10 ms·

Second U.S. Agent Agrees to Plead Guilty to Bitcoin Theft

174 points by sidko 11y ago

trhway 11y ago
>In addition, prosecutors allege Force used his supervisor’s signature stamp on a subpoena to unfreeze one of his own accounts that had been blocked for suspicious activity. ... >Bridges allegedly filed an affidavit for a warrant to seize the Mt. Gox Co. exchange, where Silk Road bitcoins were stored, and its owner’s bank accounts two days after he had taken his own money out of it, according to the criminal complaint. this couple of bad FBI apples obviously can't cast any doubt onto the integrity of the rest of the FBI Silk Road team (consisting mainly of pure-breed white knights in shiny Lexuses) nor onto the integrity of the whole investigation and conviction....... The trial was 3 ring circus beyond reasonable doubt. F&cking clowns. It isn't the issue whether DPR was this guy or not, or whether he really hired a killer. The issue is that my taxes are extorted from me in order to, supposedly, finance justice process, and what i've got for my money was a show so lame that it wasn't worth even a rotten tomato to throw at it. In the light of the so far surfaced crimes by the FBI agents the epic heroic story http://www.wired.com/2015/05/silk-road-2/ http://www.wired.com/2015/05/silk-road-2/ looks like a new story: "DPR believed that Nob was a Puerto Rican cartel middleman named Eladio Guzman, but he was in fact DEA agent Carl Force. Force had spent more than a year developing his undercover identity on Silk Road in an effort to get close to DPR. They’d become confidants, spending nights chatting at such length that DPR trusted Nob when he needed enforcement muscle. It was Nob whom DPR hired to kill his employee, Curtis Green. Force then coerced Green into faking his own death as a ruse. Force was surprised to see DPR’s moral collapse up close, but then again, he’d seen this kind of thing before, during his younger DEA years in undercover. He too had experienced the temptations that came with a double identity. In fact, his secret life as a hard-partying operator had nearly destroyed his regular life. He’d left all that behind and recommitted himself to Christ. The Silk Road case was his first undercover role since those days, and it was a big one. Because of his tenure online as Nob, Force was able to carry out the supposed “hit” on Green, setting DPR up for a murder conspiracy indictment while at the same time cementing their relationship. Nob and DPR had become comrades-in-arms." I mean, obviously, this heroic Force whose court testimonies and affidavits sent the guy for life couldn't be the same Force who stole the money. I mean we're talking about commitment to Christ after all... Did i mention clowns? And this one is the icing - http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/03/31/force-and-bridges/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/03/31/force-and-...: "A state’s witness took the fall for an agent’s theft, thus becoming the target for a murder-for-hire—a murder that was then faked by the same agent. The Silk Road case was compromised again and again as Force and Bridges allegedly took every opportunity to embezzle and steal money. With so much bitcoin on their hands, the two had to coax various bitcoin and payments companies to help convert their ill-gotten gains to dollars. When companies resisted, investigations were launched, subpoenas were issued, and civil forfeitures were sought in retaliation."
- deepnet 11y ago
  Is this what the judge referred to in sentencing DPR ?
- shit_parade2 11y ago
  The American legal system lacks any semblance of justice or legitimacy. It is a system designed to empower and serve the State.
- ikeboy 11y ago
  >I mean, obviously, this heroic Force whose court testimonies and affidavits sent the guy for life couldn't be the same Force who stole the money. There was no affidavit or testimony by Force or Bridges, as far as I know. Please source that if true.
  - trhway 11y ago
    http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=33909420&z=9e105f7b http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=33909420&z... this is Ulbricht's murder-for-hire case in Maryland (the undercover agent in the indictment is obviously Force). That murder-for-hire charge has strongly affected the New York case, in particular it was the basis for denying bail to Ulbricht, not disclosing prosecution witnesses until the trial, and was also used as a strong argument in support of suppressing Ulbricht's 4th Amendment rights (http://www.scribd.com/doc/238796613/Silk-Road-Prosecution-4th-Amendment-Rebuttall http://www.scribd.com/doc/238796613/Silk-Road-Prosecution-4t...). After all, the FBI stole the Ulbricht's laptop from the library. And obviously such murder charge "helped" the Judge to make up her mind, especially with respect to sentencing, and prepare her Grand Condemnation Speech (and to not let the Speech go waste the Judge didn't let the Ulbricht's defense to bring up the Force's and Bridge's crimes while that murder charge based on the Force's testimonies was heavily affecting the case).
