[PSA/Article] 2 Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Two former federal agents are expected to be arrested on Monday on charges of stealing money while working undercover on an investigation into Silk Road, the once-thriving black market website for drug dealing, a document shows.

The former agents are Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service.

Mr. Force is being charged with wire fraud, theft of government property and money laundering, and Mr. Bridges is being charged with wire fraud and money laundering, according to an affidavit filed in the United States District Court in San Francisco.

The charges stem from their roles in an undercover operation that led to charges in the Silk Road investigation and the shutting down of the website.

Mr. Force, while investigating Silk Road, "stole and converted to his own personal use a sizeable amount of bitcoins," the digital currency that was used by buyers and sellers on the website, which he obtained in his undercover capacity, the government said.

"Rather than turning those bitcoin over to the government, Force deposited them into his own personal accounts," the government said.

At the time charges were announced against Ross W. Ulbricht, the man behind the site, in October 2013 and the website was shut down, the authorities called Silk Road "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet."

Several thousand drug dealers and other vendors used the site from January 2011 through October 2013 to sell hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other illicit goods to more than 100,000 buyers, according to a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court in Manhattan.

The website generated more than $213 million in revenue during that period, and Mr. Ulbricht, operating under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, took millions of dollars in commissions, the authorities charged.

Much of Silk Road's allure to buyers and sellers was its anonymity: The website operated on a hidden part of the Internet, out of the glare of law enforcement, and deals were transacted in Bitcoins, a digital currency that can be as hard to trace as cash.

Mr. Ulbricht's defense lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, argued during the trial that his client was not Dread Pirate Roberts, a character drawn from the book and movie "The Princess Bride." Mr. Dratel conceded that Silk Road had been his client's idea, but he Mr. Ulbricht had turned the website over to others before being lured back as a "fall guy" to be arrested.

Mr. Ulbricht was convicted on Feb. 4 of multiple counts; four of the charges, including distributing narcotics on the Internet and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, carry potential life sentences. The judge, Katherine B. Forrest, is scheduled to sentence Mr. Ulbricht on May 15.

At the trial, the government also accused Mr. Ulbricht of commissioning the murders of five people whom he saw as threats to his enterprise. Although the prosecutors say they found no evidence that anyone was harmed, they cited the murders-for-hire as evidence that Mr. Ulbricht was willing to use violence to protect his lucrative operation.

thanks /u/gwern!

We have the complaint! https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1697973/charges-against-former-federal-agents-in-silk.pdf


Comments


[57 Points] DeafPirateRoberts:

what goes around comes around, you greasy pig fucks


[55 Points] grandtheftdarknet:

any feds that go to prison are automatically fucked.. that has to be the worst nightmare for a cop. going to jail with the people they put in there.. Happy trails, Fuckers!


[28 Points] DeafPirateRoberts:

Shaun Bridges was involved with the Mt Gox / Mutum Sigillum / Karpeles US investigation too...hmmmmmmm


[27 Points] None:

Carl Mark Force IV - is this his real name? WTF


[16 Points] DeafPirateRoberts:

i'd bet a lot of coins that one of these 2 guys is the UC that set up ChronicPain for that big cocaine deal.....if a CPA and SS agent working on federal BTC investigations can't launder it successfully I'd say its harder than we think. Hopefully Kimble and Verto aren't as competent as folks believe.


[14 Points] DeafPirateRoberts:

and here is an ironic quote from the guy with a horrible name:

“Your crooks and drug dealers are not going to comply at all,” said Force, who aside from being a certified public accountant is a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. “If you’re going to go on Tor, the dark Internet, the people on there are not going to be asking advice on how to file their taxes,” he said.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-holders-face-tax-return-grey-zone/


[13 Points] lsdjahjaak:

Wouldn't this make it very easy to throw out his conviction and get a re-trial? Except next time, their evidence is inadmissable? IANAL so clarity is appreciated.


[9 Points] DrPepperAndNewports:

Carl Mark Force IV should be a jedi


[8 Points] gwern:

A Baltimore DEA agent is being charged with acting as Ross Ulbricht's paid mole in the Silk Road investigation. Story coming soon.

--Andy Greenberg

Crazy details in this complaint: DEA agent in Silk Road case was also illegally working for Bitcoin company CoinMKT on the side

--Nathaniel Popper

The case is not yet available publicly in PACER for either agent (should be tomorrow since PACER updates overnight & the NYT says the complaint has been unsealed), so presumably they've gotten advance copies of the complaint?


[10 Points] suchthrowaway999666:

Here is the company Bridges formed to hide the money. Formed in Feb of 2013. http://www.bizapedia.com/md/QUANTUM-INTERNATIONAL-INVESTMENTS-LLC.html

Notice the nice house he lives in. Kiss it all goodbye jerkoff!


[6 Points] qwvqwvqsdfsdf:

Imagine writing them a letter while they sit in and rot in prison commending them on a job well done. I'm sure they will appreciate the correspondence. Probably the worst thing the would want to hear about is how simply enjoyable it is to not be locked up in prison.


[9 Points] Theeconomist1:

God damn it. What fuckers. They bust SR and then commit their own crimes. This type of shit really pisses me off. More than LE just harassing drug users - in some sense they are following orders and doing their job, not personal with most of them (it's the policy makers that are fuckers) - but this type of shit can't fly. Have fun in prison assholes!


