US Gov to sell $18 mill of their silk road BTC

http://www.coindesk.com/18-million-worth-of-silk-road-bitcoin-to-be-sold-by-us-government/

The US government is preparing to auction off roughly 30,000 bitcoins appropriated from the Silk Road online black market.

The nearly 30,000 bitcoins, worth approximately $17,898,600 at current market prices, is currently being held in two wallets owned by the US Marshals Service.

The auction will be held on 27th June from 6 am to 6 pm EST, according to a press release published by federal government.

In a statement, the US Marshals Service said:

“The bitcoins offered in this auction have been ordered forfeited to the United States.”

The US Marshals Service (USMS) said that the the 29,657BTC is located in this wallet.

The full statement from the federal government reads:

The US Marshals are preparing to auction nearly 30,000 bitcoins in connection with a civil forfeiture and criminal action brought against Ross Ulbricht and the assets of Silk Road in October 2013 in federal court in the Southern District of New York.

The auction will take place during a 12-hour period on June 27 from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Bids will be accepted by email from registered bidders using a form available from the US Marshals Web page, www.usmarshals.gov/assets/2014/bitcoins.

In order to make a bid in this auction, potential bidders must register between the period of June 16 at 9 a.m. through June 23 at noon EDT and make a refundable deposit of $200,000 via wire transfer from a bank account in the United States. The bitcoins will be auctioned in nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins and one block of approximately 2,657 bitcoins. The winning bidder(s) will be notified on June 30.

The bitcoins offered in this auction have been ordered forfeited to the United States. In a separate criminal case, Ulbricht has been charged with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering offenses in connection with his alleged operation of “Silk Road,” a hidden Web site that was designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs over the Internet anonymously.

All the bitcoins that were held in an FBI wallet have been transferred to two US Marshals wallets. One wallet is being used for this auction, and the other wallet is being used to hold the remaining approximate 144,342 bitcoins that are part of the civil forfeiture and criminal action brought against Ross Ulbricht and the assets of Silk Road.