Ross Ulbricht has his freedom. After serving nearly 12 years in federal prison for running a notorious online drugs bazaar, Ulbricht—who went by the name Dread Pirate Roberts when he was a crime lord—received a Bitcoins he had amassed while running his website, the Silk Road.
As part of his criminal sentence, which came after a jury found Ulbricht guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering, the judge also ordered him to forfeit nearly $184 million. To make good on the judgment, the U.S. Marshals Service arranged a Bitcoin held by corrupt federal agents who stole it during the course of the original investigation, and obtaining a court order this month to sell the thousands the agency seized from an unnamed hacker who also robbed Ulbricht.
