A former US Secret Service special agent has been sent down for six years for pocketing over $800,000 in bitcoins while investigating the notorious online drugs marketplace the Silk Road.
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Shaun Bridges’ attorneys had sought a 3-yr jail time period, however D.R. District Judge Richard Seeborg stated Bridges’ conduct was a “surprising and reprehensible abandonment of his public obligation”.
Bridges, who prosecutors stated had beforehand hung out defending the president’s family, pleaded responsible in August to cash laundering and obstruction costs and acknowledged stealing $ 820,000 value of bitcoin after gaining access to Silk Road, the multimillion-greenback market for unlawful medicine and different contraband. He was a former member of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, a multi-agency group investigating illegal activity on the Silk Road covert online marketplace often used to sell drugs.
He was sentenced this week to 71 months in prison after having pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and one count of obstructing justice.
In sentencing Bridges the judge said that he had clearly been in “abuse of his authority as a sworn law enforcement officer” and was well aware of the extent of his crimes. Force was also ordered to pay $340,000 in compensation. Police say Jones, real name Roger Thomas Clark, mentored Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht on the best way to run the drug website while avoiding police detection.
The sided with the prosecution and remarked, “From what I can see, it was motivated by greed”. Ars Technica reports that during the sentencing, the defense brought Bridges former boss and his wife to speak on his behalf. He admitted using an administrator account on the Silk Road website to transfer 20,000 bitcoins into his own account in early 2013. During the investigation, Bridges stole the bitcoins and tried to frame a witness that agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Once Ulbricht caught wind of the witness’ apparent theft, hits were taken out on the person in question, placing their life at risk.
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Force, Bridges and other agents then staged a fake murder and then sent photos of the staged event to Ulbricht.
