US agent sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison for Bitcoin extortion during Silk Road investigation

A former U.S. agent was sentenced Monday to 6.5 years in prison for stealing bitcoins while investigating the Silk Road online black market and secretly soliciting payments from its operators in exchange for information.

Former DEA agent Foss (left) and former Federal Economic Intelligence Service agent Bridges Image source: Forbes magazine

Former DEA agent Carl Force pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said in federal court in San Francisco on Monday that the scope of Force's crimes was "staggering."

U.S. prosecutors requested that Fox be sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, but Fox's defense attorney believed he should be sentenced to four years in prison.

Defense attorneys said Fox should not be sentenced to such a long sentence, partly because of his mental health problems. That day, Fox apologized to the American people and his family in court.

"I'm sorry - I lost myself," Foss said, not realizing the harm of his actions.

Prosecutors said Silk Road operated for more than two years before it was shut down in October 2013, generating more than $214 million in sales, primarily using bitcoin to trade drugs and other illegal goods.

Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road who authorities said also used the alias "Dread Pirate Robert," was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan in May of several charges, including distributing drugs online.

Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road, was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 29 this year. Image source: Internet U.S. prosecutors also reached a plea agreement with Shaun Bridges (a former Federal Economic Intelligence Service agent), who, along with Fox, was accused of stealing Bitcoin, the electronic currency circulated on the Internet, during the investigation in March this year.

Foos, who was part of a federal task force in Baltimore that investigated the Silk Road online black market, played a key role by posing as a drug dealer named "Nob" to reach out to Ulbricht, prosecutors said.

According to government documents, Fox claimed to be a drug trafficker "big shot" and that he had information about the investigation, and in August 2013 he convinced Ulbricht to pay him 50,000 bitcoins.

When Foss reported to the DEA, he lied about not receiving any pay and transferred all the bitcoins he received to a personal account, prosecutors said.

In September 2013, Fuchs again violated professional ethics when he used another nickname, "French Maid," on the Internet to ask for about $98,000 (about 620,000 yuan) in Bitcoin for providing Ulbricht with investigative information, prosecutors said.