John Smith
The U.S. government intends to dispose about $117 million worth of bitcoin seized in a dark web drug bust.
The government intends to sell nearly 2,875 bitcoin seized from Ryan Farace and Sean Bridges in 2021, in addition to another roughly 59 bitcion that belonged to Farace alone.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Farace for illegally selling Xanax on the dark web.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Farace and his father Joseph Farace had both been sentenced to prison for money laundering conspiracy.
Farace sold drugs online under the pseudonym Xanaxman via Silk Road, the infamous dark web site.
The U.S. government said in a notice that persons interested in the forfeited Bitcoin could do so within 60 days.
Separately, in December, a U.S. appeals court finalized a mandate formalizing the forfeiture of 69,370 of bitcoin connected to the now-defunct Silk Road dark web market.
Silk Road’s founder Ross Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence in jail. He operated the dark web site where drugs and weapons were sold from 2011 to 2013. The site was shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation following the Ulbricht’s arrest in late 2013.
