U.S. Department of Justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation

An FBI agent surveys the landscape near Farmington, New Mexico, 

where he works with tribal and other law enforcement partners to 

help protect the residents of Native American lands. 
2011 The FBI Story I

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Units’ (BAUs) Supervisory Special Agent Mark Hilts and his colleague, Supervisory Special Agent Susan Kossler, work 

in an office of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) in Virginia in April 2011. The NCAVC and its BAUs provide operational, 

behavioral, and analytical support to federal, state, local, and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies investigating unusual or

repetitive violent crimes, terrorism, cyber crime, threats, and significant non-violent crimes.
2011 The FBI Story III

A Message from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III

For the FBI and its partners, much has changed in the last decade. The terror attacks of 9/11 shifted the focus of national 

security, making prevention our collective mandate. Remarkable technological change also gave rise to online scams 

and cyber attacks. Gangs grew in size and strength, proliferating crime in some communities; and greed and corruption 

affected many Americans, along with banking and other institutions.

The FBI, for its part, has emerged 10 years later a changed organization. More than ever, we are intelligence-driven and 

threat-focused, business-like in our operations and strategic in our use of resources. Our workforce has grown increasingly 

analytic and technologically savvy. We work more closely now than ever with our partners—not only across the country, 

but as a result of the growing globalization of crime and terror, across the world.

You can get a telling glimpse into the FBI of today in this latest edition of The FBI Story, our annual collection of news 

and feature articles from the Bureau’s public website. You can read a series of stories on our unprecedented efforts in the 

war zone of Afghanistan, where we have worked alongside the U.S. military and other partners to gather intelligence, 

conduct investigations, and mentor Afghan law enforcement. You can get an inside look at our growing cadre of intelligence analysts—how they operate and contribute daily to the FBI’s mission. You can also get a glimpse into how we are 

addressing emerging scams like ATM skimming and enlisting the public’s help in new ways to solve cold cases.

Many of the year’s most notable accomplishments are chronicled here as well—major cyber operations, large-scale health 

care fraud and gang takedowns, and historic Mafia busts. And most notably, in less than two months, two of the FBI’s 

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives were removed from the list. On May 1, Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, not 

only closing a chapter in the 9/11 terror attacks but yielding valuable new intelligence in the global effort to end violent 

extremism. And on June 23, notorious Boston mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger was captured by FBI agents in California 

following a far-reaching public information campaign.

Thank you for your support of the FBI. I hope you enjoy reading this publication. 

Director Mueller speaks at the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in Tucson, Arizona on January 9, 2011 on the investigation into 

the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others a day earlier. AP Photo/Matt York.
2011 The FBI Story 1

Organized Retail Theft

A $30 Billion-a-Year Industry

January 3, 2011

It’s a telling case: a few years ago, members of two 

criminal organizations in California were charged for 

their role in a large-scale fencing operation to buy and 

sell over-the-counter health and beauty products—as 

well as other items like camera film, batteries, and infant 

formula—that had been stolen from major retail chain 

stores. The merchandise was then passed off to crooked 

out-of-state wholesale distributors, who just sold it back to 

unsuspecting retailers.

Industry experts say organized retail crimes like 

these cost the U.S. about $30 billion a year. While 

that estimate includes other crimes like credit card 

fraud, gift card fraud, and price tag switching, the FBI’s 

Organized Retail Theft program—according to Special 

Agent Eric Ives of our Violent Crimes/Major Offenders 

Unit in Washington, D.C.—“specifically focuses on the 

most significant retail theft cases involving the interstate 

transportation of stolen property.” Organized retail theft, 

says Ives, is a “gateway crime that often leads us to major 

crime rings that use the illicit proceeds to fund other 

crimes—such as organized crime activities, health care 

fraud, money laundering, and potentially even terrorism.”

Targets and thieves. The stores targeted for theft run 

the gamut—from grocery and major department stores 

to drug stores and specialty shops. The organizations responsible for much of this crime include South American 

theft groups, Mexican criminal groups, Cuban criminal 

groups from South Florida, and Asian street gangs from 

California.

Fighting back. According to Ives, the FBI uses many of 

the same investigative techniques against organized retail 

theft groups that we do against any criminal enterprise 

or terror network, especially undercover operations. 

Organized retail theft cases also present some valuable 

opportunities for us to enlist confidential human 

sources—the best sources of intelligence information—in 

order to dismantle entire operations. We recruit from 

the ranks of those who steal the merchandise (to a lesser 

degree) and mid-level fences and individuals higher up in 

the chain of command (to a greater degree).

Importzance of collaboration. We don’t do it alone, 

though. We partner with law enforcement at the federal, 

state, and local levels, sharing intelligence and working 

together operationally on seven major theft task forces 

located in five cities around the country—Miami, El 

Paso, Memphis, New York, and Chicago.

We also work closely with the retail industry. Most 

recently, we assisted in the development of the non-profit 

Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network (or 

LERPnet), a secure national database used by retailers to 

report and share with one another incidents of retail theft 

and other serious retail crimes. The database, which has 

helped reveal patterns of organized theft, is now available 

to law enforcement agencies around the country.

Overall impact of organized retail theft. For one thing, 

it means higher prices for American consumers and less 

sales tax revenue for state and local governments. There 

is also a health and safety aspect—in many cases, stolen 

food products, pharmaceuticals, and other consumables 

aren’t maintained under proper conditions or labeled 

properly, so when they do finally make their way back to 

unsuspecting consumers, they may be ineffective or may 

even make people sick.

All good reasons for the FBI and its partners to continue 

their collective fight against organized retail theft.
2 2011 The FBI Story

After discussing the results with Ambassador Caffrey, the 

case was concluded to the satisfaction of all concerned.

And so began the friendships and cooperative relationships between the FBI and French law enforcement 

and intelligence services that flourish to this day.

Today, Legat Paris is staffed with a French-speaking legat, 

three assistant legats, a linguist, and two office administrators. The mission hasn’t changed all that much—in the 

words of Assistant Director for International Operations 

Joe Demarest, the goal is “fostering strategic partnerships 

with foreign law enforcement, intelligence, and security 

services as well as other FBI divisions and other government agencies by sharing knowledge, experience, capabilities, and exploring joint operational opportunities.” But if 

the mission hasn’t changed, the cases sure have.

Anyone who pays attention to the news could guess 

that bilateral cooperation with our French colleagues 

on terrorist investigations would be a top priority—and 

it is, making up some 75 percent of the office caseload 

and involving some of the most complex and far ranging 

terrorist threats in the world today. But major work is 

also done in areas as diverse as: counterintelligence and 

weapons of mass destruction; cyber crime, including child 

pornography and computer intrusions; transnational 

organized crime; white-collar crime; and fugitives and 

violent crime.

Looks a lot like the FBI’s top priorities, doesn’t it? And 

the investigations can be deliciously high-tech.

Take, for example, Hacker Croll. In 2009, Twitter.com 

realized someone had hacked into its admin server, downloaded confidential documents, and viewed the individual 

Twitter account profiles of Barak Obama, Britney Spears, 

Lindsay Lohan, and Lily Allen, among others. Alerted, 

the FBI in San Francisco opened an investigation and 

soon located the hacker—who was sitting just outside 

Clermont-Ferrand, a beautiful city in central France.

Legat Paris knew just what to do: it contacted L’Office 

Central de Lutte Contre la Criminalite Liee aux Technologies 

de L’Information et de la Communication of France’s 

Judicial Police. After close consultations, the Judicial 

Police finalized plans for the arrest—and invited the FBI 

to accompany the arresting team and to participate in 

interviews. Twenty-five-year-old Francois Cousteix was 

arrested on March 23, 2010. He was tried in June, found 

guilty, and sentenced to prison. C’est la vie! But it never 

would have happened without the strong and spirited 

assistance of the French Judicial Police.

It took a war to bring the FBI to Paris.

Sixty-seven years ago, in 1944, two FBI agents reported to 

Colonel Gordon Sheen in France at SHAEF, the Supreme 

Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. Their mission: 

to get access, at war’s end, to captured spies, spy documents, and other source material that might assist U.S. 

investigations of domestic treason, espionage, and subversive activities. Special Agent Freddy Ayer and Special 

Agent Don Daughters hit the ground running, “liberating” the apartment that had belonged to the counselor 

of the German Embassy for a place to stay in post-war 

Paris, then setting up shop at 15 avenue Mozart, 16th 

arrondissement.

It wasn’t long before the value of an FBI presence was 

recognized. At the request of U.S. Ambassador Jefferson 

Caffrey, a legal attaché office was established at the U.S. 

Embassy in Paris on July 16, 1945. Special Agent Horton 

Telford was appointed the first “legat” and moved into 

space on the mezzanine floor of the current embassy on 

the Place Concorde. He was responsible for “maintaining contact, for mutual cooperation purposes, with all 

sections of the French Police, the International Criminal 

Police Commission, and the British Intelligence Service.”

Consider the Dawson case of that era. Francis 

Washington Dawson was an American citizen and former 

employee of the U.S. Embassy who was arrested by French 

police in Paris following the discovery of incriminating documents in an abandoned German staff car that 

implicated Dawson in acts of treason against the United 

States. The U.S. Embassy, newly reopened, asked the 

FBI to get the facts of the case. Our agents jumped on it, 

securing the complete story from French police, who also 

gave them access to Dawson for a direct interrogation. 

Legal Attaché Paris

Then and Now

Left: An early photo of the U.S. Embassy building in Paris.

January 6, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 3

schools with the highest scoring students in the nation 

are awarded the FBI-SOS Trophy.

Topics covered in the program run the cyber gamut: 

depending on the age of the students, they might learn 

about password security, cyberbullying, virus protection, copyright issues, online predators, e-mail, chat 

rooms, social networking sites, when to talk to parents 

or teachers about a threat, and appropriate uses of cell 

phones and gaming devices.

Of the SOS program, Cyber Division Assistant Director 

Gordon Snow said, “The Internet is a powerful resource 

for our youth, but it also presents opportunities for those 

who would attempt to do them harm...the Safe Online 

Surfing program is designed to teach young people what 

they need to know to avoid falling victim to individuals 

who want to take advantage of their youth and innocence.”

Schools interested in signing up for the Safe Online 

Surfing program should contact the community outreach 

specialist in their local FBI office or visit

https://sos.fbi.gov/.

Recent studies show that one in seven youngsters has 

experienced unwanted sexual solicitations online. One 

in three has been exposed to unwanted sexual material 

online. One in 11 has been harassed or bullied online.

And as we all know, these are only some of the dangers 

that our kids face while surfing the Internet. How can 

we simultaneously protect them from these threats and 

enable them to take advantage of the positive things the 

web has to offer?

In addition to investigating online crimes targeting 

children, the FBI works to educate kids and their parents 

about the Internet, sometimes sending cyber agents to 

visit schools as well as posting useful resources on our 

public website. We also offer our Safe Online Surfing 

program to schools to help students understand how to 

recognize, report, and avoid online dangers.

How it all started. The Safe Online Surfing (SOS) 

program began in our Miami office six years ago, when 

Special Agent Jim Lewis from one of our cyber squads—

who saw first-hand how easily kids could be victimized 

online—approached a co-worker, Community Outreach 

Specialist Jeff Green, about his desire to share information about Internet safety with school students.

An online Internet safety program was created that also 

tested students on what they learned. About 400 South 

Florida students took part initially, and according to 

Green, feedback from students and teachers was positive.

Said Green, “Kids are surfing the Internet anyway, so we 

were just using a vehicle they were comfortable with.”

Over the years, other FBI field offices began offering the 

SOS program with the help of their community outreach 

specialists. By October 2010, our Cyber Division at FBI 

Headquarters—which manages our Innocent Images 

National Initiative, focused on online child predators—took the SOS program under its wing and made it 

a national one. Today, more than 90,000 children in 41 

states have completed it.

How it works. At each grade level, third through eighth, 

students read about Internet safety and cyber citizenship 

and take timed post-quizzes to demonstrate what they’ve 

learned. The program also promotes a fun competition: 

Keeping Kids 

Safe Online

FBI Program Offered in Schools

January 11, 2011
4 2011 The FBI Story

Taxes represent the majority of the total retail cost of a 

pack or carton of cigarettes. By illegally avoiding those 

taxes—through schemes including hiding shipments from 

auditors and regulators and creating false invoices, bank, 

and tax records—the crooks pocketed the tax money 

they should have paid when the cigarettes were sold.

 “Every time you avoid a tax, it’s pure profit,” Cuneo 

said. “You’re talking about as much as a million dollars 

of profit in just one tractor-trailer of diverted cigarettes.” 

The subjects in the case—six have pled guilty so far to 

a variety of federal charges—made so much money they 

bought mansions, vacation properties, boats, and airplanes. “During the execution of just one search warrant,” 

Cuneo said, “we seized $12 million in cash and certificates of deposit. They just had it lying around.”

In one 2009 raid on a warehouse, 28 truckloads of 

contraband cigarettes were seized worth an estimated 

$15-$20 million—bad news for the criminals, but very 

good news for law enforcement. That’s because according to federal law, criminal seizures can be legally forfeited 

so that cash and property may be returned to victims of 

crimes or used by law enforcement.

Part of the seized property in Operation Secondhand 

Smoke was a 100,000-square-foot warehouse located in 

Tupelo, valued at $1.6 million. Because the Tupelo Police 

Department played an active role in the investigation 

from the beginning, that warehouse is in the process 

of being forfeited to the town, and will become the site 

of the department’s new headquarters. (The Marshall 

County Sheriff’s Department, also part of the investigation from the start, stands to receive as much as $1 

million in forfeitures.)

“We’re ecstatic about getting a new headquarters,” said 

Tony Carleton, chief of the Tupelo Police Department, 

which has 115 sworn officers. The city plans to demolish 

the old warehouse and build a new building.

Based partly on the relationships built between the 

Tupelo Police Department and the FBI during the 

Secondhand Smoke investigation, one of the newest 

members of our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in 

Mississippi is a detective from the police department.

“This case really facilitated the relationship between 

the FBI and the police department,” Cuneo explained. 

“Everybody worked very hard on this investigation, and 

the partnerships are continuing to pay off.”

When the smoke cleared from Major Case 253, a network 

of schemers trafficking in contraband cigarettes was 

dismantled, a Mississippi police department earned a new 

headquarters, and the FBI gained one more partner in the 

fight against terrorism.

Those three things might not seem related, but then 

again, Operation Secondhand Smoke is no ordinary 

case. It began—as many investigations do—when a 

person of interest in a criminal matter offered information 

about a larger criminal enterprise, a massive fraud in the 

cigarette industry.

Working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 

and Explosives (ATF), the Tupelo Police Department, 

and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office in Mississippi, 

we began an undercover investigation into a nationwide 

network of retailers, wholesalers, distributors, importers, 

and manufacturers who were avoiding cigarette taxes to 

make millions of dollars in profits.

“The amount of criminal activity in this case to avoid 

taxes was just phenomenal,” said Special Agent Carl 

Cuneo, one of the case supervisors based in our Oxford, 

Mississippi Resident Agency.

In the tobacco industry, the crime is known as “diverting,” and it applies to those who scheme to avoid the 

various federal and state taxes levied on cigarette sales.

Operation Secondhand Smoke involved the so-called 

fourth-tier market—not well-known cigarette brands, but 

off-labels such as those manufactured in Armenia.

Operation Secondhand 

Smoke

Cigarette Case Yields 

Unexpected Results

Left: Boxes of seized contraband cigarettes in a Mississippi warehouse.

January 14, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 5

Currently, our task forces include 789 FBI agents and 

1,694 task force officers from our partner agencies at the 

local, state, and federal level working together against the 

most violent gangs by:

Identifying past crimes;

Gathering and analyzing existing intelligence on the 

gang and its leaders;

Proactively developing human sources from different 

segments of the community; 

Developing an investigative plan to exploit a gang’s 

weakness (i.e., its communication network); and 

Using ALL investigative tools available, both overt 

(i.e., interviews, interrogations, subpoenas, plea 

agreements) and covert (i.e., physical/electronic 

surveillance, confidential informants, undercover 

operations.)

The overall gang picture. At least 30,000 violent street 

gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs have been 

identified by law enforcement.

Thirty-nine of those gangs are considered national 

threats based on their level of criminal activity, violence, 

and ties to international criminal organizations (like MS13 and the 18th Street gang). The rest are neighborhood 

gangs that are often responsible for illegal drug distribution and for a substantial portion of violent crimes within 

communities.

And while law enforcement has had a recent impact on 

the threat posed by violent gangs, our efforts to take back 

the streets of our cities and towns and make them safe 

once again for innocent citizens will continue. In doing 

so, we ask for your continued support as well.

▪

▪

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Last week, a long-time member and so-called “shot caller” 

for the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens (VHG) street gang in 

Los Angeles, California was sentenced to 30 years in 

prison for helping coordinate the racketeering activities 

of the gang, including carjackings, kidnappings, and drug 

trafficking. A sheriff’s deputy was also murdered during 

the VHG’s reign.

The week before that, on the other side of the country, 

the last in a line of 25 gang members named in a racketeering conspiracy in Albany, New York pled guilty in 

federal court to his involvement in the Original Gangster 

Killers gang that engaged in criminal activities like drug 

trafficking, firearms possession, assault, robbery, and 

attempted murder. He faces a maximum of 40 years in 

prison.

And in other parts of the country, the FBI and its many 

law enforcement partners—local, state, and federal—

have effectively shut down a number of violent and 

extremely dangerous street gangs:

New Haven, Connecticut: 35 people were indicted 

on federal drug and firearms violations after an 

operation targeting members and associates of several 

street gangs.

Denver, Colorado: 35 people—many of them gang 

members—were indicted on charges of trafficking 

large amounts of cocaine to the Denver area every 

week.

Omaha, Nebraska: 12 individuals—most gang 

members—were charged with drug trafficking and 

firearms violations and are also believed to have been 

involved in other crimes like assaults, witness intimidation, and robberies.

All told, in the past decade, accomplishments recorded 

under our violent crime program include 152 undercover 

operations, 25,498 gang convictions, 1,896 racketeering 

indictments, and 703 dismantled gangs.

The reason for these successes? Our multi-faceted 

investigative approach using the resources of combined 

task forces—primarily our 168 Safe Street Task Forces 

operating around the country—to disrupt the operations 

of the most violent and dangerous gangs and completely 

dismantle them, from the top down.

▪

▪

▪

Successes in Gang 

Enforcement

From Coast to Coast

January 18, 2011
6 2011 The FBI Story

have taken on a diminished criminal role in some areas of 

the country, but in New York, the Five Families are still 

“extremely strong and viable,” said Dave Shafer, an assistant special agent in charge who supervises FBI organized 

crime investigations in New York.

Today’s operation began before dawn. Some 500 FBI 

personnel—along with about 200 local, state, and 

other federal law enforcement officers—took part, 

including key agencies such as the New York Police 

Department and the Department of Labor Office of 

Inspector General. By 11 a.m., more than 110 of the 127 

subjects charged had been taken into custody.

