Elon Musk said Tuesday he was exploring a presidential pardon for “Bitcoin Jesus,” who was arrested last year on fraud and tax evasion charges, after applauding Donald Trump for exonerating the founder of a dark web drug marketplace.
In a sign of the tech billionaire’s influence over the new US administration, Musk said he was “honored to be in the Oval Office” when Trump granted a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the “Silk Road” platform that facilitated the sale of illegal narcotics using cryptocurrency.
Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was sentenced to two life terms in prison after being convicted of charges including conspiracy to distribute narcotics, money laundering and computer hacking.
The FBI described Silk Road as a “digital bazaar for illegal goods and services” that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, as well…
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