Silk Road creator denied new trial

A federal judge in New York denied a new trial for the man convicted of owning and operating the Silk Road, a large online drug market. 

Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted in February, asked for a new trail after two law enforcement agents helping with the investigation were charged with money laundering and wire fraud connected to the Silk Road. 

{mosads}Judge Katherine Forrest ruled Monday that using evidence of “rogue agents” during the trial would not have been helpful to Ulbricht’s defense and denied the motion.  

“To start, there is no basis for this court to believe that any undisclosed materials relating to the Rogue Agents would have been remotely useful, let alone exculpatory,” she wrote in the ruling. 

Forrest wrote that the two agents — Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges — did not participate in the New York investigation. And no evidence in the New York trial came from the separate investigation in Baltimore, where the agents worked. 

Lawyers knew about the investigation of the two agents but were not allowed to use the information during the trial. 

Ulbricht, who allegedly went by the name “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was convicted on seven counts in February, including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.

He has not yet been sentenced. 

Ulbricht’s defense made a number of other arguments for a new trial that were also denied. Those included accusations that the government gave him little time to review material used at the trial and the government created confusion by modifying its list of exhibits to use during the trial.