The idea for a nationally coordinated LCN takedown 

originated at the Department of Justice last summer, said 

Shafer, a veteran organized crime investigator. “We have 

done big LCN takedowns before, but never one this big.”

Among those charged:

Luigi Manocchio, 83, the former boss of the New 

England LCN; 

Andrew Russo, 76, street boss of the Colombo family; 

Benjamin Castellazzo, 73, acting underboss of the 

Colombo family; 

Richard Fusco, 74, consigliere of the Colombo family; 

Joseph Corozzo, 69, consigliere of the Gambino 

family; and 

Bartolomeo Vernace, 61, a member of the Gambino 

family administration.

The LCN operates in many U.S. cities and routinely 

engages in threats and violence to extort victims, eliminate rivals, and obstruct justice. In the union case involving the ILA, court documents allege that the Genovese 

family has engaged in a multi-decade conspiracy to 

influence and control the unions and businesses on the 

New York-area piers.

“If there’s money to be made,” said Diego Rodriguez, 

special agent in charge of the FBI’s New York criminal 

division, “LCN will do it.” He noted that today’s Mafia 

has adapted to the times. “They are still involved in 

gambling and loan sharking, for example, but in the old 

days the local shoemaker took the betting slips. Now it’s 

offshore online gambling and money laundering. If you 

investigate LCN in New York,” Rodriguez added, “it’s a 

target-rich environment.”

▪

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▪

▪

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Early this morning, FBI agents and partner law enforcement officers began arresting nearly 130 members of 

the Mafia in New York City and other East Coast cities 

charged in the largest nationally coordinated organized 

crime takedown in the Bureau’s history.

Members of New York’s infamous Five Families—the 

Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and 

Luchese crime organizations—were rounded up along 

with members of the New Jersery-based DeCavalcante 

family and New England Mafia to face charges 

including murder, drug trafficking, arson, loan 

sharking, illegal gambling, witness tampering, labor 

racketeering, and extortion. In one case involving the 

International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at the 

Ports of New York and New Jersey, the alleged extortion 

has been going on for years.

More than 30 of the subjects indicted were “made” 

members of the Mafia, including several high-ranking 

family members. The arrests, predominantly in New 

York, are expected to seriously disrupt some of the crime 

families’ operations.

“The notion that today’s mob families are more genteel 

and less violent than in the past is put to lie by the 

charges contained in the indictments unsealed today,” 

said Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of our 

New York Field Office. “Even more of a myth is the 

notion that the mob is a thing of the past; that La Cosa 

Nostra is a shadow of its former self.”

The Mafia—also known as La Cosa Nostra (LCN)—may 

Mafia Takedown

Largest Coordinated 

Arrest in FBI History

Left: Agents looking for a suspect search a house in Brooklyn.

January 20, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 7

Next, PBBC employees submitted the bogus applications 

to bank officers on the take—who pocketed from $1,000 

to $10,000 for their services. Once the applications were 

approved and funds distributed, PBBC clients were unable 

to repay the loans, and the banks were out millions.

So far in the case, 24 individuals have been indicted, 

including 17 involved in the financial frauds—the ringleader, seven bankers, six PBBC clients, one straw buyer, 

and two other men already convicted and sentenced.

The other seven conspirators were part of the unrelated 

identity theft ring that used the names and information 

of real people to create fictitious drivers’ licenses and 

other phony documents to not only steal from their bank 

accounts, but also try to obtain bank loans and credit in 

their names.

Once again, the case is a wake-up call for those trying 

to get easy money—whether through shady loans or 

souped-up returns on investments—without doing 

their due diligence. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, 

it most surely is.

Under the sunny skies of southern Florida—specifically, 

those of Palm Beach County—more than two dozen 

conspirators spent the past four years stealing away some 

$10 million from 10 banks in the area through all manner 

of fraud and corruption.

That’s according to a series of federal charges—the latest 

coming just two weeks ago—filed by prosecutors in the 

Southern District of Florida following an FBI-led undercover investigation supported by our partners.

But that’s just the beginning of the story. As it turns 

out, this was anything but your average white-collar case.

The investigation centered on a scam involving small 

business loans and lines of credit that worked more like 

a typical mortgage fraud scheme—loan recipients and/or 

straw buyers submitting fake documents to generate fast 

cash.

Key to the swindle were bank insiders who took bribes to 

push the bogus paperwork through the system. Several of 

the bankers even became involved in a separate money 

laundering scheme, agreeing (at the behest of our undercover agent) to set up fake accounts to launder what 

they thought were illegal drug proceeds, in return for a 

percentage.

And to top it off, in the process of uprooting these alleged 

acts investigators uncovered a separate set of crimes—a 

wave of identity theft targeting the same banks.

The alleged ringleader of the fraud scheme was the 

owner of a loan brokerage business called Palm Beach 

Business Consultants, or PBBC. The company specialized in fraudulently obtaining loans and lines of credit for 

clients in need of money fast—for a price, of course, and a 

steep one, ranging from $12,500 to $25,000 per pop.

According to the charges, the ringleader told clients he 

had connections with banks that could lend them money 

even though they may have lacked the income, credit 

scores, or collateral for legitimate loans or credit lines.

So he had his crooked workers draw up fraudulent loan 

and credit packages. In most cases, the applications 

were in the client’s name, but occasionally the name of 

a client’s friend or relative with good credit was used 

instead. Sometimes included on the fraudulent application was the name of an legitimate—but uninvolved—

corporation to help seal the deal.

A Case of Florida Fraud

With a Few Added Twists

January 25, 2011
8 2011 The FBI Story

work for up to three years. All the workers had to do was 

sign the contract...and pay a “recruitment fee.”

The recruitment fees were substantial...anywhere 

between $9,500 and $21,000. And even though they were 

given the option of paying a portion of the fee upfront 

and the rest while working in the U.S., the workers still 

had to borrow money to pay the smaller amount and up 

their family’s land as collateral.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Global Horizons was 

soliciting client growers—at various agricultural conferences and through mailings—with offers to supply foreign 

agricultural workers.

Conditions were tough.

According to the indictment, once in the U.S., workers 

found that the work was not as plentiful as they had been 

led to believe, the hours not as long, and the pay not as 

good (that is, when they were paid at all).

While working on farms in places like Hawaii and in 

several other parts of the country, they sometimes lived 

under brutal circumstances: at one place, workers were 

crammed into a large shipping container, with no indoor 

plumbing or air conditioning. Guards were sometimes 

hired to make sure no one escaped the living quarters. 

And workers sometimes witnessed threats of violence or 

experienced it first-hand.

They were made to feel as though they had no way out: 

workers’ passports had been confiscated upon their arrival 

and they were told if they escaped, they would be arrested 

and sent back to Thailand, with no way to repay their 

debts and possibly leaving their families destitute.

Human trafficking investigations like these are—and 

will continue to be—a priority under the FBI’s Civil 

Rights Program. During fiscal year 2010 alone, we 

opened 126 human trafficking investigations and made 

115 arrests, with the assistance of our law enforcement 

partners often working together on task forces and 

working groups.

But perhaps more gratifying, we were able to completely 

dismantle 12 human trafficking organizations. And 

resulting prosecutions led to $2.7 million in fines and 

restitution for the victims of human trafficking.

It seemed pretty straightforward: labor recruiters in 

Thailand approached impoverished rural farm workers—

who made around $1,000 (U.S.) annually—and offered 

jobs on American farms for higher pay.

Many, hoping to provide a better life for their families, 

accepted the offer, which was made through an American 

company called Global Horizons, in the business of 

recruiting foreign workers to work in the U.S. agricultural 

industry. But once in the U.S., the Thai workers soon 

discovered a harsh reality: they worked for little or no pay, 

and they were held in place with threats and intimidation.

Eventually, their plight became known to law enforcement, and earlier this month, after a multiagency 

investigation, two additional defendants—accused of 

being part of the scheme to hold 600 Thai nationals in 

forced agricultural labor—were indicted in federal court 

in Honolulu. They joined six individuals who had been 

indicted last fall.

Among those indicted? The CEO of Global Horizons, 

several Global employees, and two Thai labor recruiters.

The latest indictment alleges a conspiracy among those 

indicted that began in 2001 and ran until 2007.

How the scheme worked.

Thai recruiters allegedly met with rural farm workers, 

promising them good salaries, lots of hours, decent 

housing, and an employment contract that guaranteed 

Human Traffickers 

Indicted

Massive Case Involves 

600 Thai Victims

January 28, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 9

2009: The second phase supported 100 million 

searchable records and added the capability to do 

full-text and geospatial searches. It also enabled 

users to exchange information with each other and 

to subscribe to automatic notifications concerning 

people/cases of interest to them.

This month’s third and final phase will add probation 

and parole information to the database, as well as enhancements to some of its existing capabilities. And best 

of all, the N-DEx interface has been completely redone, 

giving it the look and feel of a commercial search engine, 

complete with filters and more streamlined result sets. 

Now, N-DEx will now be able to support 200 million 

searchable records, and with future modification, that 

number can readily increase to two billion records.

Entering information into N-DEx is easy. Agencies 

participating in state or regional information-sharing 

systems that “feed” N-DEx don’t have to do anything. 

For other agencies, once their data is mapped to N-DEx, 

contributing data will be as easy as a monthly download 

and submission. And for smaller agencies without automated record management systems or with fewer records, 

information can be loaded manually.

Bottom line: N-DEx is a powerful investigative tool that 

will, according to CJIS Assistant Director Dan Roberts, 

“help keep our communities safer, not only by linking 

criminal justice data together as never before, but also by 

enabling investigative partnerships across jurisdictions.”

▪

Colorado law enforcement working an organized crime 

case identified a “person of interest” during its investigation but couldn’t find a current address or much else on 

the individual.

So a state trooper searched our Law Enforcement 

National Data Exchange, or N-DEx, which revealed the 

subject as a person of interest in an out-of-state drug case 

worked by a federal agency. The trooper contacted that 

agency and learned that this individual had been named 

in other drug-related cases in California.

Based on that information, the trooper began reaching 

out to other federal, state, and local agencies in California 

and beyond...and soon discovered that his subject was a 

member of a violent gang headquartered in Los Angeles 

that, up until then, wasn’t known to be operating in 

Colorado.

This process of connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated pieces of criminal data housed in different 

places is the backbone of N-DEx. The system enables its 

law enforcement users to submit certain data to a central 

repository—located at our Criminal Justice Information 

Services (CJIS) Division in West Virginia—where it’s 

compared against data already on file from local, state, 

tribal, and federal agencies to identify links and similarities among persons, places, things, and activities across 

jurisdictional boundaries.

Until now, N-DEx—accessed through a highly secure 

Internet site—has only been a viable option for a relatively limited number of agencies.

Now, we’re about to take N-DEx to the next level:

When its final phase is delivered later this month, N-DEx 

will truly live up to its name...and over time will be available to thousands more law enforcement and criminal 

justice agencies around the country.

A quick look at how N-DEx has evolved:

2008: The first phase gave participating agencies 

basic capabilities, including the ability to create 

link analysis charts and to search several thousand 

incident/case report records and arrest data to help 

determine a person’s true identity.

▪

An example of the N-DEx interface showing a search

for records on deceased serial killer Ted Bundy

New and Improved 

N-DEx

About to Go Nationwide

February 1, 2011
10 2011 The FBI Story

lot five minutes after the robbery without his disguise on, 

we’d have no idea it was him,” May said.

That’s why we need your help. “It might take somebody 

coming forward,” May explained, “someone that knows 

this guy—a cousin, girlfriend, or estranged wife—who 

will call us and say, ‘I think I know who this is.’”

None of the robberies have turned violent so far, but 

the I-35 Bandit is aggressive and considered extremely 

dangerous. Here are a few details about the serial 

robber:

He is white, middle-aged, and probably about 5’ 6” 

tall.

He is broad-shouldered and may be athletic—during 

one robbery, a security camera caught him easily 

vaulting a counter with one hand.

He has no distinguishable accent but is likely a Texan 

judging by his knowledge of state roads and how he 

picks his targets.

He chooses remote, out-of-the-way branches that 

typically don’t have a lot of customers.

He typically uses stolen, late-model cars and stolen 

license plates.

In some of the robberies he has worn fake white 

beards, drawing comparisons to the lead singer for 

the rock band ZZ Top and also to Santa Claus.

“Every bank robber is a serial robber unless you catch 

them,” May said. “We need the public’s help to stop 

this guy.”

If you have any information concerning this case, submit 

a tip electronically or call the FBI at this 24-hour telephone number: (210) 225-6741. There is a reward for 

original information leading to the identification, arrest, 

and conviction of the I-35 Bandit.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

A high school teacher was driving down a Texas road 

when she glanced over to the next lane and saw a man 

putting on a fake beard while driving. Suspicious, she 

called 911—just as the man started waving a handgun at 

her before speeding away. Later that day, a nearby bank 

was robbed.

If the robbery was carried out by the I-35 Bandit, as 

our investigators believe, the car incident was one of 

only a few mistakes this serial bank robber has made 

during at least 15 armed heists starting as far back as 

2003.

“What is unique about the I-35 bandit is how lucky he’s 

been to go this long without being caught,” said Special 

Agent Dennis May, bank robbery coordinator in our San 

Antonio Field Office. May, who has been investigating 

bank robberies for most of his 19 years in the Bureau, said 

he has never seen a case quite like this one.

The bandit, so named because his crimes occur mainly 

in small towns along a major interstate that runs through 

Texas, is a takeover-style robber. He enters banks with 

gun drawn and takes everyone hostage while he stuffs 

cash in a black bag he carries with him.

“He is very quick and usually robs every teller station,” 

May said. Sometimes he pulls up to the front of the bank 

and leaves the car engine running during the robbery.

He always wears disguises, and they are effective. The 

fake beard and hair, along with hats, sunglasses, and 

gloves obscure the robber’s face and features. “I am pretty 

certain that if we saw this guy standing in the parking 

The I-35 Bandit

Help Us Catch a Serial 

Bank Robber

Left: The I-35 Bandit leaps the teller counter during a bank robbery.

February 4, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 11

members...injuries that were never properly verified by the 

doctor.

The scheme became so popular that some of the policy 

holders became intermediaries between the doctor and 

other policy holders. You didn’t even have to go to the 

doctor’s office—for a $20 fee, intermediaries would carry 

the necessary paperwork to and from the office for you.

Once the claim form was mailed, the insurance company 

would send the supposed “injured” party a check within 

about four weeks. Which is why most of the defendants 

didn’t just submit one claim...over time, some submitted 

hundreds of claims totaling thousands of dollars.

What’s surprising about this case is that the defendants 

aren’t, for the most part, hardened criminals—they are 

business professionals, blue collar workers, housewives, 

government workers, and even some law enforcement 

officers. But if convicted, they face up to 20 years in 

prison.

Special thanks to our partners in the Social Security 

Administration’s Office of Inspector General for their 

assistance during Operation Bad Medicine and to 

members of the Puerto Rico Police Department for 

their work on our arrest teams last month.

Last month, 153 teams led by FBI special agents and 

task force officers fanned out in several municipalities 

in Puerto Rico and arrested—without incident—about 

200 of the 533 individuals named in a federal indictment 

involving a nearly $7 million health care fraud scheme.

Over a dozen additional defendants were arrested on the 

U.S. mainland and the Dominican Republic, while the 

300 or so remaining subjects in Puerto Rico began to turn 

themselves in—at the rate of about 70 a day.

What were they accused of? Submitting bogus accidental injury claim forms to a large U.S. insurance company 

and receiving payment in return. Among those indicted 

was the doctor who fraudulently signed all the forms.

The January 2011 arrests were actually the second phase 

of Operation Bad Medicine. In December 2009, 103 

individuals, including two other doctors, were indicted for 

the same criminal activity that resulted in the insurance 

company paying out more than $800,000. All 103 were 

convicted.

How the case began. Several years ago, internal auditors 

from the victim insurance company, which was headquartered in Atlanta, contacted our FBI office there with 

suspicions that certain doctors working in Puerto Rico 

were facilitating a scam against the company.

After our initial investigative work and the first round 

of indictments, we were able to identify more than 500 

others involved in the same accidental injury scam 

against the same company. According to the January 

2011 indictment, from 2004 to 2008, a doctor from Lares, 

Puerto Rico falsely completed and signed some of the 

accidental injury claim forms for policy holders and their 

dependants—and he pocketed approximately $450,000 

for doing it.

How the scheme worked. In general—after word got 

out that this particular doctor could be bought—policy 

holders would go to his office claiming every sort of 

accidental injury imaginable. The doctor, without even 

examining the patient, would fill out the claim form...for 

a fee of between $10 to $20 per form.

The policy holders would also make fraudulent claims of 

accidental injuries on behalf of their kids and other family 

FBI investigators at the arrest command post

Operation Bad Medicine

Major Health Care 

Fraud Takedown

February 8, 2011
12 2011 The FBI Story

security cameras and pit bosses failed to notice, the false 

shuffle created a “slug”—a group of played cards whose 

order would not change when the rest of the cards were 

shuffled. When the slug next came to the top of the deck, 

members of the ring recognized the card pattern and 

knew how to bet.

“It’s a sophisticated scam, but at the same time it’s 

simple,” Casey said, “And that’s why it worked so well. 

The organization controlled every aspect of the table.”

The ring eventually began using card trackers, nearby 

spotters who used concealed devices to relay the order 

of the played cards to someone at a remote location 

who instantly entered the information into a computer. 

When the slug reappeared, the computer operator picked 

up the pattern and relayed it to the spotter, who then 

secretly signaled the bettors. One finger on a cigarette, 

for example, might mean bet, two fingers might mean 

stand pat. “It was almost like a catcher giving signs to the 

pitcher in baseball,” Casey said. In one instance, the ring 

won $900,000 in blackjack during a single sitting.

Some of the casinos realized they were being cheated, 

even if they weren’t sure exactly how, and called the 

authorities. We opened a case in 2004. But even as the 

Indian tribal casinos beefed up their security, the Tran 

Organization was hitting other casinos in the U.S. and 

Canada.

All the while, the ringleaders were living large. Tran and 

her husband had two homes in San Diego and property 

in Vietnam. They drove high-end vehicles and bought 

expensive jewelry—most of which was seized and forfeited 

when they were arrested.

We broke the case with the help of surveillance, wiretaps, 

an undercover operative posing as a crooked dealer, and 

strong partnerships with Internal Revenue Service investigators, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, 

the California Department of Justice, and the Ontario 

Provincial Police.

To date, of the 47 individuals indicted in the case, 42 

have entered guilty pleas to various charges.

The co-founder of a criminal enterprise known as the 

Tran Organization pled guilty last month to scamming 

casinos across the country out of millions of dollars, 

bringing to a close one of the largest card-cheating cases 

in recent FBI history.

Van Thu Tran, 45, along with her husband, parents, 

extended family, and others, participated in a surprisingly simple scheme to cheat casinos at the gaming 

tables.

