Former DEA agent gets over six years in prison for extorting bitcoins

A few months back, news broke that the two lead investigators behind the Silk Road online black market takedown had embezzled the funds they acquired while doing so. Now, they’re facing six years behind bars.

Former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Carl Force received $50,000 in bitcoin from Silk Road’s creator, Ross “Dread Pirate Roberts” Ulbricht, after posing as a drug dealer and persuading the owner that he had information on the investigation the government was performing. Rather than reporting his undercover social engineering and payment to the DEA, Force transferred the money into his own personal accounts.

Another agent, Shaun Bridges, used a Silk Road administrator account to steal 20,000 bitcoins from various wallets and cashed them in for approximately $820,000. Bridges worked alongside Force in the same Baltimore task force, posing as a drug dealer named “Nob” in order to first extort Ulbricht back in August 2013.

A month later, the ex-DEA agent used the same trick, posing as a Silk Road user named “French Maid,” offering Ulbricht more information for $98,000 in bitcoin.

In addition to his crimes with Ulbricht, Force ripped off a customer named “RP” of CoinMKT (a Bitcoin-related company), stealing $370,000 from him. Force only put $37,000 into a government account, keeping the rest for himself.

Force pled guilty to charges of extortion, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. His defense lawyer, Ivan Bates, asked for a shorter sentence of 48 months due to mental health issues, while prosecutors pushed for 87 months in prison.

“There’s no doubt he’s going to jail,” said Bates. “He's lost his career. He's lost his marriage; he’s lost everything he’s had. He’ll always have a life sentence because of the mental health issues he has.”

A verdict reached sentenced him to 78 months (six and a half years) in prison and $337,000 due in restitution to the victim identified only as “RP.”

“I'm sorry,” Force said. “I lost it and I don't understand a lot of it.”

His fellow agent, Bridges, also pled guilty to obstruction of justice and money laundering, and is due to be sentenced in December.

Via The Verge