On March 30, 2015, the Justice Department announced charges against two federal agents from a Silk Road task force23. Prosecutors said the pair stole bitcoin while they worked the case against the dark web drug market. One sworn statement backed the charges. Tigran Gambaryan, a special agent with IRS Criminal Investigation, signed it1. That unit, IRS-CI, is the tax agency's law enforcement arm.
Gambaryan had joined IRS-CI in 20111. Before that he audited tax shelters for California's tax board. In his decade at the IRS, Wired reported, he was “the point man in nearly every major investigation involving bitcoin or cryptocurrency”11. Then he left for Binance. In 2024, Nigeria held him for eight months.
The affidavit
Gambaryan's affidavit traced money through exchanges, banks and the bitcoin ledger1. From March 6 to May 7, 2013, nine wires from Mt. Gox reached an account Shaun Bridges controlled. The wires totaled about $820,000. On May 9, 2013, two days after the last wire, Bridges swore out a seizure warrant against Mt. Gox. The warrant covered millions of dollars.
Carl Force was the task force's lead undercover agent1. He ran unsanctioned online personas, the affidavit says. Through one, he asked Silk Road's boss for $250,000 to keep certain facts from the government. Force admitted to extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice4. On October 19, 2015, a judge in San Francisco gave him 78 months in prison, Reuters reported. Bridges pleaded guilty to money laundering and obstruction. He got 71 months on December 7, 20155.
Both sides, in their own words
Did government crypto tracing rest on a handful of agents?
“He was innovative in investigating things in ways that very few people in the country had figured out, and incredibly selfless in terms of who got credit”
“Gambaryan's second visit to Nigeria was part of a broader investigation into the criminal manipulation of the Nigerian currency through peer-to-peer platforms like Binance, but investigators were frustrated by the tactics deployed by Gambaryan and his team”
What the coverage missed
SFist covered the case on March 30, 2015, and spelled the agent's name right3. TechCrunch ran a guest column on April 1 by Lisa Cheng, who ran a crypto consulting firm2. Her last paragraph thanked "IRS Special Agent Gambaryan Tigran," with his first and last names swapped.
So who was he? Wired spelled it out in 2022. “It was Gambaryan, in fact, who had traced the bitcoins of the two corrupt agents in the Silk Road investigations and then cracked the BTC-e money laundering case,” Andy Greenberg wrote6.
The cases that followed
BTC-e was a crypto exchange. The Justice Department called it a main channel for criminal money8. One of its operators, Alexander Vinnik, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy on May 3, 2024. The release listed former IRS agent Tigran Gambaryan among those who supported the case.
Welcome to Video came next. The site sold videos of child sexual abuse for bitcoin on the dark web7. On October 16, 2019, the Justice Department announced its takedown. Leads went to 38 countries and led to 337 arrests. At least 23 children were rescued. IRS-CI's chief, Don Fort, credited the tracing. “Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI special agents were able to determine the location of the Darknet server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server's physical location in South Korea,” Fort said.
That release named only agencies and their chiefs. Wired's later account put Gambaryan and his partner, Chris Janczewski, at the center6. Exchanges moved fast once they heard the case was about child abuse. "As libertarian as you want to be," Gambaryan told Wired, "this is where everybody kind of drew the line."
His biggest seizure came in November 20209. A person the Justice Department calls Individual X typed a private key into Gambaryan's laptop. Then 69,370 bitcoins moved to a government address. IRS-CI's 2021 report put the Silk Road coins at over $1 billion when seized10. His agency called it "the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in U.S. history." On October 9, 2024, the Supreme Court turned down an appeal over the coins. Wired valued them that day at $4.4 billion.
By the numbers
IRS-CI reports what it seizes and forfeits each fiscal year, which ends on September 301621. A seizure puts an asset under government control. Forfeiture is the court order that makes it the government's. The reports fold crypto into these totals and name the big crypto cases in the text.
| Fiscal year | Seized, $ millions | Forfeited, $ millions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 901.8 | 502.7 | 16 |
| 2020 | 821 | 162 | 17 |
| 2021 | 1,300 | 91 | 10 |
| 2022 | 7,100 | 1,100 | 18 |
| 2023 | 272 | 3,500 | 19 |
| 2024 | 1,200 | 196.4 | 20 |
| 2025 | 816 | 508 | 21 |
One year stands out: about $7.1 billion seized in fiscal 202218. In fiscal 2023, forfeitures reached about $3.5 billion19. That year's report points to the James Zhong case. There, it says, the government seized bitcoin worth over $3.4 billion. Each report rounds its own figures. The table copies them as printed, in millions.
