This might be interesting:
Criminal Charges Against Agents Reveal Staggering Corruption in the Silk Road InvestigationTwo of the law enforcement agents involved in the tangled multi-agency investigation into the Silk Road have been charged by the Department of Justice for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars (at the very least) in bitcoin. The criminal complaint against former DEA agent Carl Mark Force IV and former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges alleges money laundering, wire fraud, theft of government property, and more. But more shockingly, it tells the story of a sprawling case tainted by an unbelievable web of corruption. A states witness took the fall for an agents theft, thus becoming the target for a murder-for-hirea murder that was then faked by the same agent. The Silk Road case was compromised again and again as Force and Bridges allegedly took every opportunity to embezzle and steal money. With so much bitcoin on their hands, the two had to coax various bitcoin and payments companies to help convert their ill-gotten gains to dollars. When companies resisted, investigations were launched, subpoenas were issued, and civil forfeitures were sought in retaliation.http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/03/31/force-and-bridges/oh god! This was predicted in a thread where it was announced that they had confiscated the coins. I cant seem to locate it now. If someone can locate it please post it here.
Somewhere along the line I myself argued that it was a strong hypothesis that Mt. Gox's main problems stemmed from actions promulgated by the U.S. govt. I am sure I proposed it several times on this board (if not this thread), and I even offered to Mt. Gox that I would be happy to lend some assistance as a harmed party should they wish to pursue a racketeering charge or some such.
What I really didn't imagine was that part of the problems were that Federal agents had gone rouge and were stealing coins themselves! Even my rather conspiratorial mind and strong mis-trust of my government to be honest actors was unable to assign any creadence to such a wild hypothesis. But there it is.
Since I am, as I say, prone to entertain various hypothesis, and since I am aware of a major step-up of psychological operations by my govt lately, I will propose the possibility that this whole 'bad agents' thing is concocted to cover for certain other activities. I'll reject that if these guys are wearing orange jumpsuits in a prison yard in a few years. Of course everyone will have forgotten about everything by that time.
If you are right, and indicting the rouge agents represents some kind of
limited hang out masking a deeper government operation, then how do explain the missing $27 million cash in bank deposits
in addition to the bitcoins gone missing, as well as the bank shenanigans during the final days of Mt. Gox reported by mtgoxinvestigation.com? It seems overly simplistic to merely believe the USG pulled off this heist, although obviously rogue agents could have been involved at some level. Also, what do you make of the Tokyo police leak in January that an insider was involved?