The Silk Road darknet site was shut down by law enforcement officials in 2013. (Source: FBI)
A key player in the now-defunct Silk Road darknet marketplace who hid his involvement with the creation and operation of the website has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison for making false statements to federal investigators, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michael R. Weigand, who went by the online handle Shabang, was sentenced Friday, the U.S. Attorney s Office for the Southern District of New York, which oversaw the case, reports. He pleaded guilty in September to concealing his role in operating the Silk Road website (see:
Shabang Banged to Rights
A computer programmer from Ohio who lied to federal agents about his involvement with an illegal online marketplace has been sentenced to prison.
Michael R. Weigand, also known by his online pseudonyms Shabang and “~Shabang~,” concealed his work for illicit black marketplace Silk Road when questioned by an IRS special agent and an FBI agent in January 2019.
Silk Road was used by several thousand criminals around the world to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars worth of narcotics and other contraband. The site, which was founded and administered by Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts and DPR, was shut down by law enforcement in October 2013.