Tran and her husband were dealers at an Indian tribal 

casino in San Diego in 2002 when they devised a plan to 

use a “false shuffle” to track cards and thereby guarantee 

successful betting.

“Initially, it was a pretty bare bones operation,” said 

Special Agent Peter Casey, one of several case agents who 

worked the Tran investigation out of our San Diego Field 

Office.

Over time, the couple branched out from an Asian card 

game called Pai Gow to blackjack, and they enlisted 

many others in the scheme—including dealers at other 

casinos—with the promise of easy money.

For awhile, the money was easy, because some of the 

tribal casinos’ security was not yet sophisticated enough 

to pick up on the scam. Before the ring was rounded up 

in 2007, some 29 casinos from Canada to Mississippi were 

hit for about $7 million.

Here’s how the card cheat worked:

When signaled, the crooked dealer would make a 

false shuffle. Through sleight-of-hand techniques that 

House of Cards

Casino Cheating Ring Dismantled

Left: Van Thu Tran and her husband devised a plan to use a “false 

shuffle” to track cards and thereby guarantee successful betting. 

Before their ring was rounded up in 2007, some 29 casinos were hit 

for about $7 million.

February 11, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 13

Arthur Lowell Brent became a special agent on 

August 1, 1923 after serving two years as a “special 

employee” (a sort of assistant investigator) in the 

Department of Justice. Brent was assigned to the 

Washington Field Office, where he worked on the 

Garvey case and other investigations. He left the 

Bureau in June 1924.

Thomas Leon Jefferson—an experienced investigator who had worked for a detective agency in Chicago 

from about 1904 to 1921—entered the Bureau as an 

agent on September 22, 1922. Jefferson participated 

in many investigations, working on the Garvey 

case, car thefts, and prostitution/human trafficking 

matters. In November 1924, he was commended by 

Acting Director Hoover for his work on a bankruptcy 

investigation. Jefferson retired in January 1930.

Over time, other African-American agents would 

follow these path-breakers. Father and son agents Jesse 

and Robert Strider served in our L.A. office from the 

1940s through the 1970s, tackling difficult fugitive investigations, military deserter matters, and other cases. They 

were joined in other field offices by Special Agents James 

Thomas Young, Harold August Carr, and Carl Vernon 

Mason, among others.

The careers of each of these agents, though exemplary, 

did reflect the struggles of the day. Unlike most investigators, some of these black agents were asked to handle 

lesser assignments outside their normal duties. Their 

struggles, though, paved the way for agents like Aubrey 

Lewis and James Barrow, who in 1962 became the first 

African-American agents accepted to the FBI Academy, 

ushering in a new era for minority agents in the Bureau.

▪

▪

His commanding officer was “shell shocked” from the 

intense fighting, his company of soldiers poorly trained 

and ill-equipped. Yet, as World War I drew to a close in 

September 1918, an African-American Army captain 

named James Wormley Jones fearlessly fought on, pushing 

forward against German forces.

In less than 15 months, this brave officer would find 

himself serving the nation in another capacity—as a 

special agent of the Bureau of Investigation, as the FBI 

was known then. We believe, in fact, that he was one of 

the first—if not the first—of the early African-American 

agents who blazed a sometimes tough trail during a difficult era.

James Jones brought plenty of experience to our young 

organization. He’d served for many years as a D.C. police 

officer prior to joining the African-American Army 

regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers. And while 

stationed in Europe following the war, he was a senior 

instructor for his division’s school of specialists, teaching 

soldiers how to handle high-powered explosives and the 

mechanics of bombs and grenades.

We quickly put that expertise to work. As an agent, 

Jones was employed exclusively in an undercover 

capacity, working directly under the head of the General 

Intelligence Division (GID), future director J. Edgar 

Hoover. The GID had been created a few months before 

in response to recent terrorist bombings, and Jones’ 

talents and experience fit well with the division’s anti-terrorist mission.

We are aware of at least four other African-American 

agents who followed Jones in these early years of the 

Bureau:

James Amos, a former bodyguard of President 

Theodore Roosevelt, joined the Bureau in August 

1921. He was the longest-serving of these early black 

agents, working some of the Bureau’s biggest cases 

during his 32-year career.

Earl F. Titus, after working as an Indianapolis police 

officer, joined the Bureau on January 9, 1922. His 

assignments included undercover work in the investigation of Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist who was 

convicted of mail fraud in 1923. Titus retired in June 

1924 at the age of 56.

▪

▪

Special Agents Jesse and Robert Strider, father and son

A Byte Out of History

Early African-American Agents

February 15, 2011
14 2011 The FBI Story

In the Florida case, the indictment alleges that various 

defendants paid kickbacks to patient brokers and owners 

or operators of halfway houses and assisted living facilities for delivering patients to community mental health 

facilities owned by a particular corporation. The facilities 

would then submit claims to Medicare for services that 

weren’t medically necessary or weren’t provided at all.

The defendants charged in today’s takedown are 

accused of various fraud-related crimes, including conspiracy to defraud Medicare, criminal false claims, violations of the anti-kickback statutes, money laundering, and 

aggravated identify theft. Some of the cases include:

Nine charged in Houston for $8 million in fraudulent 

Medicare claims for physical therapy, durable medical 

equipment, home health care, and chiropractor 

services.

Five charged in Los Angeles for a scheme to defraud 

Medicare of more than $28 million by submitting 

false claims for durable medical equipment and home 

health care.

Eleven charged in Chicago for conspiracies to defraud 

Medicare of $6 million related to false billing for 

home health care, diagnostic testing, and prescription 

drugs.

In addition to our involvement with HEAT and the 

Medicare Fraud Strike Force, the FBI remains committed to working additional health care fraud investigations with our partners at HHS-OIG, individual state 

Medicare fraud offices, and investigative units from major 

private insurance companies. We also work jointly with 

the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and 

Drug Administration, and the Department of Homeland 

Security to address drug diversion, Internet pharmacies, 

prescription drug abuse, and other health care fraud 

threats.

We’re currently working more than 2,600 pending 

health care fraud investigations. During fiscal year 2010, 

cooperative efforts with our law enforcement partners 

led to charges against approximately 930 individuals and 

convictions of almost 750 subjects. But perhaps even more 

satisfying—we dismantled dozens of criminal enterprises 

engaged in widespread health care fraud.

▪

▪

▪

Twenty individuals, including three doctors, were charged 

in South Florida earlier this week for their alleged participation in a fraud scheme involving $200 million in 

Medicare billing for mental health services.

And that was just a precursor to today’s national federal 

health care fraud takedown involving charges against 

111 defendants in nine cities in connection with their 

alleged participation in schemes to bilk Medicare out of 

an additional $225 million. More than 700 law enforcement personnel from the FBI and Health and Human 

Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), 

multiple Medicaid fraud control units, and other state 

and local law enforcement agencies took part in today’s 

operation, which was announced at a press conference in 

Washington, D.C.

HEAT. The Florida case and the cases involved in 

today’s takedown were the result of the Department 

of Justice/HHS Health Care Fraud Prevention and 

Enforcement Action Team, or HEAT, initiative and 

its Medicare Fraud Strike Force operating in a number 

of U.S. cities. In addition to Baton Rouge, Brooklyn, 

Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Tampa, 

Attorney General Eric Holder announced at today’s press 

conference the expansion of the strike force into two 

more cities—Chicago and Dallas.

Medicare Strike Force members include federal, state, 

and local investigators who use data analysis techniques 

to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot 

spots, targeting chronic fraud and emerging or migrating 

schemes by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers.

Health Care Fraud

111 Charged Nationwide

Left: FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, along with U.S. 

Attorney General Eric Holder, were among the officials announcing 

the takedown charging 111 individuals in nine cities with Medicare 

fraud schemes of more than $225 million.

February 17, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 15

Early on, our fugitive posters were commonplace in 

federal buildings, most notably in post offices where the 

mug shots and rewards were as reliably present as stamp 

machines. In the mid-‘90s, as the public’s attention turned 

to the burgeoning Internet, FBI wanted posters followed 

suit. The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list went online in 

1996 with the advent of the FBI website. New categories 

appeared shortly thereafter, including the addition of the 

Most Wanted Terrorists list in 2001.

“We’ve come a long way from the days of distributing 

wanted posters,” Bryant said. “We now routinely use not 

only the Internet, but television programs, digital billboards, and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and 

YouTube to publicize wanted persons.”

To date, 56 cases have been solved as a direct result 

of website publicity, according to the Investigative 

Publicity and Public Affairs Unit, which runs the 

Most Wanted section. With the evolution of FBI.gov and 

the Most Wanted section’s new search features, we hope 

the public will help us even more as we move forward.

“The searchable database on our website,” Special Agent 

Bryant says, “is in keeping with our continuing push for 

new and better ways to engage the public in our investigations.”

For more than 60 years, the FBI has created posters to 

enlist the public’s help in capturing fugitives or finding 

missing persons. Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, CIA 

shooter Mir Aimal Kansi, World Trade Center bomber 

Ramzi Yousef—the captured fugitives were all on FBI 

wanted posters distributed and shared around the world.

Now, thanks to a recent redesign of the FBI.gov Most 

Wanted section, the public has more tools to help us close 

cases of suspected murderers, terrorists, bank robbers, and 

kidnapped and missing individuals.

For the first time, web visitors can go beyond just 

scanning pages of mug shots—and use search criteria like 

location, gender, crime type, reward, and even ZIP Codes 

to help narrow and focus their searches. For example, you 

can search for fugitives wanted for murder in California. 

Bear in mind, we have about 600 open cases featured on 

the website, and cases are removed soon after they are 

solved.

“Tips and leads from the public are crucial in fugitive 

investigations,” said Special Agent Bradley Bryant, who 

works with local law enforcement agencies on cold cases 

through our Violent Crime Apprehension Program, or 

ViCAP. The program posts images, sketches, and profiles 

of individuals and their cases in hopes the public may be 

able to provide tips to aid investigations.

The web redesign also features a new blue profile box 

for each fugitive or missing person, which you can click 

through quickly for summaries, descriptions, aliases, 

photos, and more. Each profile also contains a link to the 

traditional poster that can be shared and printed—with 

printable pdfs now available for each poster.

The profiles are now organized into three main 

sections: wanted fugitives, missing persons, and 

seeking information. For the first time, the Wanted 

site also contains links to the fugitives of other federal 

agencies—such as the U.S. Secret Service and the Drug 

Enforcement Administration.

Not all FBI fugitives are included in the Most Wanted 

section. Many bank robbers, for example, are publicized 

through local Bureau press releases or through various 

state or local websites. See our Bank Robbery webpage for 

a list of those sites and additional information.

FBI posters seeking James Earl Ray (1968), Eric Rudolph (1998), 

and Joe Saenz (2009)

To Catch a Fugitive

New Tools to Find FBI’s 

Most Wanted

February 22, 2011
16 2011 The FBI Story

national complainants were from Canada, the United 

Kingdom, Australia, or India.

In cases where perpetrator information was available, nearly 75 percent were men and more than 

half resided in California, Florida, New York, Texas, 

the District of Columbia, or Washington state. The 

highest numbers of perpetrators outside this country 

were from the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Canada.

After non-delivery of payment/merchandise, scams 

impersonating the FBI, and identity theft, rounding 

out the top 10 crime types were: computer crimes, 

miscellaneous fraud, advance fee fraud, spam, auction 

fraud, credit card fraud, and overpayment fraud. 

The report also contained information on some of the 

alerts sent out by the IC3 during 2010 in response to 

new scams or to an increase in established scams, including those involving:

Telephone calls claiming victims are delinquent on 

payday loans;

Online apartment and house rental and real estate 

scams used to swindle consumers out of thousands of 

dollars;

Denial-of-service attacks on cell phones and landlines 

used as a ruse to access victims’ bank accounts; and

Fake e-mails seeking donations to disaster relief 

efforts after last year’s earthquake in Haiti.

Over the past few years, the IC3 has enhanced the way 

it processes, analyzes, and refers victim complaints to 

law enforcement. Technology has automated the search 

process, so IC3 analysts as well as local, state, and federal 

analysts and investigators can look for similar complaints 

to build cases. Technology also allows law enforcement 

users who may be working on the same or similar cases to 

communicate and share information.

Because there are so many variations of Internet 

scams out there, we can’t possibly warn against every 

single one. But we do recommend this: practice good 

security—make sure your computer is outfitted with the 

latest security software, protect your personal identification information, and be highly suspicious if someone 

offers you an online deal that’s too good to be true.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

Non-delivery of payment or merchandise. Scams impersonating the FBI. Identity theft.

These were the top three most common complaints made 

to the joint FBI/National White Collar Crime Center’s 

Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year, according to its just-released 2010 Internet Crime Report. 

The report also includes a state-by-state breakdown of 

complaints.

In May 2010, the IC3 marked its 10th anniversary, 

and by November, it had received its two millionth 

complaint since opening for business.

Last year, the IC3 received more than 300,000 complaints, averaging just over 25,000 a month. About 

170,000 complaints that met specific investigative 

criteria—such as certain financial thresholds—were 

referred to the appropriate local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies. But even the complaints not referred 

to law enforcement, including those where no financial 

losses had occurred, were valuable pieces of information 

analyzed and used for intelligence reports and to help 

identify emerging fraud trends.

So even if you think an Internet scammer was targeting 

you and you didn’t fall for it, file a complaint with the 

IC3. Whether or not it’s referred to law enforcement, 

your information is vital in helping the IC3 paint a fuller 

picture of Internet crime.

Additional highlights from the report:

Most victims filing complaints were from the U.S., 

male, between 40 and 59 years old, and residents of 

California, Florida, Texas, or New York. Most inter-

▪

Internet Crime Trends

The Latest Report

February 24, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 17

County Police Department in Virginia. “We have the 

DNA linking the offender, but we need someone to 

recognize and identify him.”

The digital billboards will run in Maryland, Virginia, 

Connecticut, and Rhode Island, where the attacks and 

attempts have occurred, as well as in New Jersey, New 

York, and Delaware.

The FBI started its national digital billboard initiative in 

2007 with the help of outdoor advertising companies that 

provide free access to more than 1,500 digital billboards 

in more than 40 states nationwide to publicize investigations and to provide public safety information. Since the 

start of the initiative, at least 39 cases have been solved as 

a direct result from tips from the public.

Today’s campaign includes partnerships with a number 

of local police departments involved with the East Coast 

Rapist investigation. In addition to the billboards, Fairfax 

County Police Department has launched a dedicated 

website, www.EastCoastRapist.com, which provides composites and additional information about the case.

We need your help to capture this armed and dangerous serial offender. If you have any information regarding the East Coast Rapist, call 866-411-TIPS. Maryland’s 

Prince George’s County Police Department is offering 

a reward of up to $25,000 for information related to the 

investigation.

Editor’s note: A suspect in these cases was arrested by the 

East Coast Rape Task Force on March 7, 2011.

A new digital billboard campaign launched today aims to 

help investigators catch the “East Coast Rapist,” a violent 

serial offender who has attacked or attempted to attack 

a dozen women in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, and 

Rhode Island for more than a decade.

The billboards feature composite sketches of the rapist 

and a toll-free telephone number where people can 

call to provide information. “These billboards give local 

police departments and the FBI an added edge to identify, 

locate, and apprehend the subject,” said Ronald Hosko, 

special agent in charge of the Criminal Division in our 

Washington Field Office. “The public is the most important tool law enforcement has for solving crimes like this.”

The East Coast Rapist attacked his first victim in 

February 1997 in a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C. 

He approached the 25-year-old victim on a bicycle as she 

walked home from work. The attacker began a conversation but then pulled a gun, forced the woman into nearby 

woods, and raped her.

Since then, 11 more attacks or attempted attacks have 

occurred. The female victims have been white, black, 

and Hispanic. The rapist generally approaches victims 

outdoors on foot and threatens them with a weapon—

usually a knife or a handgun. He sometimes wears a black 

mask or hooded sweatshirt to conceal his face. He typically asks for money, giving victims the impression they 

are being robbed. But after the assault, no robbery occurs.

The attacker is described as a black male between the 

ages of 20 and 40 who is 5’7” to 6’ tall, weighs between 

150 and 200 pounds, and has a medium to muscular 

build. In addition to a mask and hooded sweatshirt, he 

has worn a variety of clothes during attacks, including 

green overalls, a green camouflage coat or black jacket, 

dark sweatpants or blue jeans, tan boots or light-colored 

tennis shoes, a black hair rag, and a brown or black hat.

The rapist’s last known attack was in Woodbridge, 

Virginia on Halloween night in 2009. He raped two 

teenagers on their way home from trick-or-treating.

All of the East Coast Rapist’s attacks have been linked 

by DNA, said John Kelly, a detective with the Fairfax 

The investigation involves 12 sexual assaults or attempted sexual 

assaults between 1997 and 2009 by the same offender. Each of the 

assaults is linked by DNA.

Help Us Catch the 

East Coast Rapist

New Digital Billboard 

Campaign Launched

February 28, 2011
18 2011 The FBI Story

Perez is quick to point out, though, that despite their 

white-collar crimes, “these are dangerous people. Just 

because they make money through fraud, these guys are 

not accountants. They use violence to get what they 

want,” he said, explaining that one AP extortion trademark is to shoot people in the legs “to send a message.”

AP membership—thought to number about 200—

consists mainly of individuals whose heritage goes 

back to Armenia and other Eastern Bloc countries. 

While the group got its start as a street gang in East 

Hollywood in the 1980s, AP is now less concerned 

with controlling neighborhood turf as it expands its 

criminal activities with other organized crime groups.

For example, AP is closely allied with the Mexican Mafia, 

a prison gang that controls much of the narcotics distribution and other criminal activity within California’s 

correctional facilities. AP’s leadership also maintains ties 

to Armenia and Russia and deals directly with top organized crime figures in those countries—even to the point 

of using respected organized crime mediators—known as 

“thieves-in-law”—to settle disputes.

Steven Martinez, assistant director in charge of the FBI 

in Los Angeles, credits the success of the investigation 

and last week’s takedown to the excellent partnerships 

between the nine local and federal agencies on the 

Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force. The task force 

consists of about 20 investigators, four of whom are FBI 

agents. “All the agencies involved committed their best 

resources,” Martinez said. “The results speak for themselves.”

“We think Operation Power Outage will change the face 

of AP,” Perez added. “We took out six of their criminal 

cells and their leadership structure. We are confident that 

the repercussions of this will be felt internationally.”

The Southern California crime ring called Armenian 

Power may look like a traditional street gang—members 

identify themselves with tattoos and gang clothing—but 

the group is really an international organized crime 

enterprise whose illegal activities allegedly range from 

bank fraud and identity theft to violent extortion and 

kidnapping.

Operation Power Outage—a nearly three-year investigation conducted by our Eurasian Organized Crime 

Task Force in Los Angeles—culminated last week 

with the arrests of 83 Armenian Power members on a 

variety of federal and state charges that include racketeering, drug trafficking, smuggling cell phones into 

prisons, and theft from the elderly. All told, the group 

allegedly bilked victims out of at least $10 million.

