Corrupt Silk Road Agent Arrested in Alleged Attempt to Flee Country
A former Secret Service agent who pleaded guilty to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin during the US government’s investigation of the now-defunct dark market Silk Road has been re-arrested.
Court documents point to a suspicion on the part of the federal government that Shaun Bridges may have been attempting to flee the country.
In a 28th January document, prosecutors sought to prevent the court from approving Bridges’ request to be allowed to surrender to a Bureau of Prisons facility in the state of New Hampshire. Judge Richard Seeborg approved that order on 29th January.
Prosecutors say the arresting officers discovered passports for Bridges, documents pertaining to offshore companies based in Belize, Mauritius and Nevis, and a bulletproof vest.
The filing goes on to explain:
“Also located in those bags were documents relating to his wife’s, Ariana Esposito’s, attempts to obtain citizenship in another country. Government agents also found a MacBook with the serial number scratched off, an [iPad] tucked between a bedroom mattress and bulletproof vests, at least one of which had Secret Service markings and thus is believed to have been stolen from the government.”
According to the prosecution, Bridges was arrested “without incident” last Thursday. As reported by The Baltimore Sun, he was arrested at his home in Laurel, Maryland.
Bridges was sentenced in December after pleading guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice charges. Bridges was accused of stealing more than $820,000 from bitcoin accounts tied to the Silk Road.
Alongside former Drug Enforcement Agency agent Carl Mark Force IV, Bridges was arrested in the midst of the trial of convicted Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht, who is now appealing his life sentence in part because of the court’s efforts to restrict access to this information during the trial.
The full court motion detailing Bridges’ arrest can be found below: