Feds to sell off BitCoins seized from Silk Road

US prosecutor Preet Bharara announced that American officials are preparing to sell off $28 million in Bitcoins that were seized from the now shut down Silk Road website.

In a [http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/January14/SilkRoadForfeiture.php]statement[/url], she said: "With today’s forfeiture of $28m worth of Bitcoins from the Silk Road website, a global cyber business designed to broker criminal transactions, we continue our efforts to take the profit out of crime and signal to those who would turn to the dark web for illicit activity that they have chosen the wrong path.

"These Bitcoins were forfeited not because they are Bitcoins, but because they were, as the court found, the proceeds of crimes.”

It is uncertain as to how the Bitcoins will be sold off. It may be that it is auctioned off just as all other seized property.

Ross Ulbricht, a 29-year-old man, is in jail and accused of being Dread Pirate Roberts, the head of the Silk Road. He is claiming 144,336 Bitcoins were seized from his computer and is now worth $130m.