Feds charged with fraud during "Silk Road" inquiry
SAN FRANCISCO - Two former federal agents who were investigating an online black market that allowed users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal items have been charged with stealing digital currency during the probe.
Carl M. Force of Baltimore was a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Shaun W. Bridges of Laurel, Maryland, was a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service on a task force that investigated the so-called Silk Road marketplace.
Silk Road first launched in 2011 as an underground website where users could browse anonymously for drugs. They paid in a hard-to-track cyber currency known as Bitcoin.
Force served as an undercover agent and was tasked with establishing communications with a target of the investigation, Ross William Ulbricht.
Force is charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, money laundering and conflict of interest. Bridges is charged with wire fraud and money laundering.
The federal criminal complaint was filed last Wednesday and unsealed Monday.