Two US agents investigating Silk Road have been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin and other digital currencies while assigned to a task force probing the underground marketplace.
Carl Force, a 15-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Baltimore task force’s lead undercover agent, and Shaun Bridges, a computer forensics expert for six years with the US Secret Service, were charged with wire fraud and other offences, according to a criminal complaint unsealed by a judge in San Francisco on Monday.
Authorities traced $776,000 in bitcoins to Mr Force, who they said used the funds he obtained to pay off a mortgage, a government loan and invest in real estate. He also faces conflict of interest charges for allegedly moonlighting as the de facto compliance officer for CoinMKT, a digital currency exchange company he invested in, while he was still employed by the DEA. Mr Force was arrested in Baltimore on Friday.