JUSTICE NEWS Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday August 16 2017 Former Secret Service Agent Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering A former Special Agent with the U S Secret Service pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges of money laundering announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A Blanco of the Justice Department's Criminal Division U S Attorney Brian Stretch of the Northern District of California Special Agent in Charge Kimberly A Lappin of the IRS-Criminal Investigation IRS-CI Washington D C Field Office Cyber Crimes Unit Special Agent in Charge John F Bennett of the FBI's San Francisco Division and Special Agent in Charge David Green of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General Houston Field Office Shaun W Bridges 35 of Laurel Md pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering before U S District Court Judge Richard Seeborg of the Northern District of California Sentencing has been set for November 7 Bridges had been a Special Agent with the U S Secret Service for approximately six years in the Baltimore Field Office Between 2012 and 2014 he was assigned to the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force a multi-agency group investigating illegal activity on the Silk Road a covert online marketplace for illicit goods including drugs Bridges' responsibilities included among other things conducting forensic computer investigations in an effort to locate identify and prosecute targets of the Silk Road Task Force including Ross Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts who ran the Silk Road from the Northern District of California In 2015 Bridges pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice related to his theft and diversion of over $800 000 in digital currency over which he gained control as part of his role on the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force In December 2015 Bridges was sentenced to 71 months in prison on those charges Prior to reporting to prison to begin serving his sentence for the 2015 conviction Bridges was arrested and taken into custody on new charges related to another theft of approximately 1 600 bitcoin valued at the time of the theft at approximately $359 005 from a digital wallet belonging to the U S government According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea in this case Bridges admitted to using a private key to access a digital wallet belonging to the U S government and subsequently transferring the bitcoin to other digital wallets at other bitcoin exchanges to which only he had access As part of his plea Bridges agreed to turn over the stolen bitcoin to U S agents The case is being investigated by the FBI's San Francisco Division the IRS-CI's Washington D C Field Office Cyber Crimes Unit and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General Houston Field Office The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U S Attorney William Frentzen of the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Richard B Evans of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section Assistant U S Attorney David Countryman is handling the Asset Forfeiture aspects of the case Topic s Public Corruption Component s Criminal Division Criminal - Public Integrity Section USAO - California Northern Updated November 6 2019 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu