The Federal Agent-Silk Road ConspiracyThe ‘Silk Road Conspiracy’ is pretty infamous event, exposing us to the dealings of the dark web. The elaborate saga of drugs, bitcoin and undercover operations is as much mysterious as it is baffling. But during the expose of the Silk Road, one particular person was thrown into the limelight for all the wrong reasons.And that person belonged to the US Secret Service.
Shaun Bridges
Bridges was assigned to the a multi-agency group called the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force. The team was investigating the operations of the now defunct Silk Road, which was accused of illegal activities that primarily involved dealing with drugs. Bridges was responsible for conducting forensic computer investigations.
The Conspiracy
During the course of the investigation into Silk road and its boss Ross Ulbricht, Bridges managed to siphon money from the drug dealers. The money amounted to the tune of USD 820,000 in Bitcoins.Bridges however did not act alone, he and his partner took advantage of the arrest of a Silk Road admin and in the process, they learned how to reset passwords. This allowed them access to the massive funds which they were able to fleece into their personal account.Their doings was eventually discovered and Bridges was charged and sentenced to 6 years in prison for money laundering and obstructing justice. He was arrested at the airport when he apparently made a bid to leave America.
There’s more
Although the inquiry into Bridges’ action revealed the massive amount of money he stole from the online marketplace and transferred into his personal wallets, investigators claimed that Bridges was able to steal much more than what was traced. There was the possibility of more suspected co-conspirators to be involved in this operation that have not been yet identified as of yet. This makes the case even more intriguing, as the culprits could be laughing all the way to the bank.
Bringing Bad Name
Cryptocurrency is revolutionizing the world and taking industries by storm, yet it is not free from the dark, murky waters that are an aftereffect of dealing with people with wicked minds and malicious intent. Such incidents bring a bad name to cryptocurrency, and in this case, to the law enforcement too.
A federal agent lying an stealing people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin is a very grave and stark reminder, of the lengths people can go, even risking their life and careers, just to earn more money.
Please drop comments down below and let us know your thoughts about this new series of conspiracy articles and also any particular conspiracy you would want us to fish out and write about.Until next time…
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