The Silk Road-related 69,369 Bitcoins (over $3 billion at press time) that were seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in early November, are likely linked to disgraced U.S. Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges, Fortune reports.
New court filings suggest that Bridges is the enigmatic “Individual X” that was cited in the DOJ’s civil forfeiture complaint.
In 2015, he got sentenced to 71 months in prison for stealing Bitcoins from Silk Road vendors while investigating the site. Bridges then had to serve an additional two years in prison in 2017 after pleading guilty to money laundering. The ex-Secret Service agent is still serving Nashville’s federal penitentiary, and he’s expected to be a free man again this November.
The Fortune article also mentions high-level drug enforcement agent Carl Mark Force IV who got a six-and-a-half-year prison back in 2015 before getting re-arrested the following year over an attempt to flee the U.S.
Alex DovbnyaThe U.S. government keeps hodling
As reported by U.Today, the transfer of almost 70,000 Bitcoins was initially spotted by Whale Alert on Nov. 3, and it was then linked to Silk Road by blockchain sleuth Elliptic.
After tons of speculation, the DOJ eventually confirmed that it had seized the ill-gotten coins that were the proceeds from the infamous narcotics bazaar. It was the feds' largest cryptocurrency-related seizure to date.
The value of the confiscated Bitcoin has increased by roughly $2 billion since early November. It is unclear when it will auction off these coins like the ones that were seized from Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht who is serving a double life sentence in Tucson, Arizona.
The U.S. government is widely known as one of the largest Bitcoin holders.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov