Former US federal agent investigating Silk Road admits he stole $820000 in bitcoins

Former federal agent investigating the Silk Road case pleads guilty to stealing $820,000in Bitcoins

Shaun Bridges, a former US Secret Service agent who was investigating the online drug marketplace Silk Road has admitted the charges of obstruction of justice as well as money laundering.

Ex-Secret Service agent, Shaun Bridges, 33, was a part of the inter-agency Baltimore team that was investigating the online drug marketplace ‘Silk Road’.

According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Bridges admitted that as a part of his criminal investigation he was granted the rights to administrator account on Silk Road which he misused by resetting the passwords and even lifted around 20,000 Bitcoin from numerous wallets on the service and deposited them in his own wallet. Ultimately, he sold off the stolen Bitcoin on the Mt Gox exchange in between March to May 2013 for a whooping figure of $820,000 in cash.

In his plea deal, Bridges also admitted that during the investigation of Silk Road he had lied to his subordinate investigators and also tried to obstruct them in their investigations.

Silk Road was an online “black market” which was launched in February 2011. Silk Road, a modern ‘darknet market’ was better known for selling drugs illegally and online users could browse it anonymously. It was operational for almost 2 years and then was shut down in October 2013 and it is believed that Silk Road was able to generate a revenue of $214 million in the illicit drugs dealings and other illegal goods majorly by using Bitcoin.