In response to a motion for detention hearing filed by Shaun Bridges, the corrupt Silk Road investigator, the US government has said that it suspects Bridges to have been involved in additional thefts from the darkweb marketplace.
“[T]he United States had recently become aware of additional thefts of bitcoins from Secret Service accounts, the facts of which led the government to believe that Bridges, working with others, was also involved in these thefts”, the filing reads.
Bridges, a former U.S. Secret Service special agent, pleaded guilty last August to money laundering and obstruction of justice in connection with his theft of bitcoin during the investigation of Silk Road. He was sentenced in December after he admitted that he moved and stole nearly 20,000 bitcoin (around $350,000 at the time). He later liquidated the bitcoin into $820,000 between March and May 2013, and had the funds transferred to personal investment accounts in the US.
He was re-arrested in January on suspicion that he was attempting to flee the country. Bridges was sentenced to serve 71 months in prison by Judge Seeborg of the District Court for the Northern District of California and is currently serving that sentence.
According to court documents, Bridges is also seeking to unseal the search and seizure warrants used during his arrest in January, CoinDesk reported. The government opposed the motion for unsealing, stating that such a move “would jeopardize an active and ongoing investigation into criminal conduct by Bridges and others with whom he is working”.
“The government believes through evidence gathered to date that Bridges, working with others, has committed a series of additional crimes, including crimes that took place both before and after the date of the entry of his guilty pleas and sentencing in the Northern District of California”, the filing said.
It added that disclosure of the details contained in the search warrant could jeopardize the new investigation by alerting additional targets of the investigation.
