In one of his first moves as the new President of the United States, Donald Trump pardoned Ross William Ulbricht, convicted founder of the Silk Road, a marketplace for drugs and illegal goods.
Ulbricht, now 40, is an Austin Native who graduated from Westlake High School in 2002.
Ulbricht was serving two life setences plus 40 years without the possiblity of parole. He was convincted in 2015.
“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!”
For 11 years, Ulbricht has been behind bars after the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrested him for running the Silk Road, a sprawling $1.2 billion black-market bazaar for drugs, computer hacking software, forgeries, and hit man services.
Ulbricht was convicted of founding the site, programming its features and overseeing its operations.
In 2013, the FBI arrested Ulbricht at a library in San Francisco and charged him with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.
Here’s a story Silicon Hills News reported when Ulbricht was arrested in October of 2013.
