Ex-agent in Silk Road case charged again
Here is KTVU crime reporter Henry Lee's Rap Sheet blog for Aug. 14, 2017:
BUSTED AGAIN: A former Secret Service agent sentenced to prison for stealing digital currency while investigating the high-profile Silk Road case has been hit with criminal charges for a second time, court records show.
Shaun Bridges, 35, was sentenced in December 2015 to 71 months in federal prison for stealing $820,000 worth of bitcoin, or digital currency after obtaining passwords to Silk Road, the now-shuttered online drug bazaar. Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht is serving a sentence of life in prison.
In June 2015, Bridges agreed to plead guilty for his role in the scheme. But a little more than a month later, authorities say Bridges transferred seized bitcoin from a government-controlled online fund to one he controlled. He then laundered the money by moving the funds from his account into "various online wallets and accounts."
Bridges was charged today with one count of money laundering in a document known as an information, which in federal court typically signifies that a defendant intends to plead guilty.
Another Silk Road investigator, former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Carl Force stole more than $700,000 in digital currency and was sentenced to 78 months behind bars.
Bridges is due back in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Tuesday. He is being held without bail at a downtown Oakland jail.
NEWARK HOMICIDE: Two men have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of a man in a Newark parking lot during a drug deal.
Roberto Moreno Jr., 43, of Richmond and Josue Perez, 28, of Oakland have each been charged by Alameda County prosecutors with murder, the special circumstance of murder in the course of a robbery and weapons enhancements. The special circumstance could make both men eligible for the death penalty should prosecutors decide later to seek it.
The men are accused of killing Roque Leonel Valencia on April 8 in the parking lot of the Grocery Outlet at 36601 Newark Blvd. Officers found Valencia slumped over the steering wheel of a BMW 325i, dead from a gunshot wound to the head at about 12:30 p.m.
Surveillance video showed a silver Nissan SUV arrive at the parking lot shortly after 8:15 a.m. The victim arrived in his BMW at 9:30 a.m. and parked next to the SUV. Minutes later, two people got out of the SUV and got into the BMW. Shortly after that, the two fled from the BMW.
A search of the victim's cell phone revealed that Valencia and Perez had set up a drug transaction, with Valencia intending to sell four ounces of meth for $1,200, court records show.
Perez was arrested a day after the killing while washing a Nissan Rogue, authorities said. He told police that he and some friends planned to rob Valencia, investigators said. Perez said Moreno brought a gun and shot Valencia during a struggle inside the car, police said.
After the shooting, Perez stole meth from the victim's car, authorities said.
A review of Perez and Moreno's cell phones revealed that their devices "pinged" off a cell tower near the crime scene, authorities said.
Moreno fled to Mexico within 24 hours of the killing, police said. He was detained July 28 by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Calexico (Imperial County) and was arrested by Newark police on Thursday.
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