Ross Ulbricht: podcast appearances and interviews

Ross William Ulbricht is an American who created and operated Silk Road, a pioneering darknet market, from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. The platform facilitated the anonymous trade of narcotics and other illegal products and services through bitcoin transactions, operating as a hidden service on the Tor network. Ulbricht used the pseudonym 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' a fictional character from The Princess Bride, to run the site. In October 2013, he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Silk Road was taken offline. In 2015, Ulbricht was convicted of multiple charges including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, distributing narcotics via the internet, conspiracy to launder money, traffic fraudulent identity documents, and commit computer hacking. He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 40 years without parole, with his sentence to be served concurrently. Evidence indicating that he had allegedly commissioned murder-for-hire deals for at least five individuals was considered during his sentencing, though he was not formally charged with this offense. Ulbricht's appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were unsuccessful. After serving nearly 11 years in prison, he was released in January 2025 upon receiving a full and unconditional pardon from President Donald Trump.