In one scheme, Armenian Power—known as AP—caused 

more than $2 million in losses when members secretly 

installed “skimming” devices in cash register credit card 

swipe machines at Southern California 99 Cents Only 

stores to steal customer account information. Then they 

used the skimmed information to create counterfeit debit 

and credit cards to empty accounts.

“There is no crime too big or too small for this group,” 

said Special Agent Louis Perez, who supervises the 

Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force that built the case 

against AP.

“This is not just a group of thugs committing crimes in 

their neighborhood,” added Perez. “AP is sophisticated, 

and they have international ties. That’s what sets them 

apart from traditional gangs.”

Operation Power Outage

Armenian Organized 

Crime Group Targeted

March 3, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 19

Why are licensing and registration laws so important?

Several years ago, the U.S. government issued a moneylaundering assessment that identified money services 

businesses—especially wire remitters—as a chief conduit 

for the illicit transmission of money, including funds used 

to finance all sorts of criminal activity and terrorism. 

Requirements to register these businesses enable state and 

federal regulatory agencies to keep a closer eye on what 

they’re doing.

And whether or not the funds moved through these 

businesses came from or funded illegal activity, there 

is other fallout from these businesses. For example, the 

bank accounts used to facilitate the transfer of money see 

an awful lot of activity—in Kaganov’s case, there were 

daily and sometimes even hourly transactions—and that 

has the potential to destabilize banks. Also, creators of 

shell corporations often don’t file any tax returns, so they 

remain unknown to taxing authorities. Or, they keep two 

sets of financial books—one that they show to taxing 

authorities and the real one that never sees the light of 

day.

By thwarting laws and regulations that govern the U.S. 

financial system, criminals can undermine its integrity. 

The FBI and its partners are working hard to make sure 

that doesn’t happen.

An Oregon man recently pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmittal business that illegally moved 

more than $172 million in and out of the United States. 

As you’ll read in a moment, the case is a good example 

of why it’s important to crack down on these shady 

practices.

The man behind this complex global scheme was Victor 

Kaganov, a former Russian military officer who emigrated 

to the U.S. in 1998 and eventually became a naturalized 

citizen. He created five “shell” corporations—businesses 

that only existed on paper—in Oregon and began moving 

money through these bogus companies for his overseas 

business associates.

Money transmittal businesses in the U.S. are required 

by federal law to obtain a license from the state where 

they operate. They are also required to register with the 

U.S. Treasury. Kaganov did neither.

Instead, he set up accounts under the names of his shell 

corporations at several Oregon banks. His overseas 

“clients” would generally wire transfer a substantial 

amount of money into one of these accounts. Then the 

clients—through fax or phone—would provide Kaganov 

with instructions on where to further transmit the funds.

From 2002 to 2009, Kaganov facilitated more than 4,200 

wire transactions. A significant portion of the funds 

transferred into his accounts came from Russia, but the 

money was transferred out to 50 other countries, mostly 

in Asia and Europe.

Cooperation was key in this case—we were greatly 

assisted by the U.S. Treasury, our overseas legal 

attachés, and our global law enforcement partners.

The Kaganov investigation was a spinoff of a broader FBI 

case investigating the use of Oregon shell corporations by 

overseas businesses and individuals to move illicit funds.

Another spinoff of the broader FBI investigation is a 

brand new hybrid investigative squad in our Portland 

office focused on any and all threats from Eurasian 

criminals—one of the FBI’s top organized crime priorities. We call it a “hybrid” squad because it includes agents 

and analysts from Bureau programs across the board—organized crime, counterterrorism, intelligence, cyber, and 

counterintelligence.

Moving Money Illegally

A $172 Million Case Example

March 7, 2011
20 2011 The FBI Story

found throughout state and federal prisons in the U.S. 

and Mexico.

This particular organization is known to engage in 

criminal activities both inside and outside of prison 

walls. Those activities include murder, assault, threats of 

violence, extortion, money laundering, witness intimidation, illegal firearms possession, alien smuggling, and drug 

trafficking—on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to today’s indictment, the Barrio Azteca 

formed an alliance with the Vicente Carrillo-Fuentes 

(VCF) drug trafficking organization in Mexico, conducting enforcement operations against VCF rivals and 

receiving “discounts” on illegal drugs from the VCF.

And in addition to the consulate murders, the defendants 

are allegedly responsible for a number of other murders 

in the U.S. and Mexico. The indictment states they also 

imported heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into the U.S. 

and charged a “cuota,” or tax, on businesses and other 

criminals operating on their turf. The funds raised by 

these taxes were allegedly funneled into prison commissary accounts of gang leaders and also helped pay for 

defense lawyers.

Today’s indictment is a direct result of the cooperation 

among the local, state, and federal law enforcement 

agencies and prosecutors involved. Members of our 

multi-agency Safe Streets Task Forces out of our El Paso 

and Albuquerque offices worked seamlessly with one 

another throughout the investigation, sharing intelligence, conducting surveillance, making undercover drug 

buys, and executing search warrants.

The use of Safe Streets Task Forces is part of our strategy 

for going after these violent criminals—we currently 

have 168 Violent Gang Task Forces and 41 Violent Crime 

Task Forces nationwide. Also valuable is our ability to 

use federal statutes, because they often result in longer 

sentences and allow us to seize and forfeit assets from 

convicted gang members. And targeting the leadership 

of these criminal groups often disrupts their ability to ply 

their illegal trade.

Hopefully, with today’s indictment and arrests, the streets 

on both sides of the border are a little safer.

Thirty-five leaders, members, and associates of one of the 

most brutal gangs operating along the U.S.-Mexico border 

have been charged in a federal indictment in Texas with 

various counts of racketeering, murder, drug offenses, 

money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

Of the 35 subjects, 10 Mexican nationals were specifically 

charged with the March 2010 murders in Juarez, Mexico 

of a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband, along 

with the husband of another consulate employee.

The indictment was announced today at a press conference in Washington, D.C., by U.S. Attorney General Eric 

Holder, FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, 

and other representatives. All commented on the cooperation American officials received from their Mexican 

counterparts. Said Henry, “We may stand on opposite 

sides of the border, but we stand together on the same 

side of the law.”

Seven of the 10 charged with the U.S. Consulate murders 

—and two other indicted defendants—are in custody 

in Mexico. Three remain at large, including Eduardo 

Ravelo, currently one of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted 

Fugitives. We’re offering a reward of up to $100,000 for 

information leading directly to his arrest.

The Barrio Azteca began in the late 1980s as a prison 

gang but has since expanded into a transnational 

criminal organization with approximately 3,500 members, 

including 600 active members located in West Texas and 

Juarez, Mexico. Barrio Azteca gang members can also be 

Violent Border 

Gang Indicted

Members Charged in 

Consulate Murders

Left: FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, with Attorney 

General Eric Holder, holds up a Most Wanted poster of Barrio Azteca 

gang leader Eduardo Ravelo during a press conference in Washington, D.C. announcing charges against the gang in the U.S. Consulate 

murders last March.

March 9, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 21

Currently, DSAC consists of nearly 200 diverse U.S. 

companies and organizations—and that number continues to grow. Although vigilant about terrorist and counterintelligence threats, the day-to-day security concerns 

of these entities primarily involve criminal threats—like 

computer intrusions, workplace violence, insider threats, 

fraud, trade secret theft, and product tampering. And 

DSAC personnel work closely with each of the Bureau’s 

operational divisions.

Services offered to DSAC members include:

An interactive website (www.dsac.gov) that posts 

weekly intelligence briefs and other unclassified 

information from the FBI and other U.S. intelligence 

agencies, analytical products from member companies, news feeds, a resource library, and an online 

meeting capability;

The Domestic Security Executive Academy that 

brings together corporate chief security officers and 

senior U.S. government officials to build strategic 

partnerships and discuss the latest criminal and 

domestic security issues affecting U.S. commerce; and

Intelligence Analyst Symposiums that provide 

joint training for corporate security analysts, U.S. 

government intelligence analysts, and federal, state, 

and local law enforcement partners on intelligence 

tradecraft, methodologies, and best practices.

Most recently, the DSAC program has been brought 

under the umbrella of the Director’s Office, teamed with 

our Office of Law Enforcement Coordination (OLEC), 

which is responsible for building bridges, strengthening 

relationships, and sharing information with our public 

sector law enforcement partners. Said OLEC Assistant 

Director Ronald Ruecker, “Performing similar activities 

with our private sector partners is a logical extension of 

OLEC’s mission.”

▪

▪

▪

Five American-based corporations received threatening phone calls for more than a year. The threats were 

reported to various authorities, but the culprit wasn’t 

identified.

Then, a sixth company received a threatening phone call. 

Fortunately, that company was a member of the Domestic 

Security Alliance Council (DSAC), a security and intelligence-sharing initiative between the FBI, the Department 

of Homeland Security (DHS), and the private sector. 

The company’s chief security officer contacted DSAC’s 

program office in Washington, D.C., to relay the incident. 

In less than 10 days, a DSAC analyst—working with FBI 

field offices—connected the dots that led to the identification of a suspect.

DSAC works to prevent, detect, and investigate 

criminal acts—particularly those affecting interstate 

commerce—while helping the private sector protect its 

employees, assets, and proprietary information. It’s similar 

to the Bureau’s InfraGard program, which brings together 

representatives from the private and public sectors to 

help protect our nation’s critical infrastructure and key 

resources from terrorists, criminals, and others.

Through open lines of communication, DSAC ensures 

that key senior private sector executives and senior government officials share real-time, actionable intelligence.

DSAC was modeled after the Overseas Security 

Advisory Council—started pre-9/11 by the State 

Department to exchange information with U.S. private 

sector firms, many of whom operate overseas, concerning 

international security issues. After 9/11, it became clear 

that a similar initiative was needed to encourage the 

exchange of information on domestic security issues. And 

the FBI took the lead in setting it up, with DHS acting as 

a key partner today.

According to program director Daniel DeSimone, “DSAC 

bridges the information-sharing divide between the public 

and private sector” on the many security threats facing 

today’s businesses. “Threats,” explained Arnold Bell, 

DSAC deputy program director, “like a foreign national 

trying to covertly acquire sensitive information or technology, a trusted employee willing to sell a company’s 

secrets, or IT experts or other personnel using ineffective 

practices that result in security breaches.”

Domestic Security

Combating Crime, 

Protecting Commerce

March 14, 2011
22 2011 The FBI Story

But, as all Ponzi schemes do eventually, Rangel’s scam—

which started around November 2007—began collapsing 

in on itself when he didn’t have enough new investors 

to pay off the old ones. Checks stopped going out, and 

Financial Plus closed its doors in July 2008.

The mortgage fraud scheme. For approximately two 

years before, Rangel and his Financial Plus vice-president—who was also charged in this scheme—identified 

homeowners who were in default on their mortgages 

but who still had substantial equity remaining in their 

properties. Spanish-speaking Financial Plus employees 

were then directed to make unsolicited visits to identified 

homeowners with Latino surnames.

Rangel and his vice president would then meet with the 

homeowners who were interested in Financial Plus’ offer 

to help them avoid foreclosure. Some homeowners were 

told that Financial Plus would refinance their properties 

with another lender using a “co-signer” who had good 

credit. Others were told that Financial Plus would arrange 

for temporary sales of the properties, that the titles would 

be transferred but they could still live in the home, and 

that the titles would be returned to them after a year or 

less.

Of course, in both instances, the homeowners ended up 

with nothing....while Financial Plus ended up with the 

proceeds from fraudulently obtained loans and titles to 

homeowners’ properties.

The case was investigated by the FBI and our partners 

at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal 

Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division.

When it came time to arrest Rangel after his October 

2010 indictment on the Ponzi and mortgage fraud 

schemes, law enforcement authorities didn’t have to 

look that far—he was already in federal custody after 

his 2009 conviction for bribing a bank manager to falsify 

bank documents in direct support of his mortgage fraud 

scheme.

Moral of the story? When turning over your hard-earned 

money or property, make sure you do your due diligence 

on the people who are taking it.

Last month, a California con man was sentenced to 22 

years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that raked 

in at least $30 million from more than 500 victims and 

for launching a mortgage fraud operation that targeted 

distressed homeowners.

The man behind these scams—a Mexican national living 

in the U.S.—did most of that damage by purposely targeting mostly working-class, Spanish-speaking victims in Los 

Angeles.

And at Juan Rangel’s sentencing hearing, more than a 

dozen victims addressed the court, including one investor 

who had been convinced to invest money she received 

after her son was killed while serving as a U.S. soldier in 

Iraq.

The Ponzi scheme. Rangel’s company—Financial Plus 

Investments—was never licensed by the U.S. Securities 

and Exchange Commission, but that didn’t stop him from 

offering investments with guaranteed returns as high as 

60 percent annually.

Rangel solicited investors from Los Angeles through 

Spanish-language newspapers and magazines, radio 

advertisements, television infomercials, and investment 

seminars.

He told potential investors that his company earned 

profits from real estate-related investments and that if 

they invested with him, their money would be used to 

buy, renovate, and sell properties...and make high-interest 

rate loans to homeowners who were facing foreclosure. 

But what they didn’t know was that Rangel was using 

their money to pay off prior investors and fund a $2.5 

million mansion and luxury sports car.

Serial Scammer

Targeted L.A. Latino Community

March 17, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 23

“We would love to find our counterparts somewhere 

in the world,” he said, “but so far we haven’t been able 

to. No one seems to have the niche that we have.”

Becoming a cryptanalyst requires a basic four-month 

training course and plenty of continuing education to 

learn the age-old patterns and techniques of code makers. 

Olson insists that almost anyone can learn basic codebreaking skills, but certain personality types seem best 

suited to the job, including those who like solving puzzles 

and who are determined and tenacious.

The unit’s examiners include linguists, mathematicians, and former law enforcement officers like Debra 

O’Donnell, who worked drug and gang cases in New 

Jersey before joining the Bureau. “This is very rewarding 

work,” O’Donnell said, “but you have to have the right 

temperament for it, because you can’t break every code.”

Still, since World War II, when Bureau cryptanalysts were 

responsible for cracking Nazi spy codes, CRRU has been 

getting results—not only for FBI cases but also for local, 

state, and federal investigators who request our training 

and assistance.

“We’ve evolved with the crime trends over the years,” 

Olson said, “but at the same time we’ve kept our previous 

missions. As long as there are criminals,” he added, ”there 

will be a need for cryptanalysts.”

The letter from a gang member in prison to a friend on 

the outside seemed normal enough. “Saludos loved one,” 

it began, and went on to describe the perils of drug use 

and the inmate’s upcoming visit from his children.

But closer inspection by examiners in our 

Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit 

(CRRU) revealed that this seemingly ordinary letter 

was encoded with a much more sinister message: every 

fifth word contained the letter’s true intent, which was 

to green-light the murder of a fellow gang member.

Breaking such codes is CRRU’s unique specialty. Despite 

the FBI’s extensive use of state-of-the-art computer technology to gather intelligence, examine evidence, and help 

solve crimes, the need to manually break “pen and paper” 

codes remains a valuable—and necessary—weapon in the 

Bureau’s investigative arsenal.

That’s because criminals who use cryptography—codes, 

ciphers, and concealed messages—are more numerous 

than one might expect. Terrorists, gang members, 

inmates, drug dealers, violent lone offenders, and organized crime groups involved in gambling and prostitution 

use letters, numbers, symbols, and even invisible ink to 

encode messages in an attempt to hide illegal activity.

Bookies, pimps, and drug traffickers, for example, all keep 

records of their dealings, explained Dan Olson, chief of 

CRRU, which is part of the FBI Laboratory. “If there is 

money and credit involved in a transaction,” Olson said, 

“there has to be an accounting of that at every step of the 

way, even if it’s on a match pack, hotel stationary, or the 

back of a cocktail napkin.”

The unit’s forensic examiners are often tasked with 

decoding encrypted evidence after subjects have been 

arrested. But CRRU also plays an important role in 

thwarting crime by intercepting coded messages—like 

the prison letter above—particularly among inmates and 

gang members. “We solve crimes,” Olson said, “but we 

actually prevent more crimes than we solve.”

The art of breaking codes is an “old-fashioned battle of 

the minds” between code makers and code breakers, 

Olson added, explaining that CRRU is the only law 

enforcement unit anywhere that deals exclusively with 

manual—as opposed to digital—code breaking.

Cryptanalysts

Part 1: Breaking Codes 

to Stop Crime

March 21, 2011

Encrypted letter from imprisoned gang member
24 2011 The FBI Story

in their own communities, working to keep their neighborhoods safer.

Here are a few more examples of the individuals and 

organizations selected to receive the DCLA:

An Arkansas woman who became a tireless advocate 

for the elderly after members of her family experienced nursing home abuse;

An organization in Buffalo that provided resources 

and assistance to victims who came to light during an 

FBI human trafficking investigation;

A former NASA astronaut and successful businessman in Houston who established a foundation that 

invests in community-based initiatives that empower 

individuals, particularly minorities and the economically disadvantaged;

A former deputy fire chief from Louisville who 

promotes emergency preparedness among first 

responders and members of the public;

A St. Louis doctor who risked his career to help 

uncover massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud being 

perpetrated by the health care company he worked 

for; and

A county school employee in Tampa who created a 

program for at-risk young males that is now used by 

the state attorney’s office as a diversion program for 

first-time offenders.

Every year, FBI field offices select individuals or organizations—one per office—to receive the DCLA. The 

criteria for the award? Achievements in combating 

terrorism, cyber crime, and illegal drugs, gangs, and other 

crimes; or violence prevention/education efforts that have 

had a tremendous positive impact on their communities. 

This year’s crop of award recipients joins the ranks of a 

dedicated group of people and organizations that, since 

1990, have collectively enhanced the lives of thousands of 

individuals and families and helped protect communities 

around the United States.

Congratulations to the winners!

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

They come from different parts of the country. They 

work in many different fields. And they serve a variety of 

constituencies.

But the 50-plus individuals who gathered at FBI 

Headquarters in Washington, D.C., today for a special 

ceremony have one thing in common: they are all recipients of the 2010 Director’s Community Leadership Award 

(DCLA) for their selfless actions within their communities. And, according to Director Robert Mueller, the 

recipients share “a willingness to lead and a commitment 

to improve the lives of their neighbors.... They embody 

the true meaning of citizenship.”

This year’s recipients show how ordinary citizens 

can make such a big difference in the lives of others, 

from the New Mexico Anti-Defamation League regional 

director who combats prejudice and discrimination...to 

the mosque board member in Cincinnati who educates 

law enforcement and community leaders about the 

Muslim faith...from the New Jersey child advocate dedicated to protecting kids from online sexual predators...to 

the Seattle television anchor whose news program highlights and helps apprehend dangerous fugitives.

And those who benefit from their involvement also represent a broad spectrum of the community, including the 

young, the elderly, the disabled, women and girls, refugees 

and legal immigrants, crime victims, minority groups, law 

enforcement, and the general public.

