DEA agent gets prison in theft
Carl M. Force must spend six years behind bars for stealing bitcoin during the Silk Road investigation.
He was no two-bit thief. Using his authority as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and the online monikers of “French Maid” and “Nob,” Carl M. Force was able to rip off a drug trafficker of more than $100,000 in bitcoin.
Force, 46, of Baltimore had been tasked with crawling into the Internet’s dark underbelly to flush out “Dread Pirate Roberts,” the leader of the notorious Silk Road drug market, whose real name was Ross Ulbricht.
Instead, he conned Ulbricht and the DEA, before getting caught as he tried to cover his tracks. Force pleaded guilty this year to extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the 15-year DEA veteran to spend more than six years in prison and pay $340,000 in restitution.
Force was the second law enforcement officer to be convicted of stealing bitcoin during the Silk Road case. Former U.S. Secret Service agent Shaun W. Bridges, 32, admitted this summer to stealing 20,000 bitcoin and liquidating it into $820,000 through a Japanese currency exchange before depositing it into his personal accounts. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in December and faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
In a statement, the U.S attorney’s office said Force was the lead undercover agent in communication with Ulbricht when the DEA went after the Silk Road founder from 2012 to 2014. During that time, Force used the anonymity of the Internet to convince Ulbricht that he was someone named Carla Sophia, who went by the handle “French Maid” online.
The now-defunct Silk Road was a hidden online marketplace that served as host for more than $180 million in drug deals starting in 2010. Ulbricht, 29, was convicted of running Silk Road and sentenced to life in prison in May.
(“Dread Pirate Roberts” is the nickname used by the hero of “The Princess Bride” novel and film.)
As “French Maid” and a second pseudonym, “Nob,” which was known to the DEA, Force convinced Ulbricht to pay him in bitcoin for information about a fictional, corrupt government employee. But instead of revealing these payments to the DEA to help build a case, Force converted the bitcoin to cash and then secretly deposited the proceeds in personal bank accounts.
He made more than $100,000 in bitcoin through the scheme, prosecutors said.
Later, capitalizing on his role in the Ulbricht probe, Force convinced Twentieth Century Fox to pay him $240,000 to help consult on the studio’s film version of the Silk Road investigation — without getting the DEA’s permission.
Force later illegally used his role in a bitcoin currency exchange company to seize a client’s account and steal the bitcoin in it. When federal investigators began closing in on Force, he lied and obstructed their investigation into him and Ulbricht, prosecutors said.