[8 Points] DeafPirateRoberts:

these guys were Nob, alpacino and French Maid at the very least...probably every other scammer who tricked or conned Ross into handing out coins for blackmail/info/fake hits too

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/dea-agent-charged-acting-paid-mole-silk-road/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/30/politics/federal-agents-charged-with-stealing-bitcoin/index.html


[7 Points] ParanoiaCat:

I love the irony. The ones supposed to catch the "criminals" are criminals themselves.


[5 Points] ClassyAssAssassin:

These agents and the Evo admins are an equal kind of scum.


[4 Points] None:

LE so corrupt they start arresting themselves. War on drugs is so much of a failure, they gotta start arresting themselves.


[7 Points] impost_r:

Ping me when the exact or an estimation of the btc transfer amounts are known :)


[3 Points] Smokeyz:

Curious onto what they consider a "sizeable amount of bitcoins" ? Couple hundred, thousand or more?


[5 Points] SecondChanceUsername:

They should've just worked for SR if they wanted a cut of the loot. Im sure DPR would've paid a good amount for counter-LE intel.


[4 Points] BahWhatever666:

What a fascinating turn of events. I bet this will have some kind of impact on Ross's case. I mean it says these guys were the lead investigators for Christ's sake and obviously cannot be trusted. Would this make for a mistrial maybe?


[4 Points] mephestus:

lol dont drop the soap is the most applicable ever


[5 Points] mnhty:

From page 5 section d.

d.) Despite having personally benefitted in the amount of $820,000 from a Mt. Gox account and receieving a large wire on May 7, 2013 from Mt. Gox, just two days later on May 9, 2013, BRIDGES served as the affiant on a multi-million dollar seizure warrant for Mt. Gox and its owner's bank accounts; and

So the US Government seized all Mt. Gox funds? I guess that explains a lot.


[2 Points] keysmashhhhh:

I highly recommend reading the complaint! You just can't make that sort of insanity up. I haven't made it all the way through but it certainly looks like the two agents were independently corrupt- they appear to be unaware of each others' illegal activities.

I was horrified reading about Force stealing some poor random actor's bitcoin account at the coin exchange he was part owner of; it looks like he just spotted a high balance account and snatched all the $$$- some $330k. He ran an illegal background check on the owner and he had a felony vandalism conviction- sounds like a hardened criminal!

And Bridges- the dude had the balls to walk out of the interview with the SR admin, Green, and immediately just loot SR's accounts. And then, he texts Force, and says "Hey would you ask DPR how he turns large amounts of BTC into cash?" And when Force is like "... Um, why?" He is all "oh no reason! Just curious!" Wow.

And Force getting his BTC exchange accounts frozen for accessing them via Tor, he sends his credentials to the exchange. And they ask well why did you use Tor? And he says "I just don't want the NSA looking over my shoulder :)" Apparently the management of the exchange was still skeptical after that ... even with the charming emotie they left his account frozen.

(Hold my popcorn, I'm diving back in.)

Edited to add: there is a really excellent exhibit towards the end, someone clearly had a great time creating that. There's a picture of a shaggy looking Ross on top, the web of Bitcoin addys and then Force's picture at the bottom. He looks like his (really amazing) name, for sure.


[3 Points] None:

Fucking Nazi swine.


[3 Points] SyntheticEmotion:

Cool. I hope some of those stolen coins were mine so I would feel like I helped a little getting these two twats arrested.


[3 Points] DrDoesLitl:

Holy fuck


[3 Points] ablackjack:

Archer: Okay, so I know we're just supposed to be INVESTIGATING this drug market, but check it out, I can do a password reset on these dealers' accounts and just TAKE all their Kriegerrands.

Cyril: But...won't Dread Pirate Roberts be able to see that you're the one stealing all this money?

Archer: And?

Cyril: He'll be mad...? Maybe try to kill you?

Archer: Uh, yeah and/or duh. That's why I signed you up as a hitman.

Cyril: WHAT!?

Archer: Captain Crunch hires you to kill me, we stage my death, and you collect the bounty. Then we split it, like, eighty-twenty.

Cyril: Archer, I'm not going to pretend to be a hitman, and--wait, what? No way, that is not fair. Fifty-fifty.

Archer: Yeah, because you're the one who was UP ALL NIGHT creating Carl Mark Force IV, an ex-Marine hitman with a tender heart who's been broken by this cruel world. OH WAIT, that was me, Cyril.

Cyril: Fine, sixty-forty.

Archer: Fine. [quietly] Ass.


edit: credit for writing this goes to Djeser at the SA forums; it's probably my favorite take on this whole clusterfuck and everyone needs to see it hahaha


[2 Points] durgsrbad:

Carl Mark Force IV

Glorious


[2 Points] Smokeyz:

Thought they were above the law, obviously not.


[2 Points] Vegetano:

fucking dirty cops all over the world


[2 Points] theseeker01:

haha serves these fucks right too.


[1 Points] alexander_bachington:

Set Ross free! This guy made it safe for us nerds to get drugs. These cops are just fucking the system around. They should be in jail, not Ross.


[1 Points] logingin01:

Has the picture of poor old miserable Carl been posted? He is soon to be ass raped I feel


[1 Points] None:

Fuck!

better than any novel you'll ever read

that actor got fucked, did he get anything back?

"After speaking with another then-member of federal law enforcement, BRIDGES, Bitstamp subsequently processed the withdrawal request, and FORCE's bank records reveal that he received approximately $201,000 to his M&T bank account on May 6, 2014. "

Interesting!


[1 Points] CARL_MARK_FORCE:

ayyy lmao


[0 Points] TotesMessenger:

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