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Secret Service Agent Pleads Guilty In Bitcoin Theft

Posted by samzenpus on from the long-arm-of-the-law dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A former Secret Service agent has pleaded guilty to charges related to the theft of $800,000 worth of bitcoins during a high-profile investigation into the online drug marketplace Silk Road. Reuters reports: "Shaun Bridges, 33, appeared in federal court in San Francisco and admitted to money laundering and obstruction of justice....In court on Monday, Bridges admitted his theft made Ulbricht believe that another individual was stealing from Silk Road and helped lead Ulbricht to try to hire someone to kill that person."

14 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Good by Cederic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to see justice working both ways, almost gives you faith in the process.

  2. A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That Shaun Bridges was even charged at all is amazing. He's a government employee, and in most of the world it's very rare for government employees to be charged with a crimes because fellow government employees refuse to prosecute them. Thank your lucky stars, America, you are not like Australia where the press reports alleged corruption, the police ignore it, and it piles up and up and up: https://archive.is/KUTAy#cases

    1. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > He's a government employee, a

      _Former_ government employee. The courts don't provide anywhere near as much lenience for former employees as for active employees of law enforcement agencies.

      And if you are convinced that the US government and its courts will not turn a blind eye to criminal acts by federal employees, please review the revelations about NSA criminal and unconstitutional activities published by Edward Snowden for a recent striking example. www.wikileaks.com is filled with criminal activity by many governments: the USA is not immune. Turning a blind eye to colleague abuses is a common problem.

    2. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And if you are convinced that the US government and its courts will not turn a blind eye to criminal acts by federal employees, please review the revelations about NSA criminal and unconstitutional activities published by Edward Snowden for a recent striking example.

      Not just federal employees. We see local cops getting away with murder a couple of times a week it seems.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's a big country: there are a _lot_ of local police doing good work, and it's hard, usually dull, sometimes quite dangerous work. The local officers with their boots on the ground doing the real day-to-day work are worth their weight in BitCoins.

      But yes, corruption and brutal enforcement with the public as "the enemy" are terrible, easy habits to fall into for individuals and for whole departments. Some corruption is inherent in _having_ a culture large enough to require law enforcement. It's why it's so important that police, prosecution, courts, and lawmakers are kept at odds, so they can and do limit each other's power.

    4. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 4, Informative

      random murder of the perps is OK, stealing money that the Feds planned on seizing isn't. This is America, and he "stole" a pretty decent amount.

    5. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That Shaun Bridges was even charged at all is amazing. He's a government employee, and in most of the world it's very rare for government employees to be charged with a crimes because fellow government employees refuse to prosecute them. Thank your lucky stars, America, you are not like Australia where the press reports alleged corruption, the police ignore it, and it piles up and up and up: https://archive.is/KUTAy#cases

      Nah, it's pretty much the same in America.

      The difference in this case is the nature of the crime and the victim chosen. No, not Ulbricht. The victim was the federal government, because they were going to seize that money anyway. You steal from the government, or attack the government in any way, they're going to drop the hammer on you. If your victim is an individual, well, it depends in large part on the socioeconomic status of that individual. A government employee can get prosecuted for killing a poor black man, for example, but it's rare. If you're a government agency and your victim is the entire nation, you're almost certainly going to get away with it. At most you'll be told to stop, but no one will be going to jail... well, except the guy who ratted the agency out. There's a good chance he'll go to jail, if he can be caught.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    6. Re:A govt employee charged with a crime? Shock!!! by erapert · · Score: 2

      Courts (especially where the judges are elected) and lawmakers have to be perceived as being "tough on crime", else the right-wing law-and-order types will have a fit.

      I think you're referring to the reality where soccer moms have conniption fits if a criminal who should have been in jail rapes and murders their daughter. They don't want to hear about statistics or about how rare it is when it's their daughter and neither would I and neither would you.