    - ikeboy 11y ago
      There were 5 murders-for-hires claims, not all which were linked to Force. They don't rely on his testimony or affidavit. You're conflating different charges here. "After all, the FBI stole the Ulbricht's laptop from the library." Don't see how that's relevant. > And obviously such murder charge "helped" the Judge to make up her mind, especially with respect to sentencing, and prepare her Grand Condemnation Speech (and to not let the Speech go waste the Judge didn't let the Ulbricht's defense to bring up the Force's and Bridge's crimes while that murder charge based on the Force's testimonies was heavily affecting the case). They weren't allowed to bring it up publically, but they argued in front of the Judge all they wanted, so the claim that it affected the judge is irrelevant. The only people who couldn't see it that mattered was the jurt, but you'd have to claim that evidence gathered by Force/Bridges was brought up in court; that is not true, as far as I know. There was sufficient evidence of the murder for hire charges just from the laptop seized with no input from Force.
ipsin 11y ago
I'll be interested to see what a gross abuse of power gets you, in terms of sentencing.
- serf 11y ago
  it seems to be related to the amount of people involved. If you run away with a bag of cash, you'll get (metaphorically) beheaded. If you and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Countrywide run away with a bag of cash, prepare for a fairly bad spanking.
  - ghayes 11y ago
    As they say: if you owe your banker one million dollars, he has you by the balls. If you owe your banker one billion dollars, you have him by the balls. Edit: phrasing
    - baddox 11y ago
      That can't be what they say.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - javert 11y ago
      > As they say: if you owe your banker one million dollars, you have him by the balls. If you owe your banker one billion dollars, you have him by the balls. I think you made a mistake. First sentence is supposed to be, "he has you by the balls."
    - raverbashing 11y ago
      Or the more PC version: If you owe your bank one million dollars, you have a problem, if you owe your bank one billion dollars, they have a problem.
    - chrisbennet 11y ago
      "If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." - J. P. Getty
swombat 11y ago
Looking at the other side of the coin, perhaps also worth asking (even if the answer is a negative): Given what we know about the coercive nature of the plea system in the US, which frequently forces people to plead guilty even when they're innocent, to avoid a very expensive, long, and likely "unhappy-ending" trial, is it possible that these FBI agents are actually innocent and simply being coerced into filing guilty pleas to turn 20 year sentences into 5 year sentences? I mean, this is almost a banana republic we're talking about here after all. What was the percentage of people putting in guilty pleas who are innocent? I can't find the article but I recall it was quite high. If we apply this line of thinking to people we like, we should also apply it to people we don't like.
- martin1975 11y ago
  Would you be coerced to plea guilty knowing you were innocent?
  - swombat 11y ago
    Apparently that's very common in the US. Innocence is certainly no guarantee you'll win in the US criminal court system.
  - Sacho 11y ago
    Absolutely. Litigation is ruinously expensive and prosecutors have an almost flawless conviction rate. When you're placed in such a shitty situation where you get the choice of ruining your life a little and ruining your life a lot(and possibly your family and friends' lives as they try to help you along), it's not as cut and dry as "would you plead guilty knowing you were innocent". People do this every day. It's why prosecutors pile charges on, and it works.
    - true_religion 11y ago
      > prosecutors have an almost flawless conviction rate. This is because anytime there is an absolute chance they'll lose, they drop the case. And if the case is less than a 100% guaranteed slam dunk, they'll ask for a plea so it'll never go to trial. Prosecutors cherry pick their trials. It's not possible for every prosecutor everywhere to keep a 98%+ average trial conviction rate in a normal system.
cm2187 11y ago
It is useful to get these regular reminders that the authorities to which we give every day more power, are as human as they have ever been. Reading this, it is not exactly outside of the realm of realism that an FBI/NSA/GCHQ/etc agent would sell private personal data collected in the name of anti-terrorism!
spinlock 11y ago
I'm just glad these heroes are keeping us safe.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

