$1M Bail for Ross Ulbrich
Posted by: DeepDotWeb November 20, 2013
As was posted on Wired earlier today, and summed up in a reddit thread (http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1r11vt/1m_in_bail_for_ross_ulbricht/):
Ulbricht’s parents have pledged $700,000 in equity from their home in Texas, his sister in Australia has pledged nearly $40,000 in savings, while his stepbrother has offered $100,000 from his investment account. More than a dozen other family and friends have pledged additional amounts and offered testimony in support of an application to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Fox to release Ulbricht on bail to the care of an aunt who lives in New York until Ulbricht’s parents can secure a residence in New York.
…In the bail application (.pdf) to the judge, defense attorney Joshual Dratel argues that despite the serious charges against his client, Ulbricht is not a flight risk because, as testimony from family and friends shows, he has a history of facing his responsibilities and declined to flee the country in the past when he could have done so. The letter also states that since Ulbricht’s own personal savings has all been seized by the FBI, he wouldn’t be able to support himself should he flee. “Thus, even if Mr. Ulbricht were to sacrifice the life savings, other assets, and livelihoods of his relatives and close friends,” the letter states, “Mr. Ulbricht is now entirely financially dependent on those who would lose tremendous amounts of money if he were to fail to comply with the conditions and requirements the Court would impose as conditions of release.”
…The letter notes that although there have been allegations that Ulbricht sought citizenship on the island of Dominica in late 2012, he never left San Francisco, where he was living at the time, even after he was visited by DHS investigators in July over fake IDs he had allegedly purchased. The letter notes in a footnote that “If Mr. Ulbricht were indeed the Dread Pirate Roberts responsible for the Silk Road, and possessing a portable and untraceable trove of Bitcoins worth millions of dollars, that visit from DHS would have been the only signal a criminal mastermind would have needed to depart the U.S. immediately.”
Updated: 2013-11-20