Ulbricht was convicted of seven federal charges after his arrest in October of 2013. Convictions included narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, running a criminal enterprise and money laundering. He maintains that he started the website, but did not operate it from 2011-2013 after handing it off to a new operator. Ulbricht and his supporters maintain that he was set up to take the legal fall.
Two of the federal agents involved in the investigation were arrested in March and charged with stealing $800,000 in Bitcoin, compromising the investigation.