Two Agents Involved in Silk Road Investigation Facing Charges

Two former agents, Carl Force and Shaun Bridges, who had leading roles in the Silk Road marketplace investigation have been charged for money laundering, wire fraud and other offenses as it was reported on Monday. It seems that the Silk Road case investigators took an opportunity to improve their financial well-being during the investigation.

Carl Force, special agent with The Drug Enforcement Administration, was one of the leading agents in the investigation, communicating directly with Ross Ulbricht, operator of the Silk Road. He was arrested on Friday at his North Baltimore home and the prosecutors have said that he had a handgun, a passport and blank money orders in his vehicle.

Force, a 46 year-old agent, worked on the case between 2012 and 2013. During the investigation, he deposited into his bank account three times. With the stolen money, he paid off the mortgage on his house, repaid loans, wired more than 200,000 to an offshore account in Panama and invested in real estate and stocks.

The investigation against two agents started in May 2014, a year after Ross Ulbricht was arrested. In February, Ross was convicted for operating Silk Road Marketplace using the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts. The investigation uncovered that Force used his access to several accounts on Silk Road to get the money from Ulbricht.

A Silk Road employee Curtis Clark Green who has agreed to cooperate with law enforcement when he was arrested in January 2013, gave access to his Silk Road account with the username Flush. Of course, as an agent, Force had access to Green’s account and in order to steal $350,000, Force changed password of the account.

Things got really bizarre when Ross accused Curtis of stealing the money and hired user Nob to kill the person behind the username Flush. Force had control over both these accounts so, as user Nob, he accepted a payment to kill Flush, making it, bizarrely enough, a contract-suicide (not a legal term, just an observation).

Force is charged by the Department of Justice with the theft of government property and conflict of interest along with charges of money laundering.

Shaun Bridges, special agent with the US Secret Service also faces serious charges due to criminal activities while working undercover to help unmask Ulbricht. Bridges surrendered to the police in California and was charged with money laundering and wire fraud. According to investigation, Shaun used a series of wire transfers to move Bitcoin that earlier had been stolen from Silk Road in 2013 and deposited in a Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.

Investigation into Force and Bridges did start 9 months before Ulbricht trial but his defense team was unaware of the investigation until five weeks before the trial date. Even though they were aware that two agents have been under investigation, they couldn't use that information to help Ulbricht's defense.

Ulbricht is still accused of attempting to kill Green, but it is clear that two agents were directly involved in that investigation and have abused their position. The mastermind of an online drug emporium, Ulbricht, was found guilty on seven charges in February. According to FBI investigators, he earned about $18 million in Bitcoin through Silk Road and more than a million drug deals took place on the online market.

Ulbricht's attorneys have moved for a new trial on March 6, claiming that the government failed to provide evidence within reasonable time frame.

Photo: silkroaddrugs.org