Former Silk Road Founder Seeks Roger Ver’s Help in Legal Battle

Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the infamous dark web marketplace

Former Silk Road Founder Seeks Roger Ver’s Help in Legal Battle

Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the infamous dark web marketplace Silk Road has been behind the bars for 5 years now. Silk Road was an underground marketplace which sold different kinds of products and services. Most of these products and services were illegal, leading to its crackdown.

Silk Road, however, became a part of the Bitcoin folk fair and a pioneer, as it allowed the users to pay in digital asset Bitcoin. The use of fiat currencies for illegal trades is a big no-no, as these transactions can easily be traced back to the person. Thus, Bitcoin saw its first widespread use and acceptance through Silk Road.

The underground marketplace became the first domain which saw the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision of a peer-to-peer electronic cashless network getting fulfilled.

Ross Writes to Roger Ver for his Help

Ross has been continuously trying for 5 years to plead his case in the court, but as of now, he hasn’t made any progress. After realizing his incompetence to deal with legal authorities, Ross has finally written a letter to Roger Ver for his help in legal battle. In his letter, Ross mentions about his tryst with authorities and his determination to fight the charges leveled against him. However, looking at the state, he believes the current legal route might take decades before he could even get to appeal against his sentence.

Thus, he requests Roger Ver and other crypto and dark web aficionados to start a campaign, uploading their videos to support and ask for his release. Roger Ver has been quite vocal of his support for Ross and has asked for his release several times before the letter came into public acknowledgment.

An excerpt from the letter,

“Today I’m writing on a different topic, seeking for your help. Despite your generous assistance throughout my legal battles, especially at first when very few were coming to my aid. I have lost time and time again in court. We give it a great effort, but there’s little chance of winning no matter how much money and talent goes into it. “

FBI Arrested Ross Five Years Ago

Five years ago, FBI busted Ross’s illegal marketplace when they swooped into a public library in San Francisco. The former Silk Road operator was accused of running  “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today.”

Ross was accused of Money laundering, trafficking of narcotics and computer hacking, for which he was sentenced for double life imprisonments plus 40 years on top of that. All his requests to challenge his verdict was denied by the federal judge.

Ross in his letter mentions that only Presidential pardon can save him as the charges against him are severe and law enforcement agencies would try their best to keep him behind the bars. He seeks Roger Ver and others support to get the attention of President Trump.

The community backs Ross, especially the crypto community, and has also started a petition website for the same. The website which goes by the name of freeross.org has garnered over 114, 400 petitioners.

Final Thoughts

Ross is considered to be the bridge between cryptocurrencies and its real-world usage. The use of Bitcoin on Silk Road gave the digital currency a necessary push and it exploded in the internet arena, especially dark web. The charges leveled against him might be fair, but he must be given the chance to appeal against the sentence.

It would be interesting to see how things turn out from here, you can watch Roger Ver talking about the letter he received in this Youtube video.