InfoBytes Blog
DOJ Charges Former Federal Agents with Bitcoin Wire Fraud and Money Laundering
On March 30, the DOJ filed a criminal complaint against two former federal agents on charges of wire fraud and money laundering of digital currency stolen during the investigation of Silk Road. According to the DOJ, both agents were assigned to the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force – one a Special Agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the other with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). The individual working with the DEA allegedly developed multiple online personas during his undercover investigation of Robert Ulbricht, the alleged operator of Silk Road, and “engaged in a broad range of illegal activities calculated to bring him personal financial gain.” Among other things, the complaint alleges that the DEA agent “sought to extort [Ulbricht] by seeking monetary payment, offering in exchange not to provide the government with certain information if [he] paid $250,000.” The DOJ is accusing the USSS agent of stealing a large amount of bitcoins from the Silk Road website, transferring the bitcoins into a Japanese-based digital currency exchange, and then completing wire transfers from the Japanese exchange into a newly created bank account. The USSS agent self-surrendered on March 30 and the DEA agent was arrested on Friday, March 27.