174 points by sidko 11y ago

>In addition, prosecutors allege Force used his supervisor’s signature stamp on a subpoena to unfreeze one of his own accounts that had been blocked for suspicious activity. ... >Bridges allegedly filed an affidavit for a warrant to seize the Mt. Gox Co. exchange, where Silk Road bitcoins were stored, and its owner’s bank accounts two days after he had taken his own money out of it, according to the criminal complaint. this couple of bad FBI apples obviously can't cast any doubt onto the integrity of the rest of the FBI Silk Road team (consisting mainly of pure-breed white knights in shiny Lexuses) nor onto the integrity of the whole investigation and conviction....... The trial was 3 ring circus beyond reasonable doubt. F&cking clowns. It isn't the issue whether DPR was this guy or not, or whether he really hired a killer. The issue is that my taxes are extorted from me in order to, supposedly, finance justice process, and what i've got for my money was a show so lame that it wasn't worth even a rotten tomato to throw at it. In the light of the so far surfaced crimes by the FBI agents the epic heroic story http://www.wired.com/2015/05/silk-road-2/ http://www.wired.com/2015/05/silk-road-2/ looks like a new story: "DPR believed that Nob was a Puerto Rican cartel middleman named Eladio Guzman, but he was in fact DEA agent Carl Force. Force had spent more than a year developing his undercover identity on Silk Road in an effort to get close to DPR. They’d become confidants, spending nights chatting at such length that DPR trusted Nob when he needed enforcement muscle. It was Nob whom DPR hired to kill his employee, Curtis Green. Force then coerced Green into faking his own death as a ruse. Force was surprised to see DPR’s moral collapse up close, but then again, he’d seen this kind of thing before, during his younger DEA years in undercover. He too had experienced the temptations that came with a double identity. In fact, his secret life as a hard-partying operator had nearly destroyed his regular life. He’d left all that behind and recommitted himself to Christ. The Silk Road case was his first undercover role since those days, and it was a big one. Because of his tenure online as Nob, Force was able to carry out the supposed “hit” on Green, setting DPR up for a murder conspiracy indictment while at the same time cementing their relationship. Nob and DPR had become comrades-in-arms." I mean, obviously, this heroic Force whose court testimonies and affidavits sent the guy for life couldn't be the same Force who stole the money. I mean we're talking about commitment to Christ after all... Did i mention clowns? And this one is the icing - http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/03/31/force-and-bridges/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/03/31/force-and-...: "A state’s witness took the fall for an agent’s theft, thus becoming the target for a murder-for-hire—a murder that was then faked by the same agent. The Silk Road case was compromised again and again as Force and Bridges allegedly took every opportunity to embezzle and steal money. With so much bitcoin on their hands, the two had to coax various bitcoin and payments companies to help convert their ill-gotten gains to dollars. When companies resisted, investigations were launched, subpoenas were issued, and civil forfeitures were sought in retaliation."