We present each of these awards publicly—first at the 

local FBI field office and then at a national ceremony in 

Washington—with the hopes that others will hear the 

stories of the recipients and be inspired to create change 

Improving Communities

Leaders Honored in Washington

Left: FBI Director’s Community Leadership Awards

March 25, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 25

eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea.”

That’s where the public comes in. The FBI has always 

relied on tips and other assistance from the public to 

solve crimes, and although breaking a code may represent 

a special circumstance, your help could aid the investigation. Take a look at McCormick’s two notes. If you have 

an idea how to break the code, have seen similar codes, 

or have any information about the Ricky McCormick 

case, send them to us online at http://forms.fbi.gov/code or 

write to CRRU at the following address:

FBI Laboratory

Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit

2501 Investigation Parkway

Quantico, VA 22135

Attn: Ricky McCormick Case

There is no reward being offered, just a challenge—and 

the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might 

help bring a killer to justice.

“Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list 

or a love letter,” Olson said, “we would still want to see 

how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know 

nothing about.”

On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri 

discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He 

had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues 

regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found 

in the victim’s pants pockets.

Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and 

Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help 

from the American Cryptogram Association, the 

meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery 

to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet 

to face justice.

“We are really good at what we do,” said CRRU chief Dan 

Olson, “but we could use some help with this one.”

In fact, Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are one of 

CRRU’s top unsolved cases. “Breaking the code,” said 

Olson, “could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before 

his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide. 

Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those 

circumstances.”

The more than 30 lines of coded material use a 

maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and 

parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, 

but he was able to read and write and was said to be 

“street smart.” According to members of his family, 

McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was 

a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to 

decipher the codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone 

besides McCormick could translate his secret language. 

Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pockets 

were written up to three days before his death.

Over the years, a number of CRRU’s examiners—who 

are experts at breaking codes—have puzzled over the 

McCormick notes and applied a variety of analytical 

techniques to tease out an answer. “Standard routes of 

cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” Olson noted. 

Our cryptanalysts have several plausible theories about 

the notes, but so far, there has been no solution.

To move the case forward, examiners need another 

sample of McCormick’s coded system—or a similar 

one—that might offer context to the mystery notes or 

allow valuable comparisons to be made. Or, short of new 

evidence, Olson said, “Maybe someone with a fresh set of 

The meanings of the coded notes remain a mystery to this day.

Cryptanalysts

Part 2: Help Solve an 

Open Murder Case

March 29, 2011
26 2011 The FBI Story

due to age, this search feature does not always work 

perfectly.

Viewing the files: We are now using an open source 

web document viewer, so you no longer need your 

own file software to view our records. When you 

click on a file, it loads in a reader that enables you to 

view one or two pages at a time, search for key words, 

shrink or enlarge the size of the text, use different 

scroll features, and more. In many cases, the quality 

and clarity of the individual files have been improved 

as well.

Requesting a status update: Use our new Check the 

Status of Your Freedom of Information and Privacy 

Act (FOI/PA) Request tool to determine where your 

request stands in our process. Status information is 

updated weekly. Note: You need your FOI/PA request 

number to use this feature. 

“The new website significantly increases the number of 

available FBI files, enhances the speed at which the files 

can be accessed, and contains a robust search capability,” says David Hardy, chief of the Record/Information 

Dissemination Section in our Records Management 

Division. “It reflects a strong commitment to build public 

trust and confidence through greater public access to FBI 

records.”

We’ll be adding more files to the Vault each month, so 

check back often.

And, as always, if you have questions about requesting FBI records or related issues, call our Freedom of 

Information Act Requestor Service Center at (540) 868-

1535 to hear helpful recorded information, or contact our 

Record/Information Dissemination Section.

▪

▪

Last April, we launched a complete overhaul of our FBI 

Records/Freedom of Information and Privacy Act website, 

including a new electronic form for submitting requests.

Now, we are announcing a revamping of our electronic 

reading room—renamed “The Vault”—which contains 

more than two thousand documents that have been 

scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read 

them in the comfort of your own home or office.

Included here are more than 25 new files that have 

been released to the public but never added to this 

website; dozens of records previously posted on our site 

but removed as requests diminished over time; and files 

carried over from our previous electronic reading room.

The Vault includes several new tools and resources for 

your convenience:

Searching for topics: You can browse or search for 

specific topics or persons (like Al Capone or Marilyn 

Monroe) by viewing our alphabetical listing, by using 

the search tool in the upper right of this site, or by 

checking the many different category lists that can be 

found in the menu on the right side of the page.

Searching for key words: Thanks to new technology 

we have developed, you can now search for key words 

or phrases within some individual files. You can 

search across all of our electronic files by using the 

search tool in the upper right of this site, or you can 

search for key words within a specific document by 

typing in terms in the search box in the upper righthand corner of the file after it has been opened and 

loaded. Note: since many of the files include handwritten notes or are not always in optimal condition 

▪

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FBI Records

New ‘Vault’ Comes Online

April 1, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 27

April 5, 2011

NORFED used several groups of people to get its 

illegal coins into circulation:

Regional currency officers marketed Liberty Dollars 

in their geographic areas.

Liberty Dollar associates paid a $250 membership fee 

and received 100 Liberty Dollars, plus instructions on 

how to market the currency.

Recruited merchants and business owners accepted 

Liberty Dollars in exchange for goods or services and 

handed out the coins as change.

During the course of the investigation, the U.S. Mint 

issued a press release warning that the Liberty Dollar 

was not legal tender and that the Department of Justice 

had determined that the use of these coins as circulating 

money was a federal crime. This press release was sent to 

known NORFED regional currency officers. Despite the 

warning, though, NORFED and its officers, members, 

and associates continued to break the law and circulate 

the illegal tender.

As with many of our other cases, we didn’t work this 

investigation alone. Providing tremendous assistance 

was the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Secret 

Service, U.S. Treasury’s Office of Inspector General for 

Tax Administration, North Carolina Joint Terrorism Task 

Force, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Mint.

▪

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▪

Money doesn’t grow on trees. It also can’t be printed or 

minted by private citizens—as four co-conspirators in 

North Carolina and Indiana recently learned the hard 

way.

Last month, the founder and “monetary architect” of an 

illegal currency known as the Liberty Dollar was convicted in North Carolina on federal charges of making illegal 

coins and selling them—at a profit—to compete with 

legal U.S. currency. Bernard von NotHaus, of Evansville, 

Indiana, was found guilty of making coins resembling 

U.S. coins; issuing, passing, selling, and possessing Liberty 

Dollar coins; issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins 

intended for use as current money; and conspiring against 

the United States. Three others indicted in the case are 

awaiting their own trials.

“People understand that there is only one legal currency 

in the United States,” said Owen Harris, then-special 

agent in charge of our office in Charlotte. “When groups 

try to replace it with coins and bills that don’t hold the 

same value, it affects the economy. And consumers were 

using their hard-earned money to buy goods and services, 

then getting fake goods in return.”

It all began in 2004, when our Charlotte Division 

learned that a customer at a North Carolina financial 

institution had tried to use silver coins that were not legal 

U.S. currency. Our investigation revealed that the coins 

came from the National Organization for the Repeal 

of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes (or 

NORFED), headquartered in Evansville, whose mission 

was to return the country’s monetary system to gold and 

silver. The president of the organization was Bernard von 

NotHaus, who marketed his currency as inflation-proof, 

claimed it was backed by silver and gold, and said it could 

be used to compete with—and limit reliance on—U.S. 

currency.

Our investigation, which included an undercover 

scenario, revealed that NORFED contracted for the 

minting of about $7 million worth of Liberty Dollars in 

Idaho. The organization also took orders and payments 

from customers for Liberty Dollars and organized “Liberty 

Dollar University” sessions to help educate people interested in selling, buying, or using the currency. There was 

even a Liberty Dollar website.

During the investigation, the U.S. Mint warned that Liberty Dollar 

coins were not legal tender.

Private Tender

Anti-Government Group 

Mints Its Own Coins
28 2011 The FBI Story

The intelligence briefer position resulted in part from 

post-9/11 reforms that called for better communications among intelligence agencies. In 2003, as agencies 

increased sharing, the Bureau first enlisted an FBI intelligence analyst with deep counterterrorism experience to 

deliver the Director’s briefing. Today, briefers like Stewart 

and others who keep the Director abreast of events 

throughout the day can easily access partner agency 

databases with a keyboard and mouse.

“Who is this guy?” Stewart says to herself, her eyes 

trained on her monitor. “I recognize this face.” It’s 3 a.m., 

and she’s looking at a rap sheet of sorts on a suspected 

terrorist she’s seen before, but the name is new. She 

consults a binder containing charts she’s amassed to help 

visually connect the dots. Then she sees it. “That’s who 

... ok ... aha.”

Stewart, 35, has always been interested in law enforcement. She studied criminology and interned with the 

FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit before joining the Bureau 

in 2008. She was a public corruption analyst before 

responding to a call last year for candidates interested in 

the year-long briefer assignment.

“I thought, ‘Who wouldn’t want to do that job?’”

Stewart says.

By 4:20 a.m., the night’s intelligence reports are organized in binders for the Director, the Attorney General, 

their staffs, and leadership across the Counterterrorism 

Division. The Director’s book is hand-delivered around 

5:30 a.m., giving him a couple hours to review it before 

he’s briefed.

At 6 a.m., Stewart stows the food she never got around to 

eating. She changes from sweats into a dark suit and runs 

through a mental checklist of the last five hours.

At 6:50 a.m. Stewart pre-briefs her bosses to shore up 

her presentation before briefing—in succession—the 

Counterterrorism Division, Director Mueller, and 

Attorney General Eric Holder. Briefings aren’t passive, so 

Stewart makes sure she has answers to potential questions and has invited subject-matter experts who sit in to 

support their analyses. The result: critical information 

gets delivered directly to decision-makers who need it to 

shape how the FBI responds to the most pressing threats.

“What the briefers do is critical,” says Mark Giuliano, 

head of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “They 

find the intel that rises above the other noise, put context 

to it, and share it with the people who need it. Analysts 

and briefers really know how it all fits together, and that’s 

where the value is added.”

It’s 1 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and Colleen Stewart 

(not her real name) is settling in on the 11th floor of 

FBI Headquarters. Most of the country’s asleep. But 

for Stewart, it’s time to log into a half-dozen top secret 

databases and make sense of the moment’s most pressing 

threats against the U.S., its citizens, and its allies.

Over the next eight hours, Stewart will review and 

research dozens of threat analyses. Then she’ll distill 

them into a narrative to deliver in morning briefings to 

the Director, the Attorney General, and the FBI’s top 

counterterrorism officials. The intelligence is developed 

across the breadth of U.S. intelligence agencies, including 

from within the Bureau. But it falls on one intelligence 

analyst detailed to the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence to 

boil it down to a coherent 20-minute morning briefing. 

The pace of the job is intense, weighted by the analyst’s 

singular responsibility and the gravity of time-sensitive 

intelligence.

“Not getting things done is not an option,” says Stewart, 

the Director’s intelligence briefer for the past year. “The 

Director is expecting you to have gone through the 

reports and pulled out the important information.”

The reports are developed by FBI intelligence analysts 

and partner agencies, like the CIA, NSA, and the 

National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and disseminated across the intelligence community. The reports 

are complied into a book that Stewart will be expected to 

know cover-to-cover by morning.

Around 2 a.m., NCTC issues its latest report. The 

briefer’s challenge is to glean the most important items to 

highlight, while at the same time having a sense of the 

Director’s depth of knowledge to avoid wasting time.

Intelligence in Action

The Director’s Briefer

April 8, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 29

wounded, and two others injured. Only Agent Risner was 

unhurt.

In the aftermath of the gun battle, the FBI and other 

law enforcement agencies closely studied the incident. 

Although wounded, both Platt and Matix were able to 

continue firing their weapons at the surrounding agents. 

Our guns had not stopped them. Furthermore, the killers’ 

weapons were more powerful and their rounds could 

penetrate even the armored vests that some of the agents 

were wearing.

In response to this tragedy, the FBI made significant 

changes in the firepower carried by agents, the body 

armor they wore, and the incident response training they 

received.

Today, we honor not just Agents Dove and Grogan—

and their colleagues injured that day—but all of the 

men and women of the FBI who have given their lives 

in the line of duty and put themselves in harm’s way 

to protect their communities. As Director Mueller said 

in a ceremony in Miami attended by former FBI Director 

William Webster, survivors of the shooting, and many 

others:

“It has been said that all great things are simple, and most 

can be expressed in a single word: fidelity, bravery, and 

integrity. Honor, duty, and sacrifice. But it is no simple 

matter to act on such words when every second counts 

and life hangs in the balance. The individuals we honor 

today embodied the true meaning of these words and 

what it means to be a special agent.”

On the morning of April 11, 1986—25 years ago today—

one of the deadliest and most violent shoot-outs in FBI 

history unfolded just outside of the city of Miami.

FBI agents were leading a massive manhunt for two 

violent bank robbers—later identified as Michael Lee 

Platt and William Russell Matix—who were known 

for using high-caliber firearms and stolen cars. They 

had murdered several people since the previous October, 

and Miami police and the FBI were closing in on them.

Miami Special Agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry 

Dove—two of the eight agents ultimately directly 

involved in the firefight who were riding together in one 

of the five pursuing Bureau cars—noticed a stolen, black 

Monte Carlo connected to the two robbers and began 

following it.

Also in close pursuit and riding alone, Special Agent 

Richard Manauzzi tried to steer the Monte Carlo into 

a tree at the side of 12201 SW 82nd Avenue when he 

noticed one of the criminals aiming a weapon toward 

pursuing FBI agents. Three Bureau cars collided with 

the suspects and forced them off the road, but the felons 

opened fire.

The events unfolded quickly and horrifically. Special 

Agent Manauzzi was seriously wounded and immediately 

sought cover. Special Agent Gordon McNeill—also riding 

alone—was wounded, but returned fire, striking Matix. 

Special Agents Gilbert Orrantia and Ronald Risner 

were pinned in their vehicle on the other side of the 

street; Orrantia was wounded. Special Agents Edmundo 

Mireles and John Hanlon had also stopped their car on 

the opposite side of the street and came under highpowered rifle fire as they tried to approach the felons. 

Both were seriously wounded. Special Agents Dove and 

Grogan—despite wounding both criminals in the hail of 

bullets—were trapped in their car and killed when Platt 

fired at close range. Platt also shot and incapacitated 

Agent Hanlon.

Severely wounded and struggling to remain conscious, 

Special Agent Mireles stood up and began firing at the 

criminals as they entered and tried to escape in Dove and 

Grogan’s car. He killed both men even as they returned 

fire.

In the end, the FBI’s casualties were higher than 

any shoot-out in its history: two dead, three seriously 

Miami FBI Special Agents Benjamin Grogan, left, and Jerry Dove

A Byte Out of History

Fatal Firefight in Miami

April 11, 2011
30 2011 The FBI Story

Now that we have interrupted the operation of the botnet 

servers, our cyber specialists can prevent Coreflood from 

sending stolen financial information to the cyber thieves. 

But victims’ computers still remain infected. That’s why 

we have been working closely with our private-sector 

partners.

Anti-virus companies are developing updated signatures to detect and remove Coreflood. To disinfect 

Microsoft Windows-based systems—and to keep 

them virus free—users are encouraged to run antivirus software and to keep their Microsoft Windows 

Updates current.

Victimized computers that have not been disinfected 

using anti-virus software updates will continue to attempt 

to contact the Coreflood botnet servers. When this 

happens, we will respond by issuing a temporary stop 

command to the virus and then alert that user’s Internet 

service provider (ISP), who will inform the customer that 

their computer is still infected. At no time will we be collecting any personal data from victim computers.

“For most infected users who are conscientious about 

keeping their anti-virus programs up to date, the process 

of disinfection will be as invisible as the Coreflood infection was itself,” said one of our cyber agents. Still, there 

is a process in place with ISPs to make sure notification 

occurs if necessary.

We began our Coreflood investigation in April 2009 

when a Connecticut-based company realized that 

hundreds of computers on its networks had been 

infected. Before we shut down the Coreflood operation, 

cyber thieves made numerous fraudulent wire transfers, 

costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yesterday, a civil complaint was filed in Connecticut 

against 13 “John Doe” defendants, alleging that they 

engaged in wire fraud, bank fraud, and illegal interception of electronic communications. Search warrants 

were obtained for the command and control servers in 

Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and California. And a 

seizure warrant was issued in Connecticut for 29 Internet 

domain names used by the thieves.

In an unprecedented move in the fight against cyber 

crime, the FBI has disrupted an international cyber fraud 

operation by seizing the servers that had infected as many 

as two million computers with malicious software.

Botnets are networks of virus-infected computers controlled remotely by an attacker. They can be used to steal 

funds, hijack identities, and commit other crimes. The 

botnet in this case involves the potent Coreflood virus, 

a key-logging program that allows cyber thieves to steal 

personal and financial information by recording unsuspecting users’ every keystroke.

Once a computer or network of computers is infected by 

Coreflood—infection may occur when users open a malicious e-mail attachment—thieves control the malware 

through remote servers. The Department of Justice 

yesterday received search warrants to effectively disable 

the Coreflood botnet by seizing the five U.S. servers used 

by the hackers.

“Botnets and the cyber criminals who deploy them 

jeopardize the economic security of the United States 

and the dependability of the nation’s information 

infrastructure,” said Shawn Henry, executive assistant 

director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and 

Services Branch. “These actions to mitigate the threat 

posed by the Coreflood botnet are the first of their kind 

in the United States,” Henry noted, “and reflect our commitment to being creative and proactive in making the 

Internet more secure.”

Botnet Operation 

Disabled

FBI Seizes Servers to 

Stop Cyber Fraud

Left: Botnets are networks of virus-infected computers controlled 

remotely by an attacker. The Coreflood virus is a key-logging program 

that allows cyber thieves to steal personal and financial information 

by recording unsuspecting users’ every keystroke.

April 14, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 31

sandbag-reinforced trailers that make college dorm rooms 

look spacious, and the knowledge that they are a great 

distance from their loved ones and the normal comforts 

of home.

But the work—to help safeguard our national security—is 

extremely rewarding, and hundreds of Bureau personnel 

volunteer for the war zone. For many, the desire to make 

a contribution here can be traced back to the events of 

September 11, 2001.

“The 9/11 attack against the U.S. was planned in 

Afghanistan by al Qaeda with the witting support 

of the Taliban leadership at that time,” noted U.S. 

Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry from his 

embassy residence in Kabul. “That’s why we’re here, 

and we can never forget that. The FBI mission is very 

central to our efforts,” he added. “They’re playing a 

vital role to defeat al Qaeda.”

Special Agent Tom Krall, a New Yorker who now works 

in our Washington Field Office and has deployed to 

Afghanistan on several occasions, echoed the ambassador’s sentiments. “My first taste of terrorism was on 9/11, 

standing near the World Trade Center as it came down. 

I was about a block away. I lost a lot of friends that day,” 

he said, “and I know the attack planning started right 

here. That’s why I volunteer to come to Afghanistan. It’s 

very important we make sure an attack like that doesn’t 

happen again.”

