A US secret service agent who helped track down Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht is to plead guilty to a string of fraud and money laundering charges.
Special agent Shaun Bridges worked as a computer forensics expert to help locate the website’s servers, alongside undercover colleague Carl Mark Force, who communicated with Dread Pirate Roberts, the owner of Silk Road who was eventually revealed as Ulbricht.
But during the many months they spent posing as users of the site – and even a potential buyer of the entire business – Force and Bridges fell to temptation, with Bridges funneling $800,000 of bitcoins earned by Silk Road into his own bank accounts without authorisation.
