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 Carl Force, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent,
admitted to charges of extortion, money laundering and obstruction
of justice. In a San Francisco federal court, Force appeared in an
orange jump suit and leg shackles and acknowledged a litany of
criminal acts.
Among them, Force said he agreed to a contract with Twenty-First
Century Fox Inc <FOXA.O> last year to help make a movie about the
Silk Road investigation, without the permission of his supervisors.
That deal called for him to be paid up to $240,000.
Representatives for Twenty-First Century Fox could not immediately
be reached for comment. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg accepted
Force's plea and scheduled sentencing in October.
Silk Road operated for more than two years until it was shut down in
October 2013, generating more than $214 million in sales of drugs
and other illicit goods using bitcoins, prosecutors said.
Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road's creator who authorities say used the
alias "Dread Pirate Roberts," was sentenced to life in prison in May
after a federal jury in Manhattan found him guilty of several
charges, including distributing drugs through the Internet.
Prosecutors also reached a plea agreement with Shaun Bridges, a
former Secret Service agent who was charged along with Force in
March with stealing bitcoins, the web-based digital currency, during
the investigation.
An attorney for Ulbricht has said those charges "removes any
question about the corruption that pervaded the investigation of
Silk Road."
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Force and Bridges belonged to a Baltimore-based federal task force
that investigated Silk Road. Force played a prominent role,
communicating with Ulbricht while posing as a drug dealer named "Nob,"
prosecutors said.
According to a government document, Force, operating as "Nob," in
August 2013 convinced Ulbricht to pay him $50,000 in bitcoins by
pretending he had information on the investigation.
While Force reported the discussion to the DEA, he falsely claimed
no payment had been made but instead diverted the bitcoins to a
personal account, prosecutors said.
Force, also without authorities' knowledge, used another online
moniker, "French Maid," and offered Ulbricht information on the
investigation for about $98,000 in bitcoins in September 2013,
prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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