Local Man Sentenced for Extortion in Silk Road Probe

A Towson man who served as an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) received a six-and-a-half year prison sentence on Monday for extorting digital currency from the founder of an online marketplace for illegal drugs.

Carl M. Force, 46, pleaded guilty July 1 to extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice before a federal judge in San Francisco, according to a statement from the Justice Department. He committed the crimes while working undercover in investigating Silk Road, an illicit website that marketed cocaine, heroin, LSD and other contraband, according to media reports.

At Monday’s hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg also ordered Force to pay $340,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release following his sentence.

The charges stemmed from Force’s undercover work from 2012 to 2013 with the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, a federal multi-agency group that investigated the underground website. His assignment involved establishing communications with Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s founder and operator.

Ulbricht was arrested in 2013 and sentenced earlier this year to life in prison.

In pleading guilty, Force admitted that, while using a DEA-sanctioned persona, “Nob,” in the summer of 2013, he offered to sell Ulbricht fake drivers’ licenses and “inside” information about the Silk Road investigation, the Justice Department said. Force also admitted that he attempted to conceal his communications with Ulbricht about the payments by directing him to use encrypted messaging.

Ulbricht made payments to Force worth more than $100,000 in bitcoin, a digital currency. Force told federal authorities that he falsified official reports and stole the funds, which he deposited into his own personal account.

Force also said he devised and participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more money from Ulbricht through another online persona, “French Maid,” of which his task force colleagues were not aware. As French Maid, he solicited and received bitcoin payments from Ulbricht worth about $100,000 in exchange for information on the federal investigation, the Justice Department said.

In addition, as part of his guilty plea, Force admitted that he served as the chief compliance officer for CoinMKT, a digital currency exchange company. He did not receive permission from the DEA to perform this role, the Justice Department said.

In February 2014, Force directed CoinMKT to freeze $337,000 in cash and digital currency from one of its accounts. He then transferred about $300,000 of the digital currency into a personal account that he controlled.