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Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

nytimes.com

41–50 of 100 posts

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#41
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's unheard of for agents in a "different investigative team" (that, BTW, happens to be involved in shaking down suspects) to, say, provide illegally obtained evidence to their coworkers. The government is very strict about tracking the source of evidence so it can be turned over to the defense; otherwise it'd be a clear Brady violation. They could face as much as a light chastizement from a federal judge! http…

Is there some link you can point us to suggesting that that's happened in this case? There are 113,000 employees at DOJ, so, statistically, every case is always going to be one or two hops away from some kind of malfeasance somewhere, right?

In that case we talk about very close investigations. So the chances of cross contamination are higher, IMO. And IIRC we still have no idea how the server was found in the first place.

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#42
post #39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some link you can point us to suggesting that that's happened in this case? There are 113,000 employees at DOJ, so, statistically, every case is always going to be one or two hops away from some kind of malfeasance somewhere, right?

Your comment is disingenuous. The case was not "one or two hops away" from malfeasance, it was the subject of said malfeasance. The fact that neither of the bad actors testified in court, and that they may have been working in a separate office does not change this.

It's disingenuous to ask if the "tainted" investigation is actually linked to the one that produced Ulbricht's conviction?

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#43
post #3

I wonder if the government buried this until after the Ulbricht trial was over. The fact that two of the investigators were corrupt and stealing funds could have derailed the case.

It turns out one of them was probably on Ulbricht's payroll:

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/dea-agent-charged-acting-paid-m...

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#44
I encourage everyone with interest in the overall story to actually read the complaint. It's astonishing.

It appears that these two Federal agents were doing far, far more than just grabbing some excess bitcoins that were lying around and they figured nobody would miss. It reads more like a purposeful organized crime effort, involving setting up dummy shell companies, forging letters from the government, being involved in pitching investments in shady offshore bitcoin startups, etc.

They also allege that these agents were turning around and selling insider info on the investigation to DPR in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin. They allege an agent just basically strong armed some random guy ("RP") who was a customer of CoinMKT and stole $297,000 or so from him, using the Federal Government search and seizure docs to do so but then just transferring the money into his personal checking account.

The agent was doing shady transactions via Venmo and got flagged and had his account suspended, so he contacted them as a DEA agent to get the account reinstated. When they got suspicious (because he had been using his personal email address before going "official") and contacted his supervisors he tried to start a criminal investigation of Venmo as "a suspicious money remitter" through his office.

They allege that the other agent was responsible for the wholesale theft of bitcoin from Silk Road and its various vendors, after they managed to apprehend someone ("CG") who was an administrator at Silk Road. This agent signed Federal warrants seizing the assets of Mt Gox, meanwhile transferring millions of dollars in bitcoin into his own account.

Reading this is thoroughly jaw-dropping: http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-release...

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#45
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What difference would it have made?

Trials have to prove someone is guilty beyond reasonable doubt . If agents involved in the investigations were caught misbehaving, that may very well add doubt to the validity of the investigation's results. Or at least it could delay the trial while the results are re-evaluated.

Well, I took a high school civics class too, but I don't see these guys as having been central to the case against Ulbricht at all.

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the agents are convicted, you'd think Ulbricht's lawyer could appeal to have his conviction overturned...

Except these agents were a separate investigation and their evidence wasn't included in the trial.

It's relevant though. Missing information is just as important as provided information when it comes to the law. That's what they mean when they say the whole truth.

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#47
post #3

I wonder if the government buried this until after the Ulbricht trial was over. The fact that two of the investigators were corrupt and stealing funds could have derailed the case.

The Ulbricht case that went to trial was a different investigative team. [e.g. These agents were not involved] > The charges stem from the agents’ role in one of the federal investigations into Silk Road; a separate Manhattan-based investigation ultimately led to the filing of charges against the website’s founder, Ross W. Ulbricht, who was convicted last month on numerous counts. The website was also shut down by th…

[deleted]

Re: Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

#50
post #44

I encourage everyone with interest in the overall story to actually read the complaint. It's astonishing. It appears that these two Federal agents were doing far, far more than just grabbing some excess bitcoins that were lying around and they figured nobody would miss. It reads more like a purposeful organized crime effort, involving setting up dummy shell companies, forging letters from the government, being involv…

Indeed. It appears Force's fatal flaw was trusting an IRS Agent to help him out of a situation.
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