October 19th is the day on which the Bitcoin community is hoping to get justice.
On this day, the court is expected to announce the quantum of punishment for former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer Carl Mark Force for his crimes.
In July, Carl had pleaded guilty to the charges of extorting a huge number of Bitcoins from the Silk Road‘s founder Ross Ulbricht (who is currently serving a life imprisonment sentence.)
The disgraced Silk Road was actually an unregulated online marketplace from where the buyers could procure drugs by paying with Bitcoin.
In the 16-page plea agreement, Carl had also pleaded guilty to the charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice.
His sentencing, as per news website Coindesk.com, is set for 2 PM PST on 19th October at the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The hearing will be presided over by Judge Richard Seeborg.
The Coindesk.com also reported that the government has requested the court to impose a prison sentence of 87 months (7 years+3 months) plus three years of supervised release.
During the course of his hearing, the Assistant Attorney General Caldwell had described his crime in the following words: “While investigating the Silk Road, former DEA Agent Carl Force crossed the line from enforcing the law to breaking it.”
When the Assistant Attorney said these words he actually gave voice to what thousands of users of Bitcoin felt.
The Assistant Attorney General had also noted that Carl was seduced by the anonymity that the virtual currency offered. And to abuse it to procure Bitcoin he invented several online personas and encrypted messaging.
As a result he was soon able to obtain Bitcoin worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government and even from the investigative targets.
Carl was part of the federal task force which was at that time investigating the Silk Road.
During this time, the agent went rogue and his case is one of the most talked about cases in the recent times.