deepnet 11y ago
Is this what the judge referred to in sentencing DPR ?
shit_parade2 11y ago
The American legal system lacks any semblance of justice or legitimacy. It is a system designed to empower and serve the State.
ikeboy 11y ago
>I mean, obviously, this heroic Force whose court testimonies and affidavits sent the guy for life couldn't be the same Force who stole the money. There was no affidavit or testimony by Force or Bridges, as far as I know. Please source that if true.
- trhway 11y ago
  http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=33909420&z=9e105f7b http://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=33909420&z... this is Ulbricht's murder-for-hire case in Maryland (the undercover agent in the indictment is obviously Force). That murder-for-hire charge has strongly affected the New York case, in particular it was the basis for denying bail to Ulbricht, not disclosing prosecution witnesses until the trial, and was also used as a strong argument in support of suppressing Ulbricht's 4th Amendment rights (http://www.scribd.com/doc/238796613/Silk-Road-Prosecution-4th-Amendment-Rebuttall http://www.scribd.com/doc/238796613/Silk-Road-Prosecution-4t...). After all, the FBI stole the Ulbricht's laptop from the library. And obviously such murder charge "helped" the Judge to make up her mind, especially with respect to sentencing, and prepare her Grand Condemnation Speech (and to not let the Speech go waste the Judge didn't let the Ulbricht's defense to bring up the Force's and Bridge's crimes while that murder charge based on the Force's testimonies was heavily affecting the case).
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    There were 5 murders-for-hires claims, not all which were linked to Force. They don't rely on his testimony or affidavit. You're conflating different charges here. "After all, the FBI stole the Ulbricht's laptop from the library." Don't see how that's relevant. > And obviously such murder charge "helped" the Judge to make up her mind, especially with respect to sentencing, and prepare her Grand Condemnation Speech (and to not let the Speech go waste the Judge didn't let the Ulbricht's defense to bring up the Force's and Bridge's crimes while that murder charge based on the Force's testimonies was heavily affecting the case). They weren't allowed to bring it up publically, but they argued in front of the Judge all they wanted, so the claim that it affected the judge is irrelevant. The only people who couldn't see it that mattered was the jurt, but you'd have to claim that evidence gathered by Force/Bridges was brought up in court; that is not true, as far as I know. There was sufficient evidence of the murder for hire charges just from the laptop seized with no input from Force.

ipsin 11y ago

I'll be interested to see what a gross abuse of power gets you, in terms of sentencing.

serf 11y ago
it seems to be related to the amount of people involved. If you run away with a bag of cash, you'll get (metaphorically) beheaded. If you and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Countrywide run away with a bag of cash, prepare for a fairly bad spanking.
- ghayes 11y ago
  As they say: if you owe your banker one million dollars, he has you by the balls. If you owe your banker one billion dollars, you have him by the balls. Edit: phrasing
  - baddox 11y ago
    That can't be what they say.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - javert 11y ago
    > As they say: if you owe your banker one million dollars, you have him by the balls. If you owe your banker one billion dollars, you have him by the balls. I think you made a mistake. First sentence is supposed to be, "he has you by the balls."
  - raverbashing 11y ago
    Or the more PC version: If you owe your bank one million dollars, you have a problem, if you owe your bank one billion dollars, they have a problem.
  - chrisbennet 11y ago
    "If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." - J. P. Getty

swombat 11y ago

Looking at the other side of the coin, perhaps also worth asking (even if the answer is a negative): Given what we know about the coercive nature of the plea system in the US, which frequently forces people to plead guilty even when they're innocent, to avoid a very expensive, long, and likely "unhappy-ending" trial, is it possible that these FBI agents are actually innocent and simply being coerced into filing guilty pleas to turn 20 year sentences into 5 year sentences? I mean, this is almost a banana republic we're talking about here after all. What was the percentage of people putting in guilty pleas who are innocent? I can't find the article but I recall it was quite high. If we apply this line of thinking to people we like, we should also apply it to people we don't like.

martin1975 11y ago
Would you be coerced to plea guilty knowing you were innocent?
- swombat 11y ago
  Apparently that's very common in the US. Innocence is certainly no guarantee you'll win in the US criminal court system.
- Sacho 11y ago
  Absolutely. Litigation is ruinously expensive and prosecutors have an almost flawless conviction rate. When you're placed in such a shitty situation where you get the choice of ruining your life a little and ruining your life a lot(and possibly your family and friends' lives as they try to help you along), it's not as cut and dry as "would you plead guilty knowing you were innocent". People do this every day. It's why prosecutors pile charges on, and it works.
  - true_religion 11y ago
    > prosecutors have an almost flawless conviction rate. This is because anytime there is an absolute chance they'll lose, they drop the case. And if the case is less than a 100% guaranteed slam dunk, they'll ask for a plea so it'll never go to trial. Prosecutors cherry pick their trials. It's not possible for every prosecutor everywhere to keep a 98%+ average trial conviction rate in a normal system.

cm2187 11y ago

It is useful to get these regular reminders that the authorities to which we give every day more power, are as human as they have ever been. Reading this, it is not exactly outside of the realm of realism that an FBI/NSA/GCHQ/etc agent would sell private personal data collected in the name of anti-terrorism!

spinlock 11y ago

I'm just glad these heroes are keeping us safe.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]