section_path: Arrest and trial/Court proceedings
section_name: Court proceedings
paragraph_text: Court proceedings
  
  On February 4, 2014, Ulbricht was charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. On August 21, 2014, a superseding indictment added three additional charges. The trial began on January 13, 2015.
  
  Federal prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht had paid $730,000 in murder-for-hire deals targeting at least five people, because they purportedly threatened to reveal the Silk Road enterprise. Prosecutors state that no contracted killing ever actually occurred. Ulbricht was not charged in his trial in New York federal court with this offense, although some evidence was introduced at trial supporting the allegations. The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht probably sent messages inquiring about such orders. The possibility that Ulbricht might have commissioned hits was considered by the judge in sentencing Ulbricht to life and was a factor in the Second Circuit's decision to uphold the sentence. Ulbricht was separately indicted in federal court in Maryland on a single related charge, alleging that he contracted to have one of his employees (a former Silk Road moderator) killed. Prosecutors ultimately moved to drop this indictment as it was lacking in substantive evidence and after his New York conviction on other charges became final.
  
  On February 4, 2014, Ulbricht was charged with engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics conspiracy, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit computer hacking. On August 21, 2014, a superseding indictment added three additional charges. The trial began on January 13, 2015.
  
  Federal prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht had paid $730,000 in murder-for-hire deals targeting at least five people, because they purportedly threatened to reveal the Silk Road enterprise. Prosecutors state that no contracted killing ever actually occurred. Ulbricht was not charged in his trial in New York federal court with this offense, although some evidence was introduced at trial supporting the allegations. The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Ulbricht probably sent messages inquiring about such orders. The possibility that Ulbricht might have commissioned hits was considered by the judge in sentencing Ulbricht to life and was a factor in the Second Circuit's decision to uphold the sentence. Ulbricht was separately indicted in federal court in Maryland on a single related charge, alleging that he contracted to have one of his employees (a former Silk Road moderator) killed. Prosecutors ultimately moved to drop this indictment as it was lacking in substantive evidence and after his New York conviction on other charges became final.