{"id":25931,"date":"2015-04-01T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T15:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=25931"},"modified":"2015-04-02T06:47:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T04:47:34","slug":"25931","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/25931\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk Road Bitcoin Drama, Act after Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Gabrielle Bluestone writes: Two former federal agents who worked on the 2013 bust of underground drug market Silk Road were charged with multiple felonies this week alleging that the pair used the operation for their own gain, blackmailing defendants and stealing more than $1.5 million worth of bitcoin under the cover of darknet.<\/p>\n

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ust a month after Ulbricht, the head of Silk Roa was convicted, two agents connected with the case were arrested in connection with their work on the investigation.<\/p>\n

The criminal indictment against the agents was unsealed Monday, laid out an array of felony charges, including money laundering, wire fraud, theft of government property and conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

For example, the government alleges, one agent created several online personas during the investigation, which he used to anonymously contact Ulbricht offering to sell information about what the federal investigation. After “converting to his own personal use” close to $776,000 worth of Bitcoin, he clumsily faked a subpoena to try to trick Venmo into unfreezing his account.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say another agent\u2014a computer forensics expert\u2014was a little more elegant, quietly diverting close to $800,000 worth of Bitcoin. According to the indictment, he moved the money off the Silk Road site and onto currency exchange site Mt Gox, where he was able to cash out and transfer the balance to a personal bank account via an LLC called Quantum International Investments.<\/p>\n

Both men resigned from government as soon as they learned they were under investigation, but it one of them\u2014the Secret Service agent\u2014got the better deal. One was reportedly arrested this weekend in Baltimore, where he’ll remain in custody until at least Thursday. Meanwhile, the other got to turn himself in in San Francisco, where he was released on bond not long after.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Gabrielle Bluestone writes: Two former federal agents who worked on the 2013 bust of underground drug market Silk Road were charged with multiple felonies this week alleging that the pair used the operation for their own gain, blackmailing defendants and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t