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It's -- astoundingly -- worse than you think it is.
I'm sure it was just a few "bad apples", yes?
And the phrase is "a few bad apples spoil the barrel" which makes the "bad apples" defence bizarre.
For the source in the document go to the bottom of page 3 and top of page 4.

> "FORCE stole and converted to his own personal use a sizeable amount of bitconins that DPR sent to FORCE in FORCE's official undercover capacity rather than turning those bitcoin over to the government, FORCE deposited them into his own personal accounts;"

There is a surprisingly good explanation of cryptocurrency in the link, dare I say better than Wikipedia even. I may have a new link to send non-computer people when they ask me what Bitcoin is.

Thanks justice.gov!

The more interesting aspect, IMO, was that one of the federal agents extorted DPR for hundreds of thousands of dollars with the promise to withhold information from the government.
The most interesting alleged fact is that these agents used the credentials of C.G. (a DPR employee) to steal 20,000 BTC from Silk Road. That caused DPR to suspect C.G. of the theft, and DPR then paid one of the agents even more BTC for a contract hit on C.G. (which the agents were trying to fake).

Better than The Wire!

"I am involved in an investigation into members of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force..."

Good god. It's right out of "The Wire".

Evidence of a culture where this attitude and conduct seemingly runs rampant.

If he hadn't tried to impede on the investigation, would a blind eye have been turned?

How many other agents personally benefit from such busts?

Can't wait for the movie... where everyone just sits behind the computer typing and clicks all day long...

It is very weird that a undercover agent that investigates this kind of thing is that bad at covering it up.