Former federal agents in Silk Road case expected to be arrested after facing fraud charges

Two former federal agents, Carl Mark Force IV and Shaun Bridges, are expected to be arrested Monday on charges of stealing money while investigating the black market drug dealing website Silk Road.

Force was an employee of the Drug Enforcement Administration, while Bridges was an employee of the Secret Service. Force has been charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, and money laundering, while Bridges has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering. Both agents were members of a Baltimore-based task force investigating Silk Road, The New York Times reports.

The 50-page complaint alleges that Force "stole and converted to his own personal use a sizable amount of Bitcoins" while conducting an undercover investigation into the site. Force allegedly asked Ross W. Ulbricht, the website's founder, to pay him $250,000 in Bitcoins to keep information from the government. He resigned in May 2014 after serving as a DEA agent for roughly 15 years.

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Bridges, meanwhile, resigned on March 18 and had been a Secret Service special agent for six years. Bridges has been accused of stealing more than $800,000 in Bitcoins.

A separate investigation led to charges against Ulbricht, and Silk Road was shut down by authorities in 2013. The Times reports that the website generated more than $213 million in revenue, and Ulbricht apparently took millions of dollars worth of commissions. Ulbricht was convicted on multiple counts last month, including four charges that may carry life sentences.