Night is falling in Afghanistan, and the evening call to 

prayer can be heard beyond the walls of the U.S. Embassy 

in Kabul. Inside the compound, our legal attaché is still at 

work, discussing investigations and other matters by video 

teleconference with senior executives at FBI Headquarters 

in Washington, where it is morning some 7,000 miles 

away. Here in the war zone, on the front lines of the 

nation’s fight against terrorism, fulfilling the Bureau’s 

mission is paramount regardless of the hour.

Our legal attaché offices—legats—are located in 61 

countries around the world, but none are as large as 

the Afghanistan operation and few are as precariously 

placed. With approximately 75 Bureau personnel in the 

country gathering intelligence, conducting investigations, 

and mentoring Afghan law enforcement, “We function 

like a field division in a combat zone,” said Legal Attaché 

Stephen Vogt. “The biggest thing we do here is protect 

the homeland, and unquestionably, our work has helped 

save lives.”

Because the FBI is known primarily for its domestic law 

enforcement work, many Americans are surprised to 

learn just how international the organization has become, 

particularly since the 9/11 attacks. Today, our investigative and intelligence-gathering expertise play a key role in 

the war zone, a fact readily acknowledged in the highest 

U.S. diplomatic and military circles.

Our work in Afghanistan—which began in late 2001—

marks the first time the FBI has conducted such operations in a combat zone overseas, beyond some limited 

efforts during World War II and other brief missions.

During the next several weeks, in articles, photos, and 

video, FBI.gov will take readers inside Legat Kabul. From 

a former Russian bunker that houses the Major Crimes 

Task Force to a forbidding 14,000-foot mountain where 

our agents helped recover the remains of airplane crash 

victims, our coverage will highlight the work of the 

Bureau’s dedicated men and women who volunteer for 

what is often a difficult and dangerous assignment.

“FBI people who want to make a difference thrive 

here,” explained former Legal Attaché Bob Jones.

Those who volunteer for 120-day assignments—some 

serve for a year—are among the Bureau’s most talented 

and motivated employees. They willingly sign on for 

long hours seven days a week, living conditions in 

Kabul as seen from the U.S. Embassy, where our legal attaché coordinates the Bureau’s role in the region

Mission Afghanistan

Part 1: Our Role in the War Zone

April 19, 2011
32 2011 The FBI Story

tion—putting people under surveillance, how to use 

wiretaps, how to make arrests. We are very successful 

because of our mentors.”

“Our agents are mentors in the truest sense of the 

word,” said Fickett. “They don’t conduct surveillance 

or go on arrests. Their role is strictly to teach and to 

train. He added, “This is the Afghans’ task force. The 

best way for them to learn is to have them do everything.”

The FBI has approximately 15 agents working at the 

MCTF, but the task force is also represented by veteran 

law enforcement officers from other U.S. agencies including the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, as well as 

from Great Britain, France, Canada, and Australia.

In all, about 40 international mentors support nearly 

170 Afghans on the task force. All the Afghans—who 

go through a vetting process before joining the MCTF, 

which includes a polygraph test—receive basic law 

enforcement training, and many have taken additional courses at the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, 

Virginia.

Since the MCTF was formally established in January 

2010—with funding from the U.S. Department of 

Defense—nearly 150 cases have been initiated, “and 

we’ve had a number of significant arrests,” Fickett 

said. “Everything is done according to Afghan law.”

“There are challenges,” he acknowledged. “It hasn’t all 

been perfect. The government of Afghanistan is trying to 

work through the rule of law process. And the acceptance 

of good governance, transparency, and accountability 

among its public officials is not something that the government is used to.”

But good governance is a primary U.S. mission in 

Afghanistan, and the Bureau’s capacity-building efforts 

through the MCTF are helping to further promote the 

rule of law and accountability of public officials.

“When you have that accountability,” Fickett said, “the 

safer people feel and the more supportive they’re going to 

be of the government. And the more stable this government is, the better our relationship is going to be with it 

for many years to come.”

On a hillside compound just outside Kabul, the Afghan 

general who leads a new criminal task force is explaining the history of modern policing in his country. Under 

Soviet rule, he said, the Russians instituted and enforced 

their own laws. Later, “the Taliban took over and destroyed all of our police force. So our current force is 

completely new, created from zero, and we have some 

challenges.”

That’s why a little more than a year ago we established the Major Crimes Task Force (MCTF), to build 

Afghan law enforcement capacity through FBI-led 

training and mentoring.

“We help the Afghans with high-level investigations 

in corruption, kidnapping, and organized crime,” said 

Special Agent Jason Fickett, an assistant legal attaché in 

Kabul who oversees the MCTF—the largest international 

task force the FBI has ever operated.

“Prior to us coming here,” Fickett said, “one of the 

biggest challenges the Afghans had is they didn’t have 

the knowledge—the toolkit, so to speak—on how to go 

about investigating organized crime or putting together 

comprehensive cases on major players here in the Afghan 

theater.”

That is quickly changing. “Our FBI mentors are working 

side by side with us inside the task force,” said the 

Afghan colonel who leads the kidnapping unit. Through 

an interpreter at the MCTF headquarters, housed in a 

former Russian bunker, he explained, “They share their 

expertise. They show us new techniques of investigaMission Afghanistan

Part 2: The Major 

Crimes Task Force

Left: The FBI’s role on the Major Crimes Task Force is to mentor and 

train Afghan law enforcement on high-level investigations such as 

kidnapping, corruption, and organized crime.

April 22, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 33

Afghan subcontractor in return for 10 percent of the 

contract amount.

If the payoff occurs, the money lost to fraud could 

mean that the construction project does not get completed or that it’s completed in a substandard way. It 

might also mean that Afghan subcontractors don’t get 

paid. “The consequences are real,” Boucher said.

ICCTF investigators in Afghanistan rely on tips from the 

public—similar to how FBI agents may be alerted to fraud 

at home. But working these cases in a war zone has its 

own challenges. “The most basic investigative technique 

is conducting an interview,” Boucher said. “Back in the 

States I go to the person’s house or call them into our 

office. Here, for example, I can’t go to an Afghan’s house 

because it might not be safe.”

Still, the ICCTF has been successful. Since 2004, the task 

force has initiated nearly 700 investigations. There are 

currently more than 100 cases pending in Afghanistan, 

and since 2007, 37 people have been charged with crimes 

committed there, and all but one have been convicted, 

have pled guilty, or are awaiting trial.

“The work the ICCTF is doing is important,” Boucher 

said. “We need to send a message that U.S. taxpayer 

dollars are going to the Afghan people and not into the 

pockets of corrupt Americans. Anyone contemplating 

these types of crimes should know there is no safe haven 

for them, no matter how far away from home they are.”

The meeting took place at the Serena hotel in Kabul. 

The senior construction manager made it clear he needed 

$190,000 in cash to award a U.S.-funded contract to 

build a school and a hospital in Afghanistan. He didn’t 

realize that the “subcontractor” he was talking to was 

really one of our undercover agents and that his bribe 

demand—including the acceptance of a $10,000 goodfaith payment—was being recorded on a hidden camera.

This recent case is one of many investigated by 

the International Contract Corruption Task Force 

(ICCTF), whose mission is to go after Americans and 

others overseas who steal U.S. dollars flowing into the 

war zone.

Since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2002, the 

U.S. has spent over $770 billion on private contractors 

who support the military and reconstruction efforts in 

Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. With that much money at 

stake, fraud and corruption are inevitable.

“Most Americans come here to help the people of 

Afghanistan and believe in the mission,” said Special 

Agent Derek Boucher, who recently completed a yearlong 

deployment in Kabul working with the ICCTF. “But some 

of them are taking advantage, and our job is to bring 

them to justice.”

The task force focuses on Americans and other nonAfghans who commit these crimes. “We’re not investigating Afghans,” Boucher said. “That’s the job of the Major 

Crimes Task Force.”

The ICCTF was established in 2006 by a group of U.S. 

law enforcement agencies and military investigators not 

only to combat the serious problem of contract corruption 

in the war zone but to build cases that can be prosecuted 

in U.S. courts.

The crimes take a variety of forms, including stealing 

government property such as fuel or other supplies or demanding bribes and kickbacks. A common scheme—like 

the case above—involves an individual who works for a 

company that awards U.S. contracts to Afghan construction firms to build roads, hospitals, and schools. The 

individual might guarantee a $15 million contract to an 

FBI personnel in Afghanistan work long hours, driven in part by the 

dynamics of working in a war zone.

Mission Afghanistan: 

Contract Corruption

Part 3: Holding Americans 

Accountable in a War Zone

April 26, 2011
34 2011 The FBI Story

300,000 Afghans have been enrolled, from soldiers and 

police to criminals in prison. The ability of the Afghans 

to collect, store, and match this data against other 

sources of information is an invaluable tool as the government strives to prevent fraud and corruption.

The centerpiece of the program is the Afghan 

Automated Biometric Identification System (AABIS), 

administered by about 50 Afghans at the Ministry of 

Interior in Kabul. The FBI supports the effort through 

training and mentoring, along with data sharing, said 

DiGuiseppi. “So far it’s been a great partnership. And as 

the program grows, it will become even more useful.”

At the biometrics offices, three shifts of examiners 

catalog and check fingerprints on large computer screens, 

while technicians prepare “jump kits”—laptop computers, 

scanners, and other equipment used in the field to collect 

fingerprints, facial images, and iris scans. The Afghan 

colonel who supervises the program emphasized that 

Afghans are doing all the collections and maintaining the 

database, but he readily acknowledged the FBI’s role in 

the program. “We are very thankful for the FBI’s help and 

their willingness to train and assist us,” he said.

The partnership is mutually beneficial. “A strong Afghan 

biometric program reduces the enemy’s anonymity and 

his capability to operate anonymously in the battle space,” 

said Marchiori. “If we have one unique identifier—a set 

of prints, an iris scan—it’s hard for the enemy to hide 

among the population when he’s trying to register a 

vehicle or vote or move around the country freely.”

Afghan Ministry of Interior officials plan to use the 

biometrics program to enroll eight million citizens as part 

of a national ID effort. “This is for the betterment of the 

country,” one Afghan official said. “This is for security 

and for helping the Afghan people.”

The Afghan biometrics program was barely off the 

ground when it started having an impact.

Formally established in late 2009 to collect the fingerprints, iris scans, and facial images of Afghan national 

security forces, the program’s initial goal was to keep 

criminals and Taliban insurgents from infiltrating the 

army and police force. But information sharing—with 

partners like the FBI—is also a key component of the 

program.

“The FBI has collected thousands of latent prints from 

the battlefield in Afghanistan,” said Special Agent Janeen 

DiGuiseppi, our liaison officer in Kabul for the biometrics 

program. “When the Afghans started enrolling people, 

we began to cross-check our records with theirs.”

In fact, when they searched their database, the Afghans 

identified the 82nd unidentified latent print the FBI 

passed to them and found that it belonged to an individual they had arrested a few months before as an accessory 

to a crime. The individual’s prints had originally been 

collected in 2007 in connection with a different crime.

“We were able to give the Afghans information to help 

them prosecute the case,” DiGuiseppi said. “That’s 

exactly the kind of information exchange we are looking 

for—going both ways. It helps solve crimes, and it 

enhances security for Afghans and Americans in the war 

theater.”

The biometric program answers two basic questions, said 

Air Force Lt. Col. Cristiano Marchiori, an advisor to the 

program: “Who are you, and are you a bad guy?” Already 

Mission Afghanistan: 

Biometrics

Part 4: A Measure of Progress

Left: The fully portable biometrics equipment includes laptop computers and digital fingerprint and retina scanners. As of last November, 

300,000 Afghans had been enrolled in the program, from soldiers 

and police to criminals in prison.

April 29, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 35

The mastermind of the attacks on September 11, 2001 

that killed thousands of innocent men, women, and 

children has been killed.

President Barack Obama made the announcement late 

Sunday evening, May 1, in a televised address to the 

world. He said he had been briefed by the intelligence 

community last August that bin Laden was in hiding 

“within a compound deep inside of Pakistan.” Over 

the intervening months, intelligence agencies worked 

to confirm the intelligence. Then last week, President 

Obama determined there was enough intelligence to take 

action.

“Today, at my direction, the United States launched 

a targeted operation against that compound in 

Abbottabad, Pakistan,” the President said from the 

East Room of the White House. “A small team of 

Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were 

harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. 

After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and 

took custody of his body.”

Well before the events of 9/11, bin Laden had openly 

declared war on the U.S. and was committed to killing 

innocents. His al Qaeda group was responsible for the 

1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, 

Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks killed over 200 

people. Bin Laden was indicted for his role in planning 

the attacks and added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted 

Fugitives list in 1999.

Intelligence agencies quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks 

were carried out by bin Laden’s terrorist organization, 

and in October 2001, his name was added to the U.S. 

Department of State’s Most Wanted Terrorists List.

“Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and 

counterterrorism professionals who’ve worked tirelessly 

to achieve this outcome,” President Obama said. “The 

American people do not see their work, nor know their 

names. But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work 

and the result of their pursuit of justice.”

Most Wanted 

Terrorist Dead

Bin Laden Killed in 

‘Targeted Operation’

May 2, 2011

Bin Laden was on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list as well as 

the State Department’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.
36 2011 The FBI Story

Behavioral analysts have been popularized in television 

and movies as expert “profilers,” capable of comprehending and even anticipating the thoughts and actions of the 

worst criminal minds. In real life, the expertise acquired 

by BAU personnel takes years of training and investigative experience. Offender interviews are an invaluable 

part of that process.

“These are not investigative interviews to collect 

evidence or to determine guilt or innocence,” said 

one of the agents. “We already know the ‘how’ of the 

crime. Now we want to know ‘why.’ ”

Sitting in the small conference room across from the 31-

year-old offender, the agents explained the ground rules. 

“There will be no tricks and no games,” they said. “We 

are going to talk about your life, including the murder. 

We want to know how you think about things and how 

you see things.”

There is nothing confrontational about the videotaped 

interview, which lasted for six hours. The offender—who 

consented to the meeting as part of a plea agreement to 

avoid the death penalty—talked openly, but perhaps not 

always truthfully.

“What they choose to share and disclose and what they 

choose not to disclose can be very revealing,” one of the 

agents said. “Sometimes it is difficult for them to face 

what they have done and to speak about it out loud.”

“From a behavioral standpoint,” the other agent said later, 

“we got a lot out of the interview.” Videotaped segments 

will be used by BAU staff when they train researchers, 

social workers, medical staff, and law enforcement personnel around the country about offenders who commit 

violent crimes against children.

“When you can illustrate a point by showing a video clip 

of the offender in his own words,” the agent said, “it is a 

very compelling teaching tool.”

The inmate’s wrist and leg shackles were removed and he 

was led into a small conference room to meet two special 

agents from our Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). The 

agents were there to conduct an interview into every 

aspect of the inmate’s life—from his earliest childhood 

experiences to the abduction, sexual assault, and murder 

of a preteen girl that sent him to prison for life without 

the possibility of parole.

Such interviews are part of an ongoing BAU program 

to understand the minds of violent offenders. The 

offender interview program is in keeping with BAU’s 

overall mission to provide behavioral-based support to 

federal, state, local, and international law enforcement 

agencies investigating time-sensitive crimes such as 

kidnappings and other violent offenses.

“We are never going to get the full and complete truth 

from offenders,” said one of the agents who conducted the 

interview. “But we gather all the information, the truth 

and the lies, and we learn from both.”

The insights from these consensual interviews are used 

for research and training, and they also have the potential 

to help investigators in the field. “The next time BAU 

responds to a child kidnapping case and a young person’s 

life is at stake,” the agent explained, “we can say, ‘we sat 

across from a guy who did something similar, and here’s 

what he told us.’ ”

Behavioral Interview 

Program

Attempting to Understand 

Violent Offenders

May 9, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 37

Thousands of people gathered today in front of the 

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 

Washington, D.C. to honor those who gave their lives in 

the line of duty. The candlelight vigil included a reading 

of the 316 names being added to the memorial this year.

In a podcast, Special Agent Jeff Blanton of the FBI’s 

Office of Law Enforcement Coordination discusses 

National Police Week. “ It is truly is a fraternity, it’s a 

brotherhood in law enforcement,” Blanton says.

In a video message released May 12, Director Robert S. 

Mueller said, “On behalf of the men and women of the 

FBI, I want to personally recognize and thank each of you 

individually, and all of your departments collectively, as 

we work together to keep our neighborhoods safe.”

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued a proclamation designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day 

and the week in which it falls as Police Week. Today, law 

enforcement officers from around the world attend events 

in Washington, D.C. to honor colleagues who have made 

the ultimate sacrifice.

Thousands of people attended a candlight vigil at the National Law 

Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

National Police 

Week 2011

Honoring Those Who Serve

May 13, 2011

Representative Steny H. Hoyer, left, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller at the candlelight vigil

Fifty-six law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line 

of duty during 2010, according to statistics released by the FBI in 

May. By region, 22 victims were killed in the South, 18 in the West, 

10 in the Midwest, three in the Northeast, and three in Puerto Rico. 

The total number of officers feloniously killed in 2010 was eight more 

than the 48 officers slain in 2009.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall
38 2011 The FBI Story

For a pedophile, that personal information is like gold 

and can be used to establish a connection and gain a 

child’s trust.

There are basically two types of pedophiles on the 

Internet—those who seek face-to-face meetings with 

children and those who are content to anonymously 

collect and trade child pornography images.

Those seeking face-to-face meetings create bogus identities online, sometimes posing as teenagers. Then they 

troll the Internet for easy victims—youngsters with low 

self-esteem, problems with their parents, or a shortage of 

money. The pedophile might find a 14-year-old girl, for 

example, who has posted seemingly harmless information 

on her space for anyone to see. The pedophile sends a 

message saying he goes to high school in a nearby town 

and likes the same music or TV shows she likes.

Then the pedophile cultivates a friendly online relationship that investigators call “grooming.” It could continue 

for days or weeks before the pedophile begins bringing up 

sexual topics, asking for explicit pictures or for a personal 

meeting. By that time an emotional connection has been 

made—and pedophiles can be master manipulators. Even 

if an actual meeting never takes place, it is important to 

note that youngsters can be victimized by such sexually 

explicit online contact.

Even worse than posting personal information for 

anyone to see is the fact that many youngsters will 

accept “friends” who are total strangers. “Nobody 

wants to just have five friends online,” Wing said. “It’s a 

popularity thing.”

Special Agent Wesley Tagtmeyer, a veteran cyber investigator in our Chicago office who works undercover during 

online investigations, said that in his experience, about 

70 percent of youngsters will accept “friend” requests 

regardless of whether they know the requester.

Tagtmeyer and other cyber investigators say a relatively 

new trend among pedophiles is to begin grooming 

youngsters through online gaming forums, some of which 

allow two-way voice and video communication. Parents 

who might be vigilant about monitoring their children’s 

Internet activity often have no idea that online video 

gaming platforms can pose a threat.

