Judge Stein acknowledged those years of suffering and mistreatment but concluded that he was “not persuaded they afford a substantial reduction” in Clark's sentence.Ĭlark's strange story of hacking pedophiles should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt given his long history of apparent misdirection. At the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Clark described corruption and neglect, which led to his falling from his bunk while experiencing vertigo in 2021, breaking his pelvis, and being left to suffer overnight despite his pleas for help. His attorney told the court he was traumatized by witnessing torture and sexual assault in a Thai jail, was denied basic health care, and arrived in the US weighing just 93 pounds. “I pulled the switch.”Ĭlark and his defense attorney also spent much of their sentencing statements describing the abysmal conditions of his detention over the past several years in Thailand and then a New York jail. “It's not Philosophy 101 for me,” he told the judge. He compared his actions to the so-called “trolley problem” thought experiment in ethical philosophy, in which someone must choose which track a train will take when people are tied to both tracks. “Did we save thousands of lives? Yes, but we took some too.”

“If the Silk Road hadn't existed, would those people be alive today? Probably yes,” Clark said. At the same time, he acknowledged that at least six people named by prosecutors had in fact overdosed and died from Silk Road narcotics.

Instead, he focused on his benevolent intentions in running the Silk Road, which he argued had saved thousands of lives through its prevention of overdoses from adulterated drugs. In his own remarks, Clark didn't comment on that murder-for-hire conversation-which he at one point claimed had been fabricated by Ulbricht but later conceded was real. For Clark, “the question of whether to end another man's life was simple and stress-free,” Neff told the judge in the prosecution's sentencing statement. I’m perfectly comfortable with the decision, and I’ll sleep like a lamb tonight, and every night hereafter.”Ĭountering Clark's claims of interest in “harm reduction,” assistant US attorney Michael Neff pointed to those comments as evidence of Clark's “complete disregard for human life,” as he put it in Tuesday's sentencing hearing. “We’re playing for keeps, this just drives it home. 'If you had balked, I would have seriously re-considered our relationship,' he wrote. “We’re playing with big money with serious people, and that’s the world they live in.”Īfter Ulbricht agreed to have the staffer killed-in a bizarre turn, his death was instead faked by US federal agents investigating the Silk Road-Clark told Ulbricht that he had made the right move. “At what point in time do we decide we’ve had enough of someones shit and terminate them?” Clark wrote to Ulbricht at one point following the discovery of the theft, as recorded in chat logs that were recovered from Ulbricht's computer after his arrest. Clark played a crucial role in convincing Ulbricht that it was necessary to commission the murder of one of his employees who he believed had betrayed him and stolen bitcoins from the market.

Often, Roger can be found on the road following his son's own youth sports activities, or at a stadium or arena rooting on his favorite New York City sports teams.Clark was pivotal in key moments of the Silk Road’s history-including a particularly dark incident when he and Ulbricht resorted to violence, which loomed large in Clark’s sentencing. When he’s not in the office, you can find him playing softball for his local league or hanging out with his wife and son and cat Beatrice. In addition to his career in news, Roger is also an accomplished drummer and lifelong punk rock enthusiast. Whether he's dressed as a cannoli on Mulberry Street, or reporting from one of the city's many cultural institutions in communities all over the five boroughs, Roger is always game for a challenge. He got his start working for local news affiliates around New York state before beginning his tenure at NY1 in 2001, and he counts telling stories in his hometown as a dream come true. Roger holds a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism and communications from Syracuse University. Born in the Bronx, he lived in both Staten Island and Queens when he was young and is currently a Manhattan resident, making Brooklyn the only borough he’s yet to reside in. Roger Clark is a multimedia journalist at Spectrum News NY1.

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