Two Federal agents are facing charges of stealing money from the Silk Road, an online drug marketplace that was taken down by federal warrant more than a year ago. Hailing from the Drug Enforcement Agency and Secret Service respectively, Carl Mark Force and Shaun Bridges were both involved in undercover operations that built evidence against the Silk Road in the months leading up to its seizure in October of 2013. According to an affidavit, Force redirected bitcoin to a personal account during the investigation, and did not report or turn over the bitcoin once the investigation was completed. As a result, he faces charges of money laundering, wire fraud, and theft of government property. Bridges faces only laundering and fraud charges.
The investigation into the Silk Road concluded in February with Ross Ulbricht convicted on seven counts, based on more than $100 million in drug transactions hosted by the network. Much of the evidence brought against Ulbricht was based on Bitcoin's blockchain, which provides extensive transaction records once a specific account has been deanonymized. It's unclear how much that technique was used in this investigation, but if the Silk Road's transaction records were handed over to law enforcement in the wake of the Ulbricht verdict, they may pointed to missing bitcoin taken by Force and Bridges. The agents are expected to be arrested later today.
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