“Parents need to talk to their children about these issues,” 

he said. “It’s no longer enough to keep computers in an 

open area of the house so they can be monitored. The 

same thing needs to be done with online gaming platforms.”

It’s a recipe for trouble: naive teenagers, predatory adults, 

and a medium—the Internet—that easily connects them.

“It’s an unfortunate fact of life that pedophiles are everywhere online,” said Special Agent Greg Wing, who 

supervises a cyber squad in our Chicago Field Office.

When a young person visits an online forum for a popular 

teen singer or actor, Wing said, “Parents can be reasonably certain that online predators will be there.” It is 

believed that more than half a million pedophiles are 

online every day.

Agents assigned to our Innocent Images National 

Initiative are working hard to catch these child predators 

and to alert teens and parents about the dark side of the 

Internet—particularly when it comes to social networking 

sites and, increasingly, online gaming forums.

Pedophiles go where children are. Before the Internet, 

that meant places such as amusement parks and zoos. 

Today, the virtual world makes it alarmingly simple for 

pedophiles—often pretending to be teens themselves—to 

make contact with young people.

Even without being someone’s “friend” online, which 

allows access to one’s social networking space, pedophiles 

can see a trove of teenagers’ personal information—the 

town they live in, the high school they attend, their 

favorite music and TV programs—because the youngsters 

often post it for anyone to see.

“The younger generation wants to express themselves, 

and they don’t realize how vulnerable it makes them,” 

Wing said.

Child Predators

The Online Threat 

Continues to Grow

May 17, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 39

Pamir Airways Flight 112 left Kunduz Province in 

Afghanistan last May bound for Kabul with 44 people 

aboard. About 25 miles from its destination, in heavy 

wind and dense fog, the plane crashed into a mountain in 

the remote Hindu Kush nearly 14,000 feet above sea level. 

No one survived.

The crew and passengers were mostly Afghan, but the 

dead also included citizens of Turkey, Great Britain, 

the Philippines, and the U.S. Because of the one 

American victim, our legal attaché in Kabul was asked 

to assist the Afghan government with recovering and 

identifying the bodies, a task that would prove as grim as 

it was difficult.

The crash site, in such an inaccessible location and at 

such a high elevation, could only be safely approached on 

foot, and then only after the weather improved. When 

teams were finally able to reach the site, they were met 

with a horrific scene, and what began as a recovery 

operation soon turned into an extraordinary humanitarian effort to identify the victims and repatriate their 

remains—and to bring some relief to the victims’ loved 

ones.

“Just hiking to the foothill of the crash site was a challenge, and then you’re looking straight up at this big slide 

of debris,” said Special Agent Adriene Sullivan, a 14-year 

FBI veteran.

“You are going up this ravine and everything is loose 

rock,” she said. “If you lose your footing, you’re going all 

the way down.” Wearing an armored-plated vest and 

carrying a weapon—even at that elevation the Taliban 

was still a threat—Sullivan recalled, “I just had to take a 

deep breath and go up the mountain. It was tough.”

Dealing with the crash site was even tougher. The 

plane was estimated to be traveling at 250 mph when 

it slammed into the mountainside. The impact was so 

violent that passengers’ bodies could not be identified.

“There was not a lot to go on,” Sullivan said. “Bodies 

were unrecognizable, and nothing was on them like a 

wallet in someone’s back pocket.”

Agents and other Bureau personnel worked with the 

Afghan military and international partners to retrieve 

180 bone and tissue samples, which were transported 

to the Afghan National Army morgue in Kabul. There, 

Turkish and British disaster victim identification teams 

conducted sophisticated deep tissue and bone DNA 

samples, using expertise unavailable to the Afghans or 

our agents overseas.

“We learned a lot about that type of DNA sampling 

and so did the Afghans,” Sullivan said. The samples 

were sent to Turkey and England, and remarkably, all 44 

individuals were identified.

Months after the crash—which was ruled a weatherrelated accident—a ceremony was held in Kabul so family 

members could bury their loved ones.

“It was very satisfying that we were able to help the 

families,” said Sullivan, who volunteered for a year-long 

assignment in the war zone. “Everybody worked together 

incredibly well, and the Afghans were extremely grateful 

for our help.”

This wasn’t a typical mission for our people on the front 

lines of the fight against terrorism, but it was an important one, and it forged lasting relationships with the 

Afghans and our international partners.

Pamir Airways Flight 112 crashed last May in the mountains outside 

Kabul, killing 44 people, including one American. Our legal attaché 

was asked to assist in effort to recover and identify the bodies.

Mission Afghanistan: 

Pamir Air Crash

Part 5: Humanitarian 

Effort in the War Zone

May 20, 2011
40 2011 The FBI Story

the Midwest, 2.5 percent in the West, and 0.5 percent 

in the Northeast.

All city population groups saw decreases in violent 

crime.

Cities with populations of less than 10,000 saw a 

significant drop in murder—a 25.2 percent decrease.

There were some specific increases noted:

The Northeast saw increases in some violent crime 

categories from 2009 figures—murder was up 8.3 

percent, forcible rape up 1.4 percent, and aggravated 

assault up 0.7 percent.

Cities with populations of 250,000 to 499,999 saw a 

3.0 percent rise in murder, while cities with populations of 500,000 to 999,999 saw a 1.9 percent increase 

in forcible rape, and cities between 25,000 and 49,999 

saw an increase of 1.3 percent in burglary.

The Northeast also saw an increase in burglary—up 

3.5 percent.

Non-metropolitan counties reported slight increases 

in burglary (1.2 percent) and larceny-theft (3.2 

percent).

Also available in the preliminary report are tables that 

include the number of offenses reported by cities—organized by state—with populations of more than 100,000. 

These tables include preliminary totals of offenses known 

to law enforcement for agencies that provided us with 12 

months of complete data in both 2009 and 2010.

As always, we caution against drawing conclusions from 

the data in this report by making direct comparisons 

between cities. Valid assessments are possible only with 

careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction.

Complete figures for 2010 will be released this fall in the 

full Crime in the United States report.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

Preliminary FBI figures reveal that the levels of both 

violent crime and property crime in the U.S. declined in 

2010 from the previous year’s data.

The 2010 Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, 

just released today, shows a 5.5 percent decrease in the 

number of reported violent crimes when compared with 

data from 2009. It also shows a 2.8 percent decline in 

reported property crimes.

This latest report is based on information submitted to 

the FBI from 13,007 law enforcement agencies around the 

country. The crimes covered are murder, forcible rape, 

robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor 

vehicle theft, and arson.

Some of the report’s highlights include:

Nationally, murder declined 4.4 percent, while 

forcible rape dropped 4.2 percent, robbery 9.5 

percent, and aggravated assault 3.6 percent—all 

when compared with 2009 crime figures.

Geographically speaking, the South saw the largest 

decline in violent crime (7.5 percent), followed by the 

Midwest (5.9 percent), the West (5.8 percent), and 

the Northeast (0.4 percent).

Concerning property crime, motor vehicle theft 

was down 7.2 percent, larceny-theft was down 2.8 

percent, and burglary was down 1.1 percent. Arson, 

tracked separately from other property crimes, fell 8.3 

percent nationally.

All regions of the country experienced overall 

declines in property crime during 2010 from 2009 

rates: down 3.8 percent in the South, 2.7 percent in 

▪

▪

▪

▪

Crimes Rates Fall Again

According to Preliminary Stats

May 23, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 41

they couldn’t be intercepted. They also established companies that appeared to be legitimate but were actually 

created to launder money and conceal the illegal nature 

of their activities.

To collect the evidence needed for these indictments, this 

long-term investigation included undercover scenarios, 

court-authorized electronic surveillances, consensual 

recordings, and many hours of physical surveillance.

This particular case was a good example of law enforcement cooperation at its best—the Philadelphia 

Police Department, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey 

State Police, the Criminal Division of the Internal 

Revenue Service, and the Department of Labor all 

worked alongside the Philadelphia FBI, with additional assistance from the New Jersey Department of 

Corrections and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s 

Office. Prosecutors from the Pennsylvania Attorney 

General’s Office and the Department of Justice’s 

Organized Crime and Racketeering Section are assisting the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania as well.

This arrest of the reputed leadership of the Philadelphia 

LCN comes on the heels of the large mafia takedown in 

New York earlier this year. And law enforcement efforts 

against the LCN, as well as other types of organized 

crime—international and domestic—will continue 

unabated.

On Monday, a superseding federal grand jury indictment 

was announced charging 13 members and associates 

of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra (LCN) family with 

racketeering, extortion, loan sharking, illegal gambling, 

and witness tampering.

Eleven of the 13—including the reputed boss and underboss of the criminal enterprise—were arrested earlier that 

day in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Two of the subjects 

were already serving time in federal prison for previous 

convictions but managed to continue their racketeering 

activities from behind bars.

Alleged mob boss Joseph Ligambi rose through the ranks 

of the Philadelphia LCN crime family and took over at 

the helm after the 2001 incarceration of previous boss 

Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino on racketeering charges.

The indictment alleges that for more than a decade, 

Ligambi, underboss Joseph Massimino, and the others 

conspired to generate money through various crimes.

For example, they reportedly operated illegal gambling 

businesses involving sports bookmaking and electronic 

gambling devices in places like bars, restaurants, convenience stories, and coffee shops...and pocketed the 

proceeds. Mafia families like the one in Philadelphia 

often make millions of dollars and traditionally use 

gambling proceeds as seed money for other crimes.

The defendants also offered “loans”—at exorbitant 

interest rates—to victims who knew there would be dire 

consequences if they failed to repay them within a certain 

time frame.

To carry out their crimes, the defendants often used 

actual or implied threats of violence against their 

victims. According to the indictment, some of the defendants used phrases like, “I’ll put a bullet in your head,” 

and, “Chop him up,” to threaten victims who weren’t 

repaying their loans. The defendants used their reputation for violence to intimidate and prevent victims and 

witnesses from cooperating with law enforcement.

The defendants also actively worked to conceal their 

illegal operations from law enforcement. For example, 

they used coded language over the phone, such as calling 

the electronic gambling devices “coffee machines.” They 

often took “walk and talks” where they would conduct 

covert conversations with each other while walking to 

and from a particular destination because they thought 

Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge George Venizelos, at podium, 

announces indictments.

Mafia Takedown

Philadelphia Boss Charged

May 25, 2011
42 2011 The FBI Story

have an immediate impact on the safety of troops on the 

ground.

The FBI’s top investigative priority is to protect the 

homeland from terrorist attack. The ability to collect 

intelligence in the war zone—in a cooperative effort with 

our U.S., Afghan, and other international partners—is 

critical for our domestic security as well as keeping our 

people on the front lines safe. Intelligence analysts play a 

critical part in that process.

“We are information brokers,” Courtney said. “Our 

role is to take information and give it context. The 

intelligence we gather from a variety of sources is 

pushed out to investigators in the field and to our 

partners, where it can be integrated into operations.”

In Afghanistan, just like at home, intelligence comes 

from many places—open sources like newspapers and the 

Internet, military and law enforcement databases, and 

citizens providing tips, to name a few.

When it comes to counterterrorism matters, the cycle of 

collecting, analyzing, and sharing intelligence is intensified and compressed. “In the war zone, we are at the 

razor’s edge of knowledge creation as it relates to a lot of 

terror threats,” Courtney said. “Information we collect 

here today could save lives on the front lines and at 

home. Knowing that makes everyone work that much 

harder.”

Beyond the intense pace—“No two days are the same 

here,” she said—there is also the satisfaction of working 

with a dedicated group of people who care deeply about 

the FBI’s mission in the war zone.

“Most of us are here for four months,” she explained. “It’s 

120 days to make a difference and to contribute. I see it 

as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Intelligence analyst Courtney C. had been in Afghanistan 

only a few days when she saw firsthand the value of her 

work in the war zone.

“We got a report from the military that a person of 

interest had been picked up in one of the provinces,” 

said Courtney, who joined the Bureau five years ago. 

Information was needed about the individual’s possible 

connection to terrorist activity, but the only thing to go 

on was a passport number and a few personal items he 

had with him.

In a matter of hours, using law enforcement and military 

records and additional resources, she and others were able 

to collect and analyze a range of information and provide 

investigators with a more complete picture of the man’s 

identity—including a pattern of what seemed to be suspicious activity related to the movement of money.

Gathering and analyzing information—whether about a 

terrorist threat or a criminal enterprise—is exactly what 

intelligence analysts do every day across the FBI’s many 

investigative programs. But in the war zone, there is often 

a greater sense of urgency because lives can hang in the 

balance.

“Everything’s a lot more immediate here,” said 

Courtney, who is based in one of our Midwest offices 

but recently began a four-month assignment in Kabul. 

“You need to push things out a lot quicker, because 

there are real-time implications if you don’t.” The 

timely dissemination of intelligence, for example, can 

Mission Afghanistan: 

Analysts in the War Zone

Part 6: Turning Information 

Into Intelligence

Left: At the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, FBI intelligence analysts work in 

a space dubbed “the bullpen.”

May 27, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 43

body uses computers and portable electronics such as cell 

phones.”

The benefit of having a regional forensic facility, he 

added, is that the FBI can bring its expertise and 

training directly to where it is needed.

“The idea is to create regional resources,” Poirier explained. “We train the state and local examiners, who 

make a three-year commitment to the RCFL. When they 

return to their agencies, they have expertise and access 

they didn’t have before. And in the process, we build 

lasting relationships with our regional partners.”

Dziedzic added, “Instead of sending evidence to the FBI 

Laboratory in Quantico, we can analyze it much faster 

here in our own backyard.”

Chicago’s RCFL was established in 2003 and consists 

of five FBI employees and 13 examiners from agencies 

including the Chicago Police Department, Cook County 

Sheriff’s Office, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

It is the only digital forensics lab in Illinois to be accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory 

Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.

“Accreditation is the gold standard when it comes to 

prosecuting cases and testifying in court,” Dziedzic said. 

“It means that we operate at the highest professional 

standards.”

“Criminals are using more sophisticated electronic 

methods to commit crimes,” Poirier said. “This regional 

approach to digital forensics—pairing the Bureau with 

local law enforcement to collaborate on cases—is the 

future for law enforcement. It really works.”

In 2008, Illinois police received disturbing information 

about a Chicago woman who had taken a 3-year-old to a 

“sex party” in Indiana where the child and an 11-year-old 

girl were abused by three adults. However, by the time 

the tip was received, the crime had already occurred, 

and there seemed to be no evidence to support criminal 

charges.

But there was evidence, buried deep within the 

woman’s computer, and examiners from our Regional 

Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) in Chicago 

found it—a deleted e-mail titled “map to the party” 

that contained directions to an Indiana hotel. The 

evidence led to charges against all three adults, who were 

later convicted of aggravated sexual abuse and are currently in prison serving life sentences.

“That’s just one example of what we do every day,” said 

John Dziedzic, a Cook County Sheriff’s Office forensic 

examiner who is the director of the Chicago RCFL. 

“Evidence we produce here—and testify to in court—is 

crucial in a variety of major investigations.”

The FBI established the first RCFL in San Diego in 2000, 

and today there are 16 Bureau-sponsored labs located 

around the country, staffed by agents and other federal, 

state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Each facility is a full-service forensics laboratory and 

training center devoted to examining digital evidence in 

support of investigations—everything from child pornography and terrorism to violent crime and economic 

espionage cases.

Using sophisticated tools and technology, RCFLs 

analyze evidence from all kinds of electronic devices, 

including computers, cell phones, video game 

consoles, and even reel-to-reel tapes.

“Anything that can store data electronically can be 

analyzed,” said Special Agent Justin Poirier, deputy 

director of the Chicago RCFL.

RCFL examiners—all certified by the FBI—specialize in 

locating encrypted, deleted, or damaged file information 

that could be used as evidence in an investigation.

“Digital evidence has become part of just about every 

type of investigation,” Poirier said, “because today everyRCFL examiners—all certified by the FBI—specialize in locating 

encrypted, deleted, or damaged file information that could be used as 

evidence in an investigation.

Digital Forensics

Regional Labs Help 

Solve Local Crimes

May 31, 2011
44 2011 The FBI Story

commander of the Army’s 25th Infantry Division who 

formerly served as deputy chief of staff for operations 

for NATO forces in Afghanistan. “The FBI brings 

a skill set that is not found in other organizations,” he 

said. “The level of professionalism, training, and sense of 

mission that you find in the FBI is extremely admirable.”

“In the early days,” McCauley said, “the challenge was 

defining the FBI’s mission, to see where we could add 

value. And once we did define and expand our mission,” 

he added, “we had to fully support it.” That meant proper 

training for Bureau personnel who deployed and the significant logistical task of providing housing, equipment, 

and supplies for those who would be working in a hostile 

and austere environment some 7,000 miles from home.

One reason the FBI has adapted 

so well in the war zone, Gen. 

Champoux believes, is the 

Bureau’s team approach. “The 

FBI is accustomed to working 

with its law enforcement partners 

in task force settings—which 

is exactly the way the coalition 

forces’ counterinsurgency operation works. You are part of a 

team, and you have to play well 

together.”

McCauley is particularly proud of the team effort that 

targeted improvised explosive device (IED) cells. During 

his deployment, the Bureau helped dismantle four IED 

cells and stop 43 separate attacks.

“The FBI knows how to conduct investigations and 

interviews—we’ve been doing this for over 100 years,” 

McCauley said. “An IED cell is really just another type of 

organized crime. There are leaders, recruiters, facilitators, 

bomb makers, and the sacrificial volunteers who carry 

out attacks. Our investigative and intelligence-gathering approach helped alter events and prevent attacks. 

Without question, our joint efforts with the military and 

other partners saved countless lives.”

Gen. Champoux noted that McCauley’s “willingness to 

find a way to make a contribution and to bring the FBI’s 

capability forward made a huge difference in the success 

of our operations against IEDs.” He added, “The FBI has 

been a great partner to the military in Afghanistan.”

The FBI’s presence in Afghanistan began in 2001 with a 

handful of agents whose job was to search for information 

regarding terror threats to the homeland. By the time 

our legal attaché office, or legat, was formally established 

in 2006, dozens of Bureau personnel were involved in a 

range of investigative and intelligence-gathering activities 

to support the U.S. mission in Afghanistan.

Ordinarily, the FBI’s 61 international offices serve 

mainly as law enforcement liaisons with their host 

countries, but Legat Kabul has taken on a much 

broader role.

“Things are different in a war zone,” said Special Agent 

Brian McCauley, the first legal attaché in Afghanistan. 

“We couldn’t just be a liaison service in Afghanistan 

because the mission required a greater contribution. 

When the military and others realized what our capabilities were and the value that we added,” he said, “we 

began to do much more.”

Over time, in addition to counterterrorism work, Bureau 

personnel began providing law enforcement training and 

mentoring to Afghans, helping them build a government 

based on the rule of law. And our investigative and intelligence-gathering expertise was tapped by the military for 

a variety of uses, including helping to disrupt and stop 

deadly suicide bomb attacks.

