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Silk Road founder appeals life sentence

Ross Ulbricht, the “internet entrepreneur” behind the nefarious yet successful Silk Road website, has appealed his sentence which would see him effectively go to jail for the rest of his life.

Ulbricht was found guilty in February of on seven counts of drug trafficking for being the creator and operator of the website, which has been dubbed the world’s largest online drug emporium, and was last week sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Before he was sentenced, Ullbricht lodged an appeal to Judge Katherine Forrest to “leave a light at the end of the tunnel”, and to “leave me my old age”. This appeal fell on deaf ears.

Ulbricht’s attorney Joshua Dratel submitted the appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, but it didn’t reveal a lot about his strategy – other than appealing the guilty conviction and the lengthy sentence.

Some believe that the sentence has been too harsh. Alpha02, the administrator of AlphaBay market, a similar website to Silk Road, told Motherboard that he should only have gotten about 10 years.

“They obviously wanted to make an example of him. Running Silk Road would have probably deserved 10 years, but not more,” Alpha02 explained.

But he did add that anybody who gets into this line of work, is aware of the consequences.

“The risks are known, they always were. In some countries you could potentially get the death penalty. Drug markets existed before Tor and before [Silk Road], anyone involved in such activities should know the risk. Every market admin should keep in mind.”

No date has been set for an official appeal hearing.

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