Ross Ulbricht has served the first decade of two life sentences

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has served the first decade in prison of two life sentences handed down in 2015.

One year for each finger on both hands.

Today ends a full decade in prison.

I sometimes fear I’ll spend the rest of my life behind concrete walls and locked doors. But I have no one else to blame. It’s my poor choices that led me here.

All I can do now is pray for mercy.

— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) October 1, 2023

“Sometimes I fear I’ll spend the rest of my life behind concrete walls and locked doors. But I have no one else to blame. It was my poor choices that led me here. All I can do now is pray for mercy,” he wrote.

The platform Ulbricht founded in 2011 is known as the first modern dark-net marketplace with a Bitcoin-based payment system.

U.S. authorities arrested the Silk Road founder in October 2013. In May 2015, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest sentenced Ulbricht to two life terms without the possibility of parole. He was found guilty of trafficking drugs through the darknet marketplace Silk Road, conspiracy to traffic drugs, hacking computer networks and money laundering, as well as leading a criminal organization.

In December 2017, Ulbricht said he planned to appeal the verdict in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that his rights were violated during the investigation and subsequent proceedings. However, in June 2018 the Supreme Court denied the petition.

Around the same time, organizers of the Free Ross Ulbricht campaign posted a Change.org petition asking U.S. President Donald Trump to grant clemency to the Silk Road founder. However, he did not make it onto the list of 73 people announced in January 2021 by the former president before leaving the White House.