Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges, 33, was sentenced to 71 months in prison and ordered to repay $651,000 he laundered using cryptocurrency during the years-long investigation.
Bridges was assigned to the FBI-led task force stationed in Baltimore, where he and others followed the digital trail left by Silk Road's administrator, Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison in May.
During the investigation, officials arrested a customer support specialist, Curtis Green, who they hoped to flip as an asset in the investigation. According to Bridges' indictment, the agent reset Green's account information and moved some 20,000 bitcoins — worth about $350,000 — to a personal account.
While illegal in its own right, the move also made Ulbricht suspicious, prompting him to revoke Green's administrator access, setting back the investigation.
Along with Bridges, former DEA agent Carl Force also pleaded guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice, as well as extortion related to his work on the Silk Road case. Force was sentenced to 78 months in prison in October and ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution.
Aaron Boyd is an awarding-winning journalist currently serving as editor of Federal Times — a Washington, D.C. institution covering federal workforce and contracting for more than 50 years — and Fifth Domain — a news and information hub focused on cybersecurity and cyberwar from a civilian, military and international perspective.
