Bitcoin-stealing ex-agent gets 6.5 years in prison in the US

Former DEA agent Carl Force has been sentenced to 78 months in prison for stealing bitcoins. He did this during the investigation into the free trade place Silk Road, which operates via the Tor network.

Force has been found guilty of racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The ex-cop is sentenced to 78 months in prison, nine months shorter than the prosecutors demand. A federal court in San Francisco called the scale of the betrayal “breathtaking,” Reuters news agency reported.

Force previously confessed that in September 2013, under the alias ‘French Maid’, he extorted the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison in May 2015. He also appears to have persuaded Ulbricht under the alias ‘Nob’ to transfer about $50,000 in bitcoins to a bitcoin wallet in August 2013, on the pretext that Force would pass on information about the investigation. A month later, as a ‘French Maid’, Force managed to extort 770 bitcoins from Ulbricht for additional information about the investigation, then about $ 97,000.

Shaun Bridges, a former Secret Service forensic expert, was the first to plead guilty to the bitcoin stealing case during the Silk Road investigation. He pleaded guilty in June of this year in exchange for a reduced sentence. In total, Bridges embezzled about $820,000 worth of bitcoins. The verdict in this case is expected on December 7.