UPDATED 04:18 EDT / FEBRUARY 25 2016

NEWS

Secret Service Silk Road Bitcoin thief may have stolen more, had an accomplice

Disgraced former U.S. Secret Service agent and Silk Road Bitcoin thief Shaun W. Bridges is back in the news after it was disclosed by the government that they believe he may have additional bitcoins stashed somewhere, and may have an unknown accomplice.

The revelations follow Bridges’ arrest early this month after authorities say he was found with a bag containing a passport, corporate records for three offshore accounts and a bulletproof vest, and that he was preparing to flee the country prior to starting to serve his prison term.

Details of the alleged additional theft came via a disclosure document filed February 17th in response to a request by Bridges for a hearing on his ongoing detention post his latest arrest.

“During this same time [as per other filings] the 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 document notes, before going on to argue that Bridges remains a flight risk on the basis of these additional thefts.

Accomplice

Further news of potential partners in crime was revealed in a separate filing February 22nd in response to Bridges’ attempts to obtain copies of the search and seizure warrants used during his most recent arrest, with the government arguing that it can’t hand over these documents as it “could jeopardize the new investigation by alerting additional targets of the investigation.”

“Although Bridges himself is in custody on that underlying case at present, his co-conspirator (s) remain at liberty and thus, disclosure of the details contained in the search warrant could jeopardize the new investigation” the document adds, before a summation of  “In sum, 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.”

Bridges remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service while he awaits his next day in court, both on his attempts to flee the country, and potentially new charges relating to the theft of even more Bitcoins.

Image credit: jonathankosread/Flickr/CC by 2.0

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU