Elon Musk Believes Ross Ulbricht’s Sentence Was Too Harsh

Elon Musk believes Ross Ulbricht’s double life sentence was too harsh, and why does he think that we read more in today’s crypto news.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk believes Ross Ulbricht’s sentence was excessive for his role in creating an online darknet marketplace. When asked about the Free Ross campaign, Musk replied:

 “He definitely has issues, but the sentencing seems a bit high.”

Back in 2011, Ulbricht founded the Silk Road platform which was designed to let users buy and sell narcotics online. It was one of the first websites that enabled users to use crypto although the transparency of the BTC network backfired for the users and led to a number of arrests. In 2013, the FBI conducted a full sting operation and arrested Ulbricht in the San Francisco public library. He was convinced two years later on all counts of money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics and was sentenced to double life imprisonment without the option of parole.

This is true power haha pic.twitter.com/Fc9uhQSd7O

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2021

Included in the trial were allegations that Ulbricht paid $730,000 to have five people killed and this was based on transcripts that appeared to show “Dread Pirate Roberts” which was a moniker that Ross used and he discussed ways of paying for the hits. The trial was spiked with controversies and the murder evidence was also introduced but Ulbricht wasn’t actually charged with ordering any murders. The key issue here was that the prosecution couldn’t find the people that were supposed to be killed. A separate indictment that he ordered a killing was dropped. Ulbricht filed an appeal claiming that the claims are false and are what led to a harsher sentence but the sentence was upheld.

Another issue was the two of the FBI agents in the Ulbricht case were convicted for illegal activity in the case as Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges was convicted of stealing thousands of dollar’s worth of BTC during the investigation while DEA agent Carl Mark Force tried extorting Ross. Ulbricht’s mother Lyn who set up the campaign to free her son, plead for clemency in his case and argued that the corrupt agents tainted the investigation. All of the appeals up to this day were unsuccessful with the campaign being petitioned for a Presidential pardon with more than 394,000. Donald Trump didn’t pardon Ulbricht at the end of his presidency.