U.S. Marshalls To Auction Off Seized Bitcoins In Criminal And Civil Cases

The U.S. Marshals Service has announced that it will be auctioning  approximately 2,170 Bitcoins seized in the course of various federal  criminal, civil, and administrative cases, according to a press release. 

The auction will take place on March 19th, 2018 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.  EDT. Bidders who wish to participate must fulfill the registration  requirements by noon EDT March 14th, complete with a $200,000 deposit. 

The Bitcoins will be separated into three series: Series A (2 blocks of  500 Bitcoin), Series B (11 blocks of 100 Bitcoin) and Series C (1 Block  of approximately 70 Bitcoin). Winning bidders will be notified privately  the same day as the auction. 

The variety of cases from which the Bitcoins were seized is listed in an official notice posted  on the U.S. Marshals Service website. Among those cases listed is the  Silkroad case of Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges and DEA Special  Agent Carl Force, both were convicted of stealing $800,000 in Bitcoins  in 2015. That was seized in the Silkroad dark web market raid. 

Bridges was later arrested again in January 2016 and charged in a separate heist involving an additional estimated 1,600 Bitcoin stolen from a digital wallet belonging to the U.S. government. 

 “According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Bridges  admitted to using a private key to access a digital wallet belonging to  the U.S. government, and subsequently transferring the bitcoin to other  digital wallets at other bitcoin exchanges to which only he had  access,” the Justice Department said in a statement. 

Other cases where Bitcoins are being auctioned off include various DEA Administrative Forfeiture cases.

The U.S. Marshals Service has previously auctioned lump sums of Bitcoin  seized in the course of civil and criminal proceedings. On Jan. 22,  2018, the agency sold 3,813 BTC, a sum that was worth over $40 mln by  that day’s exchange prices. 

Previously, the last U.S. Marshals auction of seized Bitcoin was in August, 2016 where 2,700 BTC were sold off. The estimated market value at the time was nearly a whopping $1.6 million dollars.

Bitcoin is currently trading at [FIAT: $8,863.65] at the time of this report according to Coin Market Cap. 

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