Bitcoin entrepreneur reaches plea deal on charges

Bitcoin entrepreneur Charlie Shrem has reached a plea deal to resolve U.S. charges that he engaged in a scheme to sell more than $1 million of the digital currency to users of illicit online marketplace Silk Road, his lawyer said yesterday.

Shrem, the former vice chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, will plead guilty Thursday in federal court in Manhattan to unlicensed money transmission, Marc Agnifilo, his lawyer, told Reuters in an email.

Prosecutors had previously charged Shrem with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, money laundering conspiracy and failing to file suspicious activity reports with government banking authorities.

Federal authorities shut down Silk Road last year, though a new Internet marketplace under the same name was launched in November. Prosecutors contend Silk Road enabled users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services.

Soon after his arrest in January, Shrem stepped down from his role at the Bitcoin Foundation, a well-known trade group. He was previously CEO of BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange company.

A notice of a plea hearing in the case of Shrem and his co-defendant, Robert Faiella, was included in a calendar distributed by court officials earlier yesterday.

It was not immediately clear if Faiella, a Florida man who faced similar charges as Shrem, will plead guilty or move ahead with trial Sept. 22. He has previously pleaded not guilty.

But Faiella, 54, is expected to fly to New York for the hearing, according to a court order filed yesterday.

A lawyer for Faiella did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined to comment.

Prosecutors are pursuing a separate case against Ross William Ulbricht, the man accused of creating and operating Silk Road under the name "Dread Pirate Roberts." He is set to face trial Nov. 3.

-- Reuters