Alleged Silk Road Founder Faces Trial in November

Pleads not guilty to various black market charges

Ross William Ulbricht, accused of operating the billion-dollar online Silk Road website where customers used Bitcoins to buy and sell drugs, faces a Nov. 3 trial after pleading not guilty in Manhattan federal court.

Ulbricht, 29, was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York Feb. 4 on four counts—operating a narcotics trafficking scheme, money laundering conspiracy, computer hacking and operating a continuing criminal enterprise.

The site was a "sprawling black-market bazaar" used by drug dealers and other vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and launder hundreds of millions of dollars derived from the illicit transactions, the U.S. said.