundering charges carry minimum sentences of five years and maximums of 20 years.
In addition to the charges in the indictment, prosecutors also say Ulbricht paid to have six people murdered. Despite allegedly laying out $730,000 for these hits, investigators say there is no evidence anyone died as a result of these murder-for-hire requests.
Ulbricht's trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 3.
Oct. 1, 2013: FBI seizes Silk Road and arrests Ross Ulbricht.
Oct. 2, 2013: Court documents released showing Silk Road's vast scope.
Oct. 8, 2013: Authorities round up eight alleged Silk Road dealers from around the world.
Nov. 6, 2013: A new version of Silk Road, commonly referred to as Silk Road 2.0, launches.
Nov. 21, 2013: Federal prosecutor reveals compelling new details in the case against Ulbricht.
Nov. 21, 2013: Federal judge denies Ross Ulbricht's bail request after Ulbricht's family and friends offered to pledge more than $1 million.
Dec. 17, 2013: Four alleged Silk Road meth dealers arrested in the U.S.
Dec. 20, 2013: Three alleged Silk Road moderators arrested in a global sting.
Jan 16. 2014: Federal prosecutors attain forfeiture notice allowing them to sell 29,600 bitcoins seized from Silk Road.
Jan. 26, 2014: Charlie Shrem, the CEO of a major Bitcoin company, arrested for connection to Silk Road.
Feb. 4, 2014: Federal prosecutors formally indict Ross Ulbricht on four felony charges.
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Topics: crime, Deep Web, new york, Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road, U.S., US & World, World
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