Ulbricht Defense Fund Gets Help from T-Shirt Company

Despite the rise in media attention surrounding Friday's auction of roughly 30,000 BTC seized from Silk Road, a website seeking to clear the name of the online black market's alleged leader, 30-year-old Ross Ulbricht, is not reporting any increase in donations. The bitcoins sold in the most recent auction were confiscated from the Silk Road website when it was seized by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last October. Notably, the US Marshals auction, of which VC Tim Draper emerged as the winner, did not include 144,000 BTC held by Ulbricht. Those bitcoins are the subject of an....

Soon to be on trial, alleged Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht is dealing with yet another rejection when it comes to his complex case. Most recently, Ulbricht - who federal officials suggest was known as "Dread Pirate Roberts" on the illicit Silk Road website - and his legal counsel suggested that the FBI's means of investigating Ulbricht was illegal and a breach of privacy rights, given the Bureau allegedly hacked his servers without proper warrants. Judge Katherine Forrest wasn't exactly having the defense, bringing up the point that Ulbricht hasn't admitted to own the servers. As such,....

Ross Ulbricht’s legal defense filed a reply to the government as part of his appeal this week. On behalf of Ulbricht, who was sentenced to double life in prison without parole for operating the Silk Road dark marketplace under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR) more than a year ago, attorney Joshua Dratel disputes the fairness of the trial. The defense has requested that Ulbricht’s “convictions should be vacated, and a new trial ordered, or that he be re-sentenced before a different district judge.” Ulbricht's defense had issued an initial appeal earlier this year, which was answered by....

Source: YouTube user Ross Ulbricht. An update to a story recently posted on the topic of alleged Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. After a bail hearing on the 21st of November, the court decided to not grant Ulbricht bail. Ulbricht's lawyer, Joshua Dratel set before the court the proposition to grant $1 million bail to Ulbricht (an amount pledged by Ulbricht's family and friends). The court decided this wasn't the way to go, particularly after hearing the Manhattan federal prosecutor's case that Ulbricht would try to flee the United States before it was time for his trial. Ulbricht's family....

U. S. District Judge Katherine Forrest told Ross Ulbricht late last week that he has until the government rests its case Monday to decide if he wants to testify in his own defense, The Wall Street Journal reported today. Ulbricht is accused of operating Silk Road, the online drug marketplace. The judge's ultimatum struck some legal experts as unusual, according to The Wall Street Journal. Experts interviewed by the newspaper said defendants are typically allowed to wait until the end of a trial before deciding to testify or not. On Thursday, Ulbricht's lawyer, Joshua Dratel, objected to....