Shaun Bridges, the secret agent charged with extorting bitcoins during the Silk Road investigation, is also suspected with targeting Bitcoin Shop “for personal gain.”
Charles Allen, the CEO of Bitcoin Shop, said to Bloomberg Bridges showed up at the door of the company’s COO around mid to late February early in the morning accompanied by two other officers.
Bridges asked questions regarding US$225,000 worth of Spondoolies S35’s bitcoin mining hardware, belonging to the company that were being held at customs at the time. Apparently this had triggered some inquiry, which according to Allen was unprecedented.
The 32-year-old secret service agent did make further inquiries into Bitcoin Shop portfolio companies. And now looking at his activities in the hindsight, Allen believes it is likely that this was yet another attempt to exploit the Bitcoin enterprise via blackmail and, if successful, benefit financially.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Allen further commented on the issue:
“I don’t believe Shaun’s actions as they pertain to asking BTCS questions had anything to do with Silk Road or Mt. Gox. However, the extent and manner in which he questioned our COO at 7am at his home and the fact he started looking into our portfolio companies raised concern. Based on pure speculation (which the government does not act on), we believe he may have been targeting other digital currency companies for personal gain.”
Nevertheless, Allen also explained to Cointelegraph that the fact Shaun Bridges and Carl Mark Force IV are being prosecuted is a clear sign that regulators are there to enforce the law even if it is broken by those that work for them.
According to him, this remains a case of two individuals that let greed get the better of them. Furthermore, this case once again proves that the blockchain is not the perfect technology for illicit use as touted by the mainstream media since the public ledger keeps record of every bitcoin transaction, and not even federal agents can get away with trying to launder money with it.
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