Back in April, the Silk Road defence lawyer, Joshua Dratel, tried to save his client, Ross Ulbricht, by throwing Bitcoin under the bus. Now, the FBI is investigating Mt Gox and a number of other bitcoin exchanges in connection with Silk Road.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI has issued subpoenas to exchanges — including Mt Gox — to assess whether or not they have processed transactions connected to Silk Road. Some “people familiar with the matter” have explained that the subpoenas to Mt Gox demanded customer-transaction logs, as well as materials related to solicitation of investors.
The investigation appears to be in its early stages, and there are, according to the sources, no conclusions as yet about whether or not any of the exchanges were connected to Silk Road. What is clear, though, is that the government is taking the issue of Bitcoin money laundering very seriously indeed — and that could define how the currency is treated in the future. Let’s see how it plays out. [The Wall Street Journal reports via Reuters]