Carl Force IV, a 46-year-old member of Baltimore’s Silk Road task force and former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, has been ordered to forfeit around US$500,000 in cash and bitcoin that he “confiscated” while investigating the Silk Road case.
The criminal complaint filed against Force on March 25 read:
“FORCE stole and converted to his own personal use a sizeable amount of bitcoins that DPR sent to FORCE in FORCE's official undercover capacity and rather than turning those bitcoin over to the government, FORCE deposited them into his own personal accounts.”
Force stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bitcoins confiscated during the Silk Road case and transferred them to his personal accounts.
The United States government has filed an order of forfeiture demanding that Force relinquish US$500,000 from the following sources:
- $13,045 in United States currency held in a BTC-e account;
- 400.00101 BTC in 14QPeQ2UZaMw9khqQeisVNT54j6A3U5KfE;
- 51.53406841 BTC in 1FCQPRC5bFZyUteoVUhmDaXcHvMTvhpnDL;
- 53 BTC in 16MksrMPrpjUots9hZet8fC9fjNZoS4L2p;
- 70 BTC in 1MZTe8a3C7EG6w4HGPLbkmcpRQJfkXkZCW;
- 62.827622 BTC in 1PdCENKKFsAxz849SswQbuzWgouSC2x1Ly;
- 49.999 BTC in 1YCMDxDoYwRApGjyoPVi5onrN8JRLt383;
- $44,082.65 in ScotTrade Account XXXX6437;
- US$158,865.00 traceable from federal income tax refund in lieu of forfeiture of Force’s interest in real property;
- US$17,759.06 held in the name of Engedi, LLC, controlled and owned by Force, in Bank of America Account XXXXXXXX6394; and
- US$65,658.51 in E-Trade Account XXXX5812
Some of the accounts have already sent out bitcoins — to the following address: “1Dz8rzz48nMeBwM1qbg8QfR6bM7GgEb3YY” — around five days after the order was filed.
Apart from the bitcoins he stole from the Silk Road case, it is still unclear whether Force was ordered to give back what he personally received from Ulbricht. Force demanded that Ulbricht pay him 525 bitcoins to remain silent about Ulbricht’s alleged hire-for-murder attempt.
During the Silk Road case, Force and his team initiated a murder-for-hire plan and offered to Ulbricht that they would murder a Silk Road employee for a bounty in bitcoin. Force and his agency staged the murder-for-hire arrangement and illegally threatened Ulbricht to pay Force, who used an online alias to cover up his “attempt” to murder the employee.