IRS-CI seized about $7.1 billion in fiscal 2022, its most in any year from 2019 to 2025
Assets IRS Criminal Investigation seized and forfeited, per fiscal year to Sept. 30, in $ millions
- Assets seized
- Assets forfeited
- Height: US dollars, millions
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Assets seized | Assets forfeited |
|---|---|---|
| FY2019 | $901.8M | $502.7M |
| FY2020 | $821M | $162M |
| FY2021 | $1,300M | $91M |
| FY2022 | $7,100M | $1,100M |
| FY2023 | $272M | $3,500M |
| FY2024 | $1,200M | $196.4M |
| FY2025 | $816M | $508M |
Case counts tell a second story. IRS-CI opened 1,153 money laundering investigations in fiscal 2025, up from 955 in fiscal 202321. Drug cases ran 528, 627 and 577 over those three years. Bank Secrecy Act cases went from 511 to 542 to 541. That law covers cash reporting and money transmitters. In fiscal 2024 alone, the unit opened 111 new cybercrime cases, the IRS said22.
IRS-CI opened 1,153 money laundering cases in fiscal 2025, up from 955 in fiscal 2023
Investigations IRS Criminal Investigation opened in three of its programs, by fiscal year, in cases
- Money laundering
- Narcotics
- Bank Secrecy Act
Source: IRS Criminal Investigation [21].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Money laundering | Narcotics | Bank Secrecy Act |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | 955 cases | 528 cases | 511 cases |
| FY2024 | 1,080 cases | 627 cases | 542 cases |
| FY2025 | 1,153 cases | 577 cases | 541 cases |
Binance and Nigeria
Gambaryan joined Binance in the fall of 202112. He became head of its investigations team. In 2022 he told Wired that his peers were leaving government too. “There's a massive exodus of special-agent experts in the field of cryptocurrency who have left government agencies and joined the cryptocurrency industry. Everyone's gone basically,” Gambaryan said11.
In November 2023, Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion in U.S. fines and forfeitures12. Nigeria then blamed Binance for the fall of its currency, the naira. A committee of Nigeria's National Assembly called Binance to Abuja, and the exchange sent Gambaryan. Nigerian officials detained him on February 26, 202414.
He spent eight months in custody after that February detention, much of it in Kuje prison1314. The charges were money laundering and tax evasion. On October 23, 2024, a court in Abuja ruled that the charges against him would be dropped on medical grounds. The next morning he told Wired he was on a plane home.
The case for his record
Will Frentzen, a former federal prosecutor, worked several of Gambaryan's cases. He later joined Gambaryan's defense team in Nigeria9. “He was innovative in investigating things in ways that very few people in the country had figured out, and incredibly selfless in terms of who got credit,” Frentzen told Wired12.
Gambaryan says the Binance years count too. “There were literally tens of thousands of cases around the world that we assisted with. I probably had a bigger impact at Binance than I did in law enforcement,” he told Wired12. The 69,370 bitcoins he moved in 2020 became U.S. government property after the 2024 appeal ended9.
The case against
Nigeria's government rejects his account of the detention. In February 2025, Gambaryan accused Nigerian officials in public posts14. Information Minister Mohammed Idris answered with a statement15. “Gambaryan's second visit to Nigeria was part of a broader investigation into the criminal manipulation of the Nigerian currency through peer-to-peer platforms like Binance, but investigators were frustrated by the tactics deployed by Gambaryan and his team,” Idris said.
Idris also said Nigeria freed Gambaryan on humanitarian grounds. The diplomatic deal behind it brought "tangible benefits for Nigeria," he said14. Some of Gambaryan's old police peers grumbled that he had sold out, Wired reported, and left them unnamed12. Binance carried its own record. The Justice Department found it had enabled billions of dollars in trades that broke money laundering and sanctions laws, Wired noted.
What to watch
Nigeria was still prosecuting Binance in February 2025, Wired reported12. Its prosecutors were also trying Nadeem Anjarwalla, the colleague detained with Gambaryan, in absentia. IRS-CI's fiscal 2026 closed on September 30, 2026. Its next annual report will update the 1,153 money laundering cases and the $816 million seized in fiscal 202521. Gambaryan's 2022 warning sets the test for that report: are the agents who trace crypto still in government11?
