(Bloomberg) -- A Canadian man who mentored drug trafficker Ross William Ulbricht and helped run his Silk Road online marketplace was sentenced Tuesday in New York to 20 years in prison. 

Roger Thomas Clark, 61, known online as “Variety Jones,” was arrested in Thailand in 2015, extradited to the US in 2018 and pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiring to distribute narcotics. Ulbricht, whose alias was “Dread Pirate Roberts,” already is serving a life sentence for creating the sprawling black-market bazaar on the Internet.

US District Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected Clark’s plea for no more than the seven-and-a-half years he already spent jailed in Thailand and the US, based on his “material assistance to a major criminal enterprise.” Silk Road was a global hub for hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions using Bitcoin to pay for illegal goods and services, prosecutors said.

Clark claimed he was subject to brutal treatment during 31 months in a Thai prison and medical negligence over his five years in US custody. The sentencing was delayed numerous times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Clark’s limited access to legal materials, and injuries and illnesses he suffered while in jail.

Prosecutors argued for 20 years, the maximum available under Clark’s plea deal with the government. Assistant US Attorney Michael Neff argued that Clark had demonstrated “a complete disregard for human life, advocating intimidation and murder to keep Silk Road in operation.” He had the “mentality of a cold-blooded killer,” Neff said.

‘We’re Criminal Drug Dealers’

In court papers, the government cited a conversation in which Ulbricht discussed a plan to “track down” a Silk Road employee to make sure he hadn’t gone “off the rails.” Prosecutors claim Clark commented: “Ha, dude, we’re criminal drug dealers — what line shouldn’t we cross?”

Clark, dressed in a tan prison outfit, with shackles around his ankles, addressed the judge for 38 minutes before the sentence was announced. Stein had to tell Clark to slow down numerous times to allow the court reporter to keep up. Clark turned to the handful of spectators in the Manhattan court room saying it was “possibly the last time you see me before I get killed.”

Clark made detailed claims about corruption among officers in the federal jail in Brooklyn where he is being confined. He also told the judge about being left without medical care for 19 hours in 2021 after falling from the ladder to the bunk in his cell and suffering injuries including a broken pelvis.

Clark claimed that, in addition to helping run Silk Road, he had used proceeds from the site to purchase software to help root out criminals who used the dark web to obtain child pornography and for child sex trafficking. 

Ulbricht, 39, is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in 2015 of running Silk Road, where customers used Bitcoin to buy illegal drugs and hacker tools, from 2011 to October 2013. His online alias was taken from a character in the 1987 film “The Princess Bride.”

Silk Road ‘Brand’

Prosecutors said Clark, who was also known as “VJ,” “Cimon” and “Plural of Mongoose,” advised the younger man on managing Silk Road.

“Him coming onto the scene has re-inspired me and given me direction on the SR project,” Ulbricht said of Variety Jones in a 2011 journal entry that was introduced at his trial. “He has helped me see a larger vision. A brand that people can come to trust and rally behind. Silk Road chat, Silk Road exchange, Silk Road credit union, Silk Road market, Silk Road everything!”

In addressing the judge, Clark expressed regret for his actions.

“I’ve disappointed my family, I’ve lost my god and my freedom,” he said. “There’s really not much more I can screw up, is there?” 

The case is US v. Clark, 15-cr-00866, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Adds statements from Clark in seventh paragraph.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.