      Oh, and there's also the infamous school shootings. Nobody, on /. at least, points out how insanely unlikely it is to be caught up in a school shooting, or about how few people are actually killed, or about how it could have been stopped very quickly if anyone at the scene had been armed.

      No, instead let's get outraged that the courts are doing their jobs of putting people in jail... and then get outraged if they don't.

      Look. It's your job to safeguard your life. The cops are there to help, but it's ultimately your job because the cops can only get there five minutes later. That's part of the reason why we have the Second Amendment is so that we can defend ourselves.

      Now the self-righteous gun-control crowd can all go ahead and mod me down but it's not going to change reality and it's not going to change the truth.

  3. Re:Shocked actually by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    While article 1, section 6, clause 1 of the Constitution provides some immunity for officials, it's pretty specific. It protects Congress, so it wouldn't apply to the Secret Service. It doesn't protect against being charged with a felony, treason, or "breach of the peace," the last of which is pretty vague. Basically, it subjects Congress to being charged with certain misdemeanors. It protects members of Congress while they're on duty or on their way to or from sessions of Congress. The purpose was to protect Congress from being charged with crimes so as to interfere with Congress from their legislative duties. There's not a lot of actual immunity for government officials from criminal prosecution.

    There is something called sovereign immunity, which isn't actually mentioned in the Constitution. This is protection from civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. It's a common law principle that the courts have defined and upheld through precedent. It protects the government from monetary damages, but not from otherwise resolving legitimate grievances (the right to petition the government for redress of grievances in the first amendment). Government employees can't be sued for performing their duties or for the result of mistakes made during their duties. However, they can be sued for deliberate acts. Congress has the ability to waive sovereign immunity.

    Congress has the ability to grant immunity, as well. While not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, a member of the Secret Service wouldn't be charged with a crime for actions consistent with his or her duty to protect the life of the President. However, a member of the Secret Service who deliberately commits an illegal act beyond the duties of his or her job can still be charged with a crime and prosecuted.

    Immunity is pretty limited, and certainly won't protect this individual from prosecution.

  4. Re:How can you "steal" a bitcoiin? by Necroloth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    bank accounts are just data too

  5. At what point by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does the "attempted murder" thing become just a case of entrapment? We have this admission here and the knowledge that the guy who planted the idea in Ulbricht's head and helped coax him down that road was a DEA agent.

    In general, police should not allowed to do evil that good may come of it. One of the things that bothers me about these cases is that when the police merely create the appearance of evil, they're still coarsening society. When people think evil abounds, it increases their own temptations. That applies from here, to the knowledge that there are tons of cops online posing as underage girls to try to capture would-be lawbreakers there as well. Merely posing as an enabler of crime creates some serious moral hazards.

    1. Re:At what point by Nidi62 · · Score: 2

      Does the "attempted murder" thing become just a case of entrapment? We have this admission here and the knowledge that the guy who planted the idea in Ulbricht's head and helped coax him down that road was a DEA agent.

      In general, police should not allowed to do evil that good may come of it. One of the things that bothers me about these cases is that when the police merely create the appearance of evil, they're still coarsening society. When people think evil abounds, it increases their own temptations. That applies from here, to the knowledge that there are tons of cops online posing as underage girls to try to capture would-be lawbreakers there as well. Merely posing as an enabler of crime creates some serious moral hazards.

      If the USSS agent had taken the bitcoins under orders or as part of the investigation then it could be a case of entrapment. But since he stole the bitcoins for personal use (or not in an official, sanctioned capacity) it's plain simple theft.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  6. Bought to you by... by wbr1 · · Score: 2
    The war on drugs:

    Gangs..
    Attempted murder
    death
    lives ruined
    crappy black market substitutes
    corruption
    graft
    and a smug sense of superiority...

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:Bought to you by... by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 2

      Replace "The war on drugs" with "prohibition".

      Won't we ever learn?

      --
      -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --