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Feds Charged With Stealing Money During Silk Road Probe

© AP Photo / Seth WenigSupporters of Ross Ulbricht hold signs during the jury selection for his trial outside of federal court in New York earlier this year.
Supporters of Ross Ulbricht hold signs during the jury selection for his trial outside of federal court in New York earlier this year. - Sputnik International
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Two former federal agents who investigated the Silk Road online narcotics marketplace the FBI seized in 2013 have been charged with stealing money they acquired during their operation to take down the underground black market.

Former DEA officer Carl Mark Force IV and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges, both part of a Baltimore-based task force that investigated Silk Road, are accused of wire fraud and money laundering. Force is also accused of theft of government property.

The US Marshals Service, a division of the Justice Department, is on Thursday auctioning 50,000 bitcoins seized during an FBI operation against Ross William Ulbricht. - Sputnik International
US Auctions $13.5Mln Worth of Bitcoins Seized in Silk Road Drug Bust

Force was the lead agent tasked with establishing communication with the Dread Pirate Roberts, the online handle of the site’s operator, later identified as Ross Ulbricht. According to a Justice Department memo, Force "developed additional online personas and engaged in a broad range of illegal activities calculated to bring him personal financial gain.”

The complaint against Force accuses him of trying to extort Ulbricht by saying he would give the government information unless Ulbricht paid $250,000. The complaint also says that Force created a persona called "French Maid" and convinced Ulbricht to pay "French Maid" $100,000 for information on the government's investigation.

Bridges allegedly used his knowledge of Mt. Gox, the Bitcoin exchange he was also investigating, to divert $820,000 of the money he used as a part of the investigation into secret personal accounts on the now-defunct exchange.

A jury found Ulbricht guilty last month on drug kingpin charges for running the site. He faces life in prison during a sentencing hearing later this year.

Ulbricht's defense lawyer, Robert Dratchel, has demanded a retrial, saying the government did not provide exculpatory evidence in time, and that it conducted warrantless surveillance.

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