Sources
- Tigran Gambaryan, "United States v. Carl Mark Force IV and Shaun W. Bridges, criminal complaint and affidavit of Special Agent Tigran Gambaryan," U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, filed Mar. 25, 2015, https://www.justice.gov/d9/press-releases/attachments/2015/09/01/mark_force_complaint.pdf
- Lisa Cheng, "Feds nabbed for big bitcoin heist involving Gox and Silk Road," TechCrunch, Apr. 1, 2015, https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/01/feds-nabbed-for-big-bitcoin-heist-involving-gox-and-silk-road
- Caleb Pershan, "Two Feds On Silk Road Case Charged With Pocketing So Much Bitcoin," SFist, Mar. 30, 2015, https://sfist.com/2015/03/30/undercover_feds_on_silk_road_case_c.php
- Reuters, "Corrupt Silk Road DEA Agent Carl Force Gets Over 6 Years in Prison," NBC News, Oct. 19, 2015, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/corrupt-silk-road-dea-agent-carl-force-gets-over-6-n447466
- Jeremy Kirk, "Former Secret Service agent sentenced for corruption in Silk Road investigation," PCWorld, Dec. 7, 2015, https://www.pcworld.com/article/418680/former-secret-service-agent-sentenced-for-corruption-in-silk-road-investigation.html
- Andy Greenberg, "Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web's Biggest Child Abuse Site," Wired, Apr. 7, 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/tracers-in-the-dark-welcome-to-video-crypto-anonymity-myth/
- U.S. Department of Justice, "South Korean National and Hundreds of Others Charged Worldwide in the Takedown of the Largest Darknet Child Pornography Website, Which Was Funded by Bitcoin," via Insider NJ, Oct. 16, 2019, https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/south-korean-national-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child-pornography-website-funded-bitcoin/
- U.S. Department of Justice, "BTC-e operator pleads guilty to money laundering conspiracy," IRS Criminal Investigation, May 3, 2024, https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/btc-e-operator-pleads-guilty-to-money-laundering-conspiracy
- Andy Greenberg, "69,000 Bitcoins Are Headed for the US Treasury—While the Agent Who Seized Them Is in Jail," Wired, Oct. 9, 2024, https://www.wired.com/story/4-4-billion-silk-road-bitcoin-tigran-gambaryan/
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2021, Publication 3583 (Rev. 11-2021)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p3583--2021.pdf
- Gian M. Volpicelli, "The Great Crypto-Cop Brain Drain," Wired, Nov. 9, 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/the-great-crypto-cop-brain-drain/
- Andy Greenberg, "The Untold Story of a Crypto Crimefighter's Descent Into Nigerian Prison," Wired, Feb. 10, 2025, https://www.wired.com/story/untold-story-crypto-crimefighters-descent-nigerian-prison-binance/
- Andy Greenberg, "Nigeria Drops Charges Against Tigran Gambaryan, Jailed Binance Exec and Former IRS Agent," Wired, Oct. 23, 2024, https://www.wired.com/story/tigran-gambaryan-charges-dropped-nigeria/
- Mustapha Usman, "Gambaryan claims unsubstantiated, lack credibility – FG," The ICIR, Feb. 15, 2025, https://www.icirnigeria.org/gambaryan-claims-unsubstantiated-lack-credibility-fg/
- News Agency of Nigeria, "Ignore Gambaryan's False Claims Against Officials – FG," Feb. 15, 2025, https://nannews.ng/ignore-gambaryans-false-claims-against-officials-fg/
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2019, Publication 3583 (Rev. 12-2019)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p3583--2019.pdf
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2020, Publication 3583 (Rev. 11-2020)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p3583--2020.pdf
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2022, Publication 3583 (Rev. 11-2022)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p3583--2022.pdf
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2023, Publication 3583 (Rev. 1-2024)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p3583--2023.pdf
- Internet Archive, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2024 (archived copy captured Jan. 10, 2025)," https://web.archive.org/web/20250110033143/https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3583.pdf
- IRS Criminal Investigation, "IRS Criminal Investigation Annual Report 2025, Publication 3583 (Rev. 3-2026)," read Oct. 13, 2026, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3583.pdf
- Internal Revenue Service, "IRS Criminal Investigation releases FY24 Annual Report; details agency's global reach, billion-dollar impact," Dec. 5, 2024, https://www.irs.gov/node/141161