Investigations revealed that Ulbricht was awarded this sum in the framework of the illegal business perpetuated through the clandestine platform of marketing in the Deep Web.
Despite the fact that Ross Ulbricht, a former Silk Road operator, has already been sentenced because of the crimes involved, his lawyers and relatives are still struggling to get some kind of treatment, years of imprisonment.
Reports recently revealed that to help with the process of minimizing his sentence, Ulbricht voluntarily surrendered to the authorities all the assets in his possession, which are equivalent to 144,336 bitcoins.
What is really striking about the present case is the amount of money that the former operator was able to capture as a profit because of the work done on Silk Road, which was seized by the Federal Government and handed over by the owner without complaint. By the time Ulbricht was captured, this capital amounted to over 50 million dollars.
Ulbricht's lawyer, Paul Grant, stated that the good intentions of his representative were overlooked, given that the courts did not consider these facts as a good faith display of the resolution of the investigations carried out.
Grant categorically misjudged the position of the respective court by noting the lack of consideration as evidence that the system faces serious problems to see beyond the good faith of those involved, since not any person agrees to deliver such amount of capital to collaborate with justice and thereby amend their mistakes.
Following the judgment given to Ross Ulbricht, both his lawyer and his family have done their best to appeal the decision taken by the courts, seeking any remedy that would serve as a defense to minimize the sentence that was imprisoned for life imprisonment.
Neither the relatives of Ulbricht nor the authorities in charge of the case agreed to issue statements in relation to what happened. However, despite the fact that the amount of assets provided by the former Silk Road operator is quite large, it is argued in court that it does not represent all the assets that it actually possessed from illegal activities perpetuated to through the platform.
But Grant says there are likely to be more people involved with the US government, as there are internal concerns that prevent the investigation from thriving as it originally should have done.
Large quantities of money
Although Ulbricht and his lawyer are still seeking a guarantee that will reduce his sentence remarkably, it draws attention to the amount of money that the former operator voluntarily gave to the authorities as a sign of good faith.
While it is estimated that these USD 50 million were the equivalent of more than 144,300 bitcoins, the price of that amount of digital assets currently amounts to more than 611 million dollars. This leaves as evidence the benefits that has been able to bring the criptomoneda to all those who have kept their balances to a good shelf waiting for a suitable moment to make the corresponding exchange.
Beyond that, this figure shows the amount of money that was moving in the marketing platform of Silk Road by carrying out illegal commercial activities, as illicit drugs, arms, and even sex contracts were marketed through the service making use of Bitcoin as a currency for commercial operations, further circumventing the legal provisions to operate such services established by the United States.
At the moment it is unknown whether the actions of Ulbricht will have the approval of the courts to make him a creditor of a reduction of sentence sentenced. The respective authorities have not yet ruled on the case.
With information from https://news.bitcoin.com/
Image: different identities of Ross Ulbricht. Taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/