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Two Federal Agents in Silk Road Case Face Fraud Charges

nytimes.com

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

#61

Post by toomuchtodo »

tptacek wrote: post #60
toomuchtodo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. How could Ulbricht's attorney not appeal after this is made public?

You think evidence that Ulbricht bribed someone to get intelligence on another DEA investigation is going to help him? I mean: they'll probably appeal no matter what, because what do they have to lose at this point.

> You think evidence that Ulbricht bribed someone to get intelligence on another DEA investigation is going to help him?

Not at all!

> I mean: they'll probably appeal no matter what, because what do they have to lose at this point.

Exactly this. Sorry I wasn't clear.

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

#62

Post by r00fus »

Tomte wrote: post #25
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #4

Bitcoin seems to make everyone crazy. I guess if you're prone to theft and dishonesty, it must be tough to look at a folder on some confiscated PC with files worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and not take them. Seems like everyday police corruption, like how drug dealers busted with thousands of dollars suddenly have a evidence locker inventory with zero cash. I'm glad the system is working, at least to…

Looks like we have indeed found a third way to make money off Bitcoin. The first two, both widely used so far, are (a) operating a Bitcoin exchange and running away with customers' Bitcoins and (b) hacking a Bitcoin exchange and running away with customers' Bitcoins.

Corruption is always a way to make money - it's a time honored tradition. What I'm afraid we're seeing here is that if the corrupt individuals aren't sufficiently capable, they get caught.

What is going on that isn't being caught (or just as bad, being caught but not being punished because "important people" would be inconvenienced)?

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

#63

Post by user_0001 »

CPLX wrote: 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…

Drug enforcement officers on the take shocker.

I though this was common knowledge. Arrest and find 2 lbs and $20k, person gets charged with 1 lb and $10k

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

#64

Post by revelation »

tptacek wrote: post #60
toomuchtodo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. How could Ulbricht's attorney not appeal after this is made public?

You think evidence that Ulbricht bribed someone to get intelligence on another DEA investigation is going to help him? I mean: they'll probably appeal no matter what, because what do they have to lose at this point.

It's hardly bribery if the other party isn't acting in an official capacity. Fake authority has probably been a ploy of scammers and fraudsters since they existed.

On the other hand, I'm sure theres a major problem for the government here if the guy signing seizures is doing so for his own illicit gain.

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

#65

Post by ryan_j_naughton »

fweespeech wrote: post #18
deftnerd wrote: 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…

>> [e.g. These agents were not involved]

i.e. not e.g.

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

#66

Post by justathrow2k »

shit_parade wrote: post #33

How many bad apples until people declare the whole batch spoiled?

Well,it sounds like you've already made up your mind, so at what number did you reach the breaking point and made the decision that the entirety of our law enforcement system was spoiled?

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

#67

Post by zaroth »

user_0001 wrote: post #63
CPLX wrote: 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…

Drug enforcement officers on the take shocker. I though this was common knowledge. Arrest and find 2 lbs and $20k, person gets charged with 1 lb and $10k

The twist being, Bitcoin is so far from even pseudo-anonymous that stealing the cash would have been much, much smarter. The Blockchain, it turns out, is the least anonymous way to transact. All your ledger made public forever, what could possibly go wrong?

Sure, with perfectly clean CoinJoins, mixing, etc. you might possibly be able to hide the coins, for a little while. Just don't ever try to actually, you know, spend them.

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

#68

Post by gwern »

modeless wrote: post #52
CPLX wrote: 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…

> there is some implication that these agents may have been responsible for theft of bitcoin not only from Silk Road, but from Mt Gox as well I don't think this is true. Unless I'm missing something the allegation here is not that they stole from Mt. Gox but that they used Mt. Gox to cash out bitcoins stolen from Silk Road. They did actually then steal from Mt. Gox, but it was "legal". They accused Mt. Gox of operati…

> I don't think this is true. Unless I'm missing something the allegation here is not that they stole from Mt. Gox but that they used Mt. Gox to cash out bitcoins stolen from Silk Road.

The complaint does not accuse them of stealing from Mtgox. However, there is still the curious matter of how Ulbricht's Mtgox account was drained several months later: https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/2tgymg/silk...

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

#70

Post by legalbeagle »

CPLX wrote: 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…

Interestingly, these guys weren't caught because they stole bitcoin. They were caught because they converted the bitcoin into US dollars and then ultimately transferred that cash into accounts subject to investigative jurisdiction in the U.S. Had they simply kept (and maybe even spent) the bitcoin directly, it would have been far harder to identify them.
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