The complaint (you can read the whole thing here) reads like the plot of a black comedy–which we can see this one day becoming. Two agents, Carl Force and Shaun Bridges, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who are part of a task force investigating a 22-year old kid who’s running a global online drug market that uses a controversial digital currency, were allegedly stealing the currency themselves, from the kid they’re investigating, each apparently unaware of what the other is doing. They are done in by other FBI agents combing through data from a laptop owned by Mr. Ulbricht that was used against him in court.
We can only imagine the shock those agents got when they uncovered evidence that “French Maid,” the screen name of somebody who’d been extorting Mr. Ulbricht, was allegedly one of their own.
Mr. Bridges’ lawyer said his client is innocent. Mr. Force’s lawyer declined to comment.
If the allegations are true, they are brazen. The complaint says the agents stole more than $1 million of bitcoin, moved it into personal accounts, forged their boss’s signature, pressured a startup money-service into moving the stolen money, and extorted the very people they were investigating.
At one point, Mr. Force had allegedly moved his bitcoins into an account at Venmo, which froze the account because it looked suspicious. He then grabbed his supervisor’s signature stamp to sign a document he sent to Venmo, ordering the service to open up the account. Mr. Force then, allegedly, tried to convince Venmo not to talk to anybody else about the order. Venmo went to the DEA anyway, forcing Mr. Force to try and enlist another agent in a scheme to seize Venmo’s bank accounts (this was apparently unsuccessful).
After the agents arrested Curtis Green, a Silk Road web admin, in January 2013, they gained access to Silk Road’s accounts. That same month, Silk Road’s accounts were pilfered – by Mr. Bridges, the complaint alleges. (There was a widely reported hack of Silk Road in February 2013 that resulted in $2.7 million disappearing. It isn’t clear if these are different incidents). The complaint says he took that money, and moved it into an account at Mt. Gox. Mr. Bridges moved $820,000 from Silk Road to Mt. Gox, and then to an LLC he started, “Quantum International Investments.” On May 7, the $820,000 went from Mt. Gox to Quantum. On May 9, Mr. Bridges signed off on aseizure warrant for Mt. Gox and its bank accounts.
As you can imagine, Mr. Ulbricht’s defense team has a thought or two on this. “The government’s considerable efforts at keeping this monumental scandal from being aired at Ross Ulbricht’s trial is itself scandalous,” Joshua Dratel, his lawyer, said in a statement, the entirety of which you can read here. Mr. Ulbricht was convicted in February on a number of charges related to his operation of Silk Road. Sentencing is scheduled for May 15.
Mr. Dratel said in the statement that the defense was told about the FBI investigation of the FBI agents five weeks before Mr. Ulbricht’s trial was to begin, but were barred from using any information from that investigation as part of the defense case.
“The defense has already moved for a new trial,” he said.
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