He really did try to have someone killed. Ulbricht is exactly the kind of person who should be in prison.
Wikipedia also says "Ulbricht was separately indicted in federal court in Maryland on a single murder-for-hire charge, alleging that he contracted to kill one of his employees (a former Silk Road moderator). Prosecutors moved to drop this indictment after his New York conviction and sentence became final"
Try this: Google [federal narcotics conspiracy "murder for hire"] (it's not a rare combination of factors!), pull up some DOJ press releases (I found several on the first search results page), and then look them up in PACER. I'm looking at Roger Key (a.k.a. "Luchie")'s 2015 indictment right now, and it's similar. This isn't some weird finagling the prosecutors did with Ulbricht; it's just how you get charged for this kind of conduct.
This notion that prosecutors somehow gave up on the murder-for-hire charge is Internet folklore. It's just not real. What complicated the charge isn't some bungling spy story about the agents involved, but the fact that the murder was a set-up and he didn't actually have anyone killed. But the prosecution established that Ulbricht tried to, and that's also the simplest and most reasonable conclusion to reach given the facts. I've never read an exculpatory explanation of Ulbricht's payment to arrange murders that made any sense at all.
You seem to be saying that the reason he wasn't charged/convicted is because nobody was actually murdered. That seems hard for me to believe because the state would have known nobody was actually murdered when they were writing the indictment (which alleges the murder for hire plot) or when they were bringing the original charges.
It's also true that agents involved in the plot, the agent Ulbricht thought he was buying the hit from specifically, were arrested and convicted for stealing from the silk road. I think it's way more plausible that the government decided not to go in to the extent of the corruption of their officers at trial, because it would provide a good reason to think about what other government dishonesty their might be, rather than the government deciding that they can't charge attempted murder for hire because nobody died.
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/dea-agent-charged-acting-paid-...
The second bit, about nobody needing to be dead for him to be charged, we agree on.
One reason I think people are confused about this is that there was a second prosecution, by a different team of prosecutors in a different case (out of Baltimore?) that charged the murder-for-hire scheme more directly. That may be, but he was still charged for it in the SDNY case, which earned him a life sentence.
SDNY was not evasive about this! They not only indicted for the murder-for-hire scheme, won a conviction on it, and had him sentenced based in large part on it, but also crowed about it in their press release. I'm sort of baffled by the extremely common belief that the DOJ "dropped the charges" about the murder-for-hire scheme. They did more or less the opposite thing.
https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ross-ulbricht-aka-dread-pi...
Noticeably not on that list is anything related to murder, attempted murder, solicitation of murder, or murder-for-hire.
If I understand you correctly you are saying that the attempted murder is an element of his continuing criminal enterprise - or something like that. I don't believe this though and I haven't seen any evidence of this from you. Googling for people who are convicted for hiring fake hitmen I see that they are charged with things like "Solicitation of murder" and not "Continuing criminal enterprise."
Ulbricht was not charged with murder for hire in New York and he wasn't convicted of it ever. Ulbricht was charged with murder for hire in Maryland and those charges were dropped.
"ULBRICHT, 30, of San Francisco, California, was found guilty of: one count of distributing narcotics, one count of distributing narcotics by means of the Internet, and one count of conspiring to distribute narcotics, each of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years; one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison; one of count of conspiring to commit computer hacking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years; and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided for informational purposes only, as the sentence will be determined by the judge. ULBRICHT is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2015."
1. distributing narcotics
2. distributing narcotics via the internet
3. count of conspiring to distribute narcotics
4. engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise
5. conspiring to commit computer hacking
6. conspiring to traffic in false identity documents
7. conspiring to traffic in false identity documents
In the released indictment [2] (Apparently there seems to be a superseding indictment), DPR was charged on four counts. Count one is "Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy", none of the counts are "Murder-For-Hire". But, there are three overt (motivating) acts for the "Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy": a) Provide a platform for selling drugs b) Solicit a murder-for-hire c) Logging in as admin on Silk Road
So, while the charge "Murder-For-Hire" probably seems hard to prove (as stated above), using the intent of it to justify the count "Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy" worked here. In a sense, I believe, DPR can not be labeled officially with "murder-for-hire", but in order to protect his "Continuing Criminal Enterprise" and as such commit "Narcotics Trafficking Conspiracy" it appears that he would have committed a "murder-for-hire" crime.
Sources:
[1] https://www.springsteadbartish.com/federal-criminal-defense-...
[2] https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao-sdny/legacy...
What seems more likely is that the murder-for-hire thing is messier than the broader, abstract things he was charged with, and they had him dead to rights on that stuff anyways. Without meaningfully contesting and refuting the murder-for-hire stuff, it's relevant conduct for the sentencing; it did the work the DOJ needed it to do.
The big issue in these discussions is the idea that the murder-for-hire stuff was prejudicial --- that it wasn't a part of the case, but was allowed to hang over the case to taint the jury. But that's clearly not true; he was indicted for it, twice, in the SDNY case.
Certainly. And no wonder that the other charges from the Maryland District were dismissed.
> he was indicted for it, twice, in the SDNY case.
You mean, he was charged and found guilty of "Murder-For-Hire"? This I don't follow. I thought overt acts serve the purpose of evidence for the charges/counts rather than being charges itself.
In any case, DPR clearly concluded, that paying someone to kill someone else in order to preserve his anonymity/enterprise was OK. He even committed it.
This. The mental gymnastics involved in people pivoting from "the justice system is awful, especially the way they've treated poor little Ulbricht" to "the only possible standard for judging Ulbricht's character and intentions is the decisions the justice system made or didn't make" is Olympian.
I'm not sympathetic to him in the slightest. I believe he's almost certainly guilty of attempting to have those people murdered. I think his sentence should be overturned and I think he should be explicitly charged with attempted murder, and hopefully he will be convicted of those crimes and re-sentenced to life in prison. (Whether or not that's legally viable, I have no idea; I just think it's what ought to happen.)
I would appreciate being reminded as to the facts of that. I’ve always felt skeptical of that claim, but I haven’t spent the time to research it.
It just felt like that would be the exact thing an organization would pin on him if they wanted to destroy his life.
It’s entirely possible he did, but I remind you that in an era where Epstein probably didn’t kill himself, it’s really hard to just take things at face value.
EDIT: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32057717 is a pretty good overview.
There is no serious doubt that he solicited multiple hits, both from an undercover FBI agent and from other people, possibly scammers. It is up to you what moral weights you want to assign to US drug policies, that the FBI agent was corrupt [2], or that apparently no one actually got killed, but it's silly that people are still disputing the plain fact that Ross Ulbricht tried to have people murdered.
[1] https://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-bos...
> Dread Pirate Roberts 3/29/2013 22:55: Hi again R&W, I hate to come to you with a problem when we are just starting to get to know one another, but Blake (FriendlyChemist) is causing me problems. Are you still looking for him or now that you've found Xin have you given up? I would like to put a bounty on his head if it's not too much trouble for you. What would be an adequate amount to motivate you to find him? Necessities like this do happen from time to time for a person in my position. I have others I can turn to, but it is always good to have options and you are close to the case right now. Hopefully this is something you are open to and can be another aspect of our business relationship. Regards, DPR
> Dread Pirate Roberts 3/31/2013 8:59: Don't want to be a pain here, but the price seems high. Not long ago, I had a clean hit done for $80k. Are the prices you quoted the best you can do? I would like this done asap as he is talking about releasing the info on Monday
[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/8q845p/dea-agent-who-faked-a...
You might want to give me a really good price.