The founder of the Silk Road underground website has forfeited the site and thousands of bitcoins, worth around $28 million at current rates, to the U.S. government.
The approximately 29,655 bitcoins were seized from the Silk Road website when the FBI moved to close it in late September. The site served as an underground marketplace for drugs and other illegal items, relying on bitcoins for transactions because such payments are much more difficult to trace, the government says.
Ross Ulbricht, also known as "Dread Pirate Roberts," operator of the site, was arrested on October 1 in a San Francisco public library while allegedly logged into the site, according to court papers. He was subsequently charged with one count of narcotics conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and one count of money-laundering conspiracy.
The government had argued that the bitcoins were used to facilitate money laundering and thus should be forfeited along with the website. A site described as a reurrection of Silk Road launched late in the year by other parties, although did not claim to be fully operational.
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