Shaun W. Bridges is i of 2 erstwhile U.S. undercover agents who pleaded guilty inwards 2015 to i count of money laundering as well as i count of obstacle as well as was sentenced inwards Dec same twelvemonth to almost half dozen years inwards prison theater for stealing over $800,000 inwards Bitcoin spell investigating Silk Road.
35-years-old Bridges, who had been a Special Agent alongside the U.S. Secret Service for almost 6 years, along alongside his partner stole money from Silk Road accounts as well as framed someone else for the laundering, which fifty-fifty led the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht to excogitation a murder.
Ulbricht was convicted inwards Feb 2015 of running the Silk Road subway scheme dark marketplace position as well as is directly serving life inwards prison theater sentence.
According to the Department of Justice, Bridges is believed to convey stolen additional funds from a digital wallet belonging the Secret Service on 2 dissimilar occasions months after he was initially charged.
The missing Bitcoins were flora yesteryear the Secret Service means inwards Dec when Bridges was sentenced after admitting that he moved as well as stole to a greater extent than or less 1,600 Bitcoin (at the fourth dimension valued nearly $359,005 as well as almost $6.6 i chiliad one thousand today).
According to his guilty plea inwards this case, Bridges said it used a somebody telephone commutation to access a digital wallet belonging to the Secret Service account, as well as afterwards transferred the bitcoins to "other digital wallets at other Bitcoin exchanges to which alone he had access."
"In the course of written report of the investigation, U.S. agents were able to locate as well as seize to a greater extent than or less 600 of the stolen bitcoin and, every bit utilisation of his plea, Bridges agreed to grade the remaining stolen Bitcoin," the DoJ said inwards the statement.Silk Road was close downwards inwards 2013 after the arrest of Ulbricht. The FBI seized bitcoins (worth virtually $33.6 million, at the time) from the site, which were later sold inwards a serial of auctions yesteryear the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).
Before the shutdown, Silk Road was i of the most extensive, sophisticated, as well as widely-used illegal marketplaces on the internet.
The other Bridges' partner is a 47-year-old erstwhile Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) exceptional agent Carl Mark Force, who is likewise facing criminal charges.
On Tuesday, Bridges pleaded guilty to i count of money laundering earlier the U.S. District Court Judge of the Northern District of California. He volition live on sentenced on Nov 7, 2017.
