Data Security – Page 2 – The Alacermatrix Group

Silk Road, Bitcoin and the Secret Servicemen – Medium

Posted on June 20, 2016 - 8:50 pm by Reid Wegley

Two Secret Service agents, both of whom were members of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force charged with breaking Silk Road’s ring of illegal online activity (primarily drug sales), have pled guilty to money laundering and other charges. Shaun Bridges was sentenced on December 7 to 71 months behind bars, and ordered to forfeit $651,000 of the $820,000 he reportedly stole and laundered. Bridges’ colleague, Carl Force, was convicted of a similar crime last October, sentenced to six and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $340,000 in compensation.

Two members of a task force ordered to bring down an online black market, become criminals themselves; how does this happen? To read the rest of this story, please click here.

From the Laundromat to Wall Street: a History of Money Laundering – Medium

Posted on June 20, 2016 - 8:13 pm by Reid Wegley

I talk a lot about money laundering, but exactly what is it and how did it become a popular topic of conversation?

According to the U.S. Treasury, money laundering is simply how someone or some organization makes illegally-gained proceeds, or dirty money, clean. Typically, it involves three steps — placement, layering and integration — so that illegitimate funds can become part of the legitimate financial system.

As an illegal activity, it’s been going on for several thousand years; for example, we know that Chinese merchants were hiding their wealth from rulers as early as 2,000 BC. They would either move it, invest it in remote provinces (or outside of China) or bury it.

Fast forward to today, and. . .to read the rest of this article, please click here.