Man I wish I could still agree with you but he tried to kill an imaginary nigger in the gayest way possible, regardless of what he was when he started SR. He does not come away well when you look at his case. He also got fuckin rolled like a herring by a crooked cop(?) with 2 emails LMAO. I fuckin hate feebs glowies and other alphabet mafia cunts, I dont believe a word they say but see for yourself:
Ross Ulbricht was guilty after all(Ryan Dawson):
Personally, I think he probably
did try to have people killed, but with that being said, I think it's a lot more murky than it's made out to be when people retell the story now. There are strong reasons to doubt the government's story about his murder for hire plots.
First of all, nobody was actually ever harmed. I get that that's a common excuse for Ulbricht's conduct but I think it's a good point to start out at.
The first hit was brokered through undercover DEA agent Carl Mark Force IV (awesome name btw) who admitted in 2015 that he fabricated evidence and stole DPR's bitcoins while performing his duties as an agent of the government. In court he admitted that the BTC he received was government property as it constituted evidence of a crime and that he falsified his report and stole the money. Carl Mark Force IV went further and established a second persona, "French Maid" (lol, lmao) that his colleagues in the DEA weren't aware of, and under this persona, tried to sell DPR information about the government investigation into his website. His conduct was so absurdly out of line that he actually got sentenced to prison himself, taking a deal for 6 and a half years.
In January 2013, the task force arrested site moderator Curtis Green ("Flush"). Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges used Green's credentials to log in, freeze vendor wallets, and steal more than $800k worth of BTC, which he then tried to sell through Mt. Gox and other exchanges. He later admitted to the theft and making false statement to try to cover up his theft, significantly obstructing the investigation. In 2015 he pled guilty and received a 71 month sentence. Before reporting to the prison to start serving his sentence, he tried to move money out of
another government wallet, and was re-arrested at the airport with a passport and offshore company papers. The second arrest added an additional 24 months to his sentence and forced him to surrender about 1500 additional BTC.
Prior to their arrests, both Bridges and Force were involved in the government's murder for hire plot. The victim was supposed to be Curtis Green. Under the persona "Nob" Carl Mark Force IV contacted DPR and offered to have Green killed. With what they were later convicted of, I don't think either of them are trustworthy, no matter what evidence they provide. They both demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the law and were willing to fabricate evidence and to work out sophisticated criminal conspiracies to protect their own interests.
The supposed assassin, "redandwhite" (James Ellingson) was himself indicted for drug trafficking later on. I'm not sure how important a detail this really is, given the cast of characters involved in this entire case, but I think it again casts doubt on the credibility of the people involved in pointing the finger at Ross.
Ulbricht was tried in the Southern District of New York on seven non-violent conspiracies. He was never actually charged with the murder for hire plots. However, at sentencing, judge Katherine Forrest found the allegations "ample and unambiguous" and stated that based on a proponderance of the evidence, she believed he had done this. As a result, she applied a level two violence enhancement for his sentencing. This enhancement (among others) was what led the court to give him such a heavy penalty for the crimes they
did prove he committed. Three years after the NY conviction became final, the US attorney in Baltimore dropped the charges with prejudice that Ulbricht had pending in Maryland. My admittedly poor understanding of the justice system is that a preponderance of evidence allows them to consider other conduct that isn't directly being charged in a particular case, but I think that the leap from this preponderance to double life + 40 years is a big stretch.
The corruption in this case is insane, even by the US government's standards. The agents in this case were ridiculously out of line. Even had they not been though, they still never proved in court that he did it. I'm not willing to take the US government's word that someone committed a crime even on the best day, much less in this case.
On a somewhat unrelated side note, I'd like to sperg out once more about the judge. Here's a quote from the sentencing hearing:
"No drug dealer from the Bronx — selling meth or heroin or crack — has ever made these kinds of arguments to the Court. It is a privileged argument, it is an argument from one of privilege. You are no better a person than any other drug dealer, and your education does not give you a special place of privilege in our criminal-justice system."
I'm not one to cry "anti-white! anti-white!" at any perceived slight, but the subtext here is not lost on me. Forrest is trying to speak in broad socioeconomic terms here but the clear message is "you're white, and I'm going to sentence you more heavily than I otherwise would've because of that fact." "Drug dealer from the Bronx" is a clear stand-in for non-white communities. Fuck her.