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Silk Road founder sentenced to life imprisonment

Author
AAP ,
Publish Date
Sat, 30 May 2015, 1:34PM
Supporters of Ross Ulbricht at his trial (Getty Images)
Supporters of Ross Ulbricht at his trial (Getty Images)

Silk Road founder sentenced to life imprisonment

Author
AAP ,
Publish Date
Sat, 30 May 2015, 1:34PM

A US judge has given a life sentence to the mastermind behind the criminal website Silk Road that's been linked to drug-related deaths including that of an Australian teenager.

In New York on Friday federal judge Katherine Forrest on Friday imposed two life sentences on Ross Ulbricht, 31, who had a privileged upbringing and graduate degree, for narcotics distribution and criminal enterprise.

The Silk Road sold $US200 million worth of drugs to customers worldwide.

It was alleged that Ulbricht was responsible for at least six drug-related fatalities including that of Perth youth Preston Bridge who died in February 2013 after falling from a balcony following an after-ball party.

It's believed the 16-year-old was under the influence of an hallucinogen purchased through Silk Road by a friend.

Ulbricht expressed no visible emotion as he stood to hear his fate on Friday. In the public gallery, his mother put her head in her hands as the double life sentence was read out.

Forrest also imposed maximum terms on Ulbricht for hacking, trafficking in false documents and money laundering convictions - five, 15 and 20 years respectively, to be served concurrently.

Forrest told Ulbricht that he will never be eligible for parole.

"You should serve your life in prison," she told him during a three-hour hearing at a federal court in Manhattan, saying she had found it very difficult to reach a decision.

"What you did in Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric," said the judge, calling him a criminal whose graduate school education made his actions less explicable than a common drug dealer.

Forrest said the court also sought the forfeiture of more than $US183.9 million in Silk Road drugs sales, but dismissed two other counts on which Ulbricht was convicted by a jury in February after a four-week trial.

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