SAN FRANCISCO—Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges pleaded guilty on Tuesday to new counts of money laundering and related forfeiture.

In May 2015, Bridges was sentenced to 71 months after he stole money from Silk Road dealers while investigating Silk Road, a now-defunct Tor-hidden underground website.

Over a year ago, federal authorities strongly suggested in court filings that, in 2015, after Bridges had left the Secret Service and after he had already signed his first guilty plea, he had illegally transferred to himself over 1,600 bitcoins. Those bitcoins had previously been seized by federal authorities from Bitstamp, a European Bitcoin exchange, which later challenged the seizure.

However, Bridges was not formally charged with a crime until Monday evening, when prosecutors filed a new charging document in federal court.

That filing specifically says that Bridges “laundered the funds stolen from the United States government by moving the funds out of the BTC-e account and into other various online wallets and accounts.”

Last month, a Russian man, Alexander Vinnik, was arrested and indicted on allegations of money laundering. Vinnik is accused of creating BTC-e, a quasi-underground Bitcoin exchange that specialized in not asking too many questions of its users.

That indictment specifically mentioned Bridges and his fellow corrupt agent on the Baltimore Silk Road team, Carl Mark Force.

“Their experience with the criminal underworld taught them that using BTC-e, as opposed to a registered exchange with anti-money laundering policies, would maximize their chances of being able to conceal criminal proceeds,” prosecutors wrote.

Man of few words

During the hearing, Bridges, who wore a red prison outfit with “Alameda County Jail” emblazoned across the back, spoke little. The now bearded former law enforcement agent responded to the judge’s questions, acknowledging that he had, in fact, willingly agreed to the plea deal.

Assistant United States Attorney William Frentzen ran through a summary of the government’s proof that it would have demonstrated, had Bridges taken his case to trial.

“He walked out with, among other things, a private key in order to be able to access a digital wallet containing approximately 1,606 bitcoin,” Frentzen said. “That digital wallet was the product of a forfeiture seizure action where Mr. Bridges was the affiant and the proceeds were taken from an exchange called Bitstamp. And they contained, among other things, bitcoin that had illegally been obtained by his prior codefendant, Carl Force, a former DEA agent.”

Frentzen further explained that Bridges laundered 1,606 bitcoins via the now-shuttered BTC-e, where they were further sent to Bitfinex, a Hong Kong exchange, and a “Bitcoin hardware wallet.”

“We would also prove that Mr. Bridges, following the government’s discovery that the bitcoin were missing and that they had in fact been moved, the government was able to obtain the bitcoin at Bitfinex,” the prosecutor said. “And we then met with Mr. Bridges and through the course of that we returned the bitcoin.”

After Frentzen ended his brief statement, US District Judge Richard Seeborg asked Bridges to silently read two portions of his plea agreement.

“Are those facts true and accurate?” the judge said.

“They are," Bridges replied flatly.

Judge Seeborg then asked Bridges to review the table of Bitcoin transactions as listed in the new indictment. He asked if those were accurate.

“From what I know them to be, yes,” Bridges said.

After the hearing, Bridges’ attorney, Laurel Headley, declined to provide Ars with a copy of the plea agreement. Frentzen referred us to PACER, the online federal court records website, or the clerk’s office.

Bridges will likely be sentenced within the coming months. He could face a maximum of 10 years in prison beyond the sentence he had already been given.