“The army is not raised and trained to gather and 

analyze intelligence from the battlefield the same way 

the FBI is,” said Major Gen. Bernard Champoux, 

Mission Afghanistan: 

Legat Kabul

Part 7: An Early Presence 

in the War Zone

Left: A special agent’s protective vest attests to the dangers of operating in a war zone. The U.S. military tapped the FBI’s expertise for a 

variety of uses, including helping to disrupt and stop deadly suicide 

bomb attacks.

June 3, 2011

Major Gen. Bernard Champoux
2011 The FBI Story 45

Today, we are a true partner in the inter-agency community when it comes to collecting, processing, and sharing 

intelligence. That intelligence-driven approach,” he 

added, “helps save lives.”

“Afghanistan is a tough environment to operate in,” 

Jones said. “It’s an active war zone with an active 

insurgency, and that brings a particular set of challenges.”

To help manage those challenges, FBI Director Robert 

S. Mueller created the International Fusion Cell (IFC) 

in 2008 within our International Operations Division to 

provide support and guidance to FBI operations in Iraq 

and Afghanistan. The IFC, largely staffed by Bureau 

personnel who are veterans of multiple war zone deployments, provides oversight and leadership to Legat Kabul.

Jones and others believe the hard-won skills gained in 

Afghanistan—along with our previous experience in Iraq 

and other international locations—will pay dividends 

when we respond to future war zones.

“The IFC has created an excellent model for legat operations in conflict zones,” said recently retired Special 

Agent Ed Montooth, who managed the fusion cell. “The 

processes we have developed based on our experiences 

and lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan will make us 

much more effective going forward,” he added.

“Whether it’s Afghanistan or elsewhere,” Montooth 

explained, “we now have a successful and tested model—

both at FBI Headquarters and in the legats—to address 

these unconventional situations that have significant 

national security implications.”

From the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Legal 

Attaché Bob Jones surveyed a city ravaged by decades of 

war and reflected on the FBI’s role on the front lines in 

the fight against terrorism.

“The biggest thing we do here is protect the homeland 

from afar,” said Jones, who recently completed a 

15-month assignment as the FBI’s senior official in 

Afghanistan.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry amplified Jones’ comments. “The FBI is the shield in the 

United States,” he said. “But what 9/11 taught us is that 

you can’t defend the country against terrorism from the 

U.S. shoreline. You must extend the shield globally and 

integrate it with other international crime-fighting and 

counterterrorist organizations. The FBI,” he added, “plays 

a unique and important role in the combined approach 

that we use on the ground in Afghanistan.”

Counterterrorism may be the Bureau’s most important 

responsibility in the war zone, but it is not our only responsibility. The mission in Afghanistan—and elsewhere 

around the world—includes protecting U.S. interests 

abroad from criminal threats well as those related to terrorism. To accomplish this, Legat Kabul prioritizes several 

key areas of operations: information sharing, specialized 

investigations, and a small but influential role in capacity 

building.

“Capacity building is essentially helping the Afghans 

build their law enforcement expertise,” Jones said. 

“They’ve already got a robust investigative capacity inside 

the Ministry of Interior and the National Directorate of 

Security. But through the Major Crimes Task Force and 

other Bureau initiatives, we can help make them better.”

Some of those other capacity-building initiatives include 

assisting the Afghans with their expanding biometrics 

program and providing law enforcement leadership 

training, both on the ground in Afghanistan and at our 

training facility in the U.S.

Collecting information and intelligence—another critical 

priority—has always been a hallmark of the FBI, Jones 

said, “and since 9/11, we have expanded that ability. 

The FBI mission in Afghanistan—and elsewhere around the world—

includes protecting U.S. interests abroad from criminal threats as well 

as those related to terrorism.

Mission Afghanistan:

A Model for the Future

Part 8: Legat Kabul and the 

International Fusion Cell

June 7, 2011
46 2011 The FBI Story

and the world and maintained by the FBI. It consists of 

images and physical descriptions of thousands of stolen 

and recovered objects in addition to investigative case 

information. The database is a resource for art crime 

investigators and for gallery owners, dealers, and auction 

houses seeking to authenticate works and verify ownership. The public can also search the free online tool, 

minus the investigative information.

In partnership with other agencies such as the Library 

of Congress and the General Services Administration 

(GSA), which is responsible for artifacts and artworks in 

federal facilities, the FBI uses the NSAF to locate and 

recover missing artworks owned by the government.

As the official custodian of artworks produced under the 

federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the 

New Deal era, the GSA has partnered with the FBI and 

the art community to recover misplaced and stolen WPA 

works. The agency maintains an inventory of significant 

WPA art, which has been added to the FBI’s database.

“Often the people in possession of these WPA works 

don’t realize they have no legitimate claim on them,” 

said Gardiner. “They may have inherited them or 

found them in the attic of their grandparents’ house.”

In an attempt to value or sell the works, the possessors 

contact dealers or auction houses, who, in turn, consult 

the NSAF and discover the items are rightfully owned by 

the government.

Investigators with the GSA’s Office of Inspector General 

work to authenticate and recover the works, and in 

many cases, the agency then loans the recovered items to 

museums and galleries across the nation, where they can 

be enjoyed by the public—as they were intended to be.

“These works commissioned in the 1930s and ’40s are 

part of America’s culture and history,” Gardiner said. 

“They belong to the government, but really they belong 

to the public, and we are working to make sure that the 

public has access to them.”

In 1942, with World War II raging, the Library of 

Congress took the precaution of sending some of its 

national treasures to a guarded facility in the Midwest, 

including a collection of Walt Whitman’s papers, which 

were sealed in packing cases prior to shipping. When the 

collection was returned to Washington in October 1944 

and unsealed, 10 of the illustrious poet’s notebooks were 

missing.

The library searched for the notebooks—and enlisted 

the FBI’s help—but to no avail. It was eventually 

concluded that the missing items were intentionally 

removed before they were shipped in 1942. More than 

five decades later, in 1995, four of the notebooks were 

recovered when they turned up for sale at Sotheby’s, but 

six of the priceless artifacts are still unaccounted for.

The Whitman notebooks are perhaps the most intriguing 

example of a little-known phenomenon in the world of art 

investigations: items owned by the U.S. government that 

have gone missing, many dating back to the New Deal 

era of the 1930s.

“Trying to locate items that disappeared decades ago 

represents a significant challenge for law enforcement,” 

said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who heads the FBI’s art 

crime team. “But we are bringing modern technology to 

the effort with our new National Stolen Art File, and we 

are seeing results.”

The National Stolen Art File (NSAF) is an online 

database of stolen art and cultural property reported by 

law enforcement agencies throughout the United States 

National Treasures

Recovering Artwork Owned 

by the U.S. Government

Left: In 1995, four of poet Walt Whitman’s 10 missing notebooks 

were recovered when they turned up at auction. The rest are still 

missing.

June 10, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 47

Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System 

(IAFIS). Currently, IAFIS contains records of approximately 67 million criminal subjects, including known or 

suspected terrorists, military detainees, and international 

criminals.

If there’s a match in IAFIS, we notify the submitting 

nation. If there’s no match, a new IAFIS record can be 

created and included in future searches requested by international, national, and perhaps most importantly, local 

law enforcement officers who are our first line of defense 

against threats to public safety.

Since 2002, the Global Initiatives Unit has developed relationships with more than 50 countries and has received 

over 450,000 biometric records that have been added to 

IAFIS.

Known or suspected terrorists. Transnational criminals. 

Both threaten not only U.S. security but the security of 

nations around the world.

One way to help reduce this threat is for nations to share 

fingerprints and other kinds of biometric information 

on terrorist-related subjects and international criminals 

who’ve had previous brushes with law enforcement. 

Here in the U.S., the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information 

Services Division—through its Foreign Biometric 

Exchange program—serves as the centralized collection 

point for foreign fingerprint records and other biometric 

data.

Actually, the Bureau has been exchanging fingerprints 

internationally for nearly 80 years, primarily in criminal 

matters. But after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. 

Attorney General specifically directed the FBI to obtain 

and maintain fingerprints and other biometrics for 

known and suspected terrorists processed by foreign law 

enforcement agencies. We then expanded the initiative 

to include international criminals, who, like terrorists, 

routinely cross national borders to commit their crimes 

and often use aliases.

The Foreign Biometric Exchange program is coordinated by CJIS’s Global Initiatives Unit. Says Gary 

Wheeler, who heads up the unit, “Our mission is twofold—in addition to collecting and analyzing the data 

we receive, we also offer assistance to nations who want 

to develop their own automated biometric systems that 

meet international standards.” To accomplish both tasks, 

unit personnel work with our International Operations 

Division at FBI headquarters, our legal attaché officers 

overseas, and sometimes INTERPOL and other U.S. 

federal agencies.

How it all works: If a nation is interested in participating, we first assess its fingerprint capabilities through 

surveys and on-site visits. Then we determine what, if 

any, assistance we can provide in terms of equipment—

like mobile fingerprint devices—and training in areas 

like basic fingerprinting and identification, crime scene 

preservation, and latent print collection.

Once we begin receiving data from a global partner—

either in batches or on a case-by-case basis—we run their 

fingerprints (both known and unknown) against our 

The FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System 

contains records of approximately 67 million criminal subjects, 

including known or suspected terrorists, military detainees, and 

international criminals.

Biometric Sharing 

Initiative

Making the World Safer

June 14, 2011
48 2011 The FBI Story

VC1 is staffed by seasoned investigators like Quinn and 

CPD’s Sgt. Warren Richards—who was leading the 

search warrant operation—and young agents learning the 

ropes and getting valuable street experience.

Special Agent Joe Raschke, an 11-year veteran of the 

squad, remembers that when he first came to the Chicago 

Field Office, “VC1 was the squad to be on.”

“As a young agent you get great experience,” Raschke 

said, “not just making arrests but interviewing subjects 

and victims and learning how to deal with a variety of 

people and situations.”

Sgt. Richards, CPD’s commanding officer on the task 

force, added, “I like bringing fugitives to justice and 

locking up bad guys. On this squad I get to do that 

almost every day.”

On this particular day, however, there would be no 

arrest. The team moved into place in unmarked vehicles, 

setting up to cover the front and back of the house where 

the felon was living. But when the search warrant was 

executed, the only people in the residence were a woman 

and her young daughter. The search did turn up the 

shotgun, under the felon’s mattress. He was now a fugitive 

and would eventually be arrested.

Quinn noted that despite the different law enforcement organizations they belong to, there is a strong 

bond among VC1 members. “The task force setting 

breaks down barriers between agencies,” he said. 

“Everyone works together as a team.”

That teamwork pays dividends beyond the task force, too. 

Relationships have expanded over time so that agents 

and detectives working all kinds of cases can pick up the 

phone and get help from their local and federal partners. 

“Agents and detectives all over the city have each other 

on speed dial,” Sgt. Richards said.

And members of the task force are always ready to 

respond, Quinn said. “Whenever there is a murder, 

kidnapping, or multiple bank robberies and a call goes out 

for volunteers, even on weekends and evenings, we always 

get more people than we need.” He added, “If someone is 

looking for a 9-to-5 type of job in law enforcement, VC1 

is definitely not for them.”

As a chilly spring drizzle fell in one of Chicago’s most 

dangerous neighborhoods, FBI agents and Chicago Police 

Department officers on our Violent Crimes Task Force 

gathered on a rooftop parking garage for a last-minute 

briefing before executing a search warrant nearby involving a recently paroled felon.

Members of the task force donned bullet-proof vests 

and finalized their operational plan. The felon in 

question was believed to be violating his parole by 

carrying a sawed-off shotgun, and every safety precaution needed to be taken.

Established in 1989, Chicago’s Violent Crimes Task Force 

is one of the oldest continuing task force operations in 

the FBI. The squad, known as VC1, consists of agents 

and members of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) 

and Cook County Sheriff’s Office who work side by side 

and are on call around the clock.

“If something happens,” said Special Agent Mark Quinn, 

who joined the squad in 1994 and has supervised it since 

2006, “we respond. Our first priority is public safety.”

The task force handles a variety of violent crimes such as 

extortion and murder for hire, but the “big three” offenses 

it investigates are kidnappings, bank robberies, and 

fugitive matters.

Chicago’s Violent 

Crime Fighters

Partnerships Key to 

Task Force Success

Left: A sawed-off shotgun is uncovered during a search by the Violent 

Crimes Task Force, which is made up of Chicago Police Department 

officers, Cook County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and FBI agents.

June 17, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 49

Greig has blue eyes, is 5 feet 6 inches tall, and had a thin 

build when she fled with Bulger. She is known to go by 

the aliases Helen Marshal and Carol Shapeton. She was 

last seen with Bulger in London in 2002. The 30-second 

PSA includes pictures of Greig after her pre-fugitive 

plastic surgeries.

Although she is not implicated in the crimes Bulger is 

wanted for, Greig was federally charged in 1997 for harboring a fugitive. There is a reward of up to $100,000 for 

her capture. The reward for Bulger is up to $2 million, 

the largest the FBI has ever offered for a Top Ten 

domestic fugitive.

“Whitey Bulger was the leader of a violent organized 

crime group in Boston,” Teahan said. “He is charged with 

murder, extortion, racketeering, money laundering, and 

other crimes. We believe Greig fled with Bulger because 

she wanted to be with him, no matter what it took. It 

is important for the FBI to bring Bulger to justice,” he 

added, “and Catherine Greig can lead us to him.”

We need your help. If you have any information on 

Catherine Greig or Bulger’s whereabouts, contact your 

local FBI office or the nearest U.S. Embassy or consulate.

Editor’s Note: James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and Catherine Greig 

were captured on June 22, 2011. See page 51 of this book for 

details.

Investigators hope a new media campaign announced 

today will bring them closer to capturing the notorious 

mobster and Top Ten fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger 

by focusing public attention on his longtime companion 

Catherine Greig.

Bulger, who once ran South Boston’s violent Winter 

Hill Gang and is wanted for his role in 19 murders, 

has been pursued around the world by the FBI-led 

Bulger Fugitive Task Force for the past 16 years.

“In terms of publicity, the FBI knows that combining 

the reach and power of the media with alert citizens is a 

successful formula for catching fugitives,” said Richard 

Teahan, a special agent in our Boston office who leads 

the Bulger task force. “So we are taking the next logical 

step and continuing our focus on Greig, who has been on 

the run with Bulger since 1995.”

The task force has produced a public service announcement (PSA) that will begin airing tomorrow on TV 

stations in 14 selected markets to make the public—and 

specifically women—aware of Greig’s physical characteristics, habits, and personality traits.

“We are trying to reach a different audience that will 

produce new leads in the case,” said Teahan, who has 

been tracking Bulger since 2006. “Greig has certain 

habits, characteristics, and idiosyncrasies that are recognizable, and we think the public might naturally notice 

these things. By running the PSA in markets where we 

believe Bulger has resided or may still have contacts,” he 

added, “we increase our chances of getting a tip that will 

lead to Greig’s whereabouts—and Bulger’s capture.”

One of the things the public may notice, for example, 

is the more than 20-year age difference between Greig, 

60, and Bulger, 81. Some of Greig’s other distinguishing 

characteristics include:

She loves dogs and all kinds of animals. 

She is likely to have well-kept teeth because she 

previously worked as a dental hygienist.

She likes to frequent beauty salons.

Prior to her fleeing with Bulger, she had multiple 

plastic surgeries.

▪

▪

▪

▪

Catherine Greig, as seen in 1982 (left), 1990 (top right), and in an 

artist’s sketch.

The ‘Whitey’ 

Bulger Case

New Campaign Focuses on 

Mobster’s Companion

June 20, 2011
50 2011 The FBI Story

One of the most widespread types of cyber scam being 

perpetrated against consumers these days involves “scareware”—those pop-up messages you see on your computer 

saying you’ve got a virus and all you have to do to get rid 

of it is buy the antivirus software being advertised.

And if you don’t buy it? The pop-ups continue unabated, 

and in some instances, the scareware renders all of the 

information on your computer inaccessible.

But today, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced “Operation Trident Tribunal,” a coordinated, 

international law enforcement action that disrupted 

the activities of two international cyber crime rings 

involved in the sale of scareware. The groups are 

believed responsible for victimizing more than one million 

computer users and causing more than $74 million in 

total losses.

Scam #1: The FBI’s Seattle office began looking into a 

scareware scam, later attributed to a group based in Kyiv, 

Ukraine, that ultimately claimed an estimated 960,000 

victims who lost a total of $72 million. Investigators 

discovered a variety of ruses used to infect computers 

with scareware, including consumers being directed to 

webpages featuring fake computer scans that instead 

downloaded malicious software. The Security Service 

of Ukraine (SBU) deployed more than 100 officers as 

it orchestrated this phase of the operation in conjunction with the German BKA, Latvian State Police, and 

Cyprus National Police. Results included the execution of 

numerous search warrants, subject interviews, and seized 

bank accounts and a server.

Scam #2: The FBI’s Minneapolis office initiated an 

investigation into an international criminal group using 

online advertising to spread its scareware product, a tactic 

known as “malvertising.” According to a U.S. federal 

indictment unsealed today, two individuals in Latvia 

were charged with creating a phony advertising agency 

and claiming to represent a hotel chain that wanted to 

purchase online advertising space on a Minneapolis newspaper’s website. After the ad was verified by the paper and 

posted, the defendants changed the ad’s computer code so 

that visitors to the site became infected with a malicious 

software program that launched scareware on their computers. That scheme resulted in losses of about $2 million 

to its victims. The Latvian State Police led this phase of 

the operation, with the SBU and Cyprus National Police.

In a true reflection of the international nature of cyber 

crime, “Trident Tribunal” was the result of significant cooperation among 12 nations: Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, 

Netherlands, Cyprus, France, Lithuania, Romania, 

Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. So 

far, the case has resulted in two arrests abroad, along with 

the seizure of more than 40 computers, servers, and bank 

accounts. Because of the magnitude of the schemes, law 

enforcement agencies here and abroad are continuing 

their investigative efforts.

How to spot scareware on your own computer:

Scareware pop-ups may look like actual warnings 

from your system, but upon closer inspection, some 

elements aren’t fully functional. For instance, to 

appear authentic, you may see a list of reputable 

icons—like software companies or security publications—but you can’t click through to go to those 

actual sites.

Scareware pop-ups are hard to close, even after 

clicking on the “Close” or “X” button.

Fake antivirus products are designed to appear legitimate, with names such as Virus Shield, Antivirus, or 

VirusRemover.

And to avoid being victimized, make sure your computer 

is using legitimate, up-to-date antivirus software, which 

can help detect and remove fraudulent scareware 

products.

▪

▪

▪

‘Scareware’ 

Distributors Targeted

12 Nations Coordinate

Anti-Cyber Crime Effort

June 22, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 51

The PSA included pictures of Greig after her pre-fugitive 

plastic surgeries and other details including her love of 

animals and the reward of up to $100,000 for her capture. 

Although she was not implicated in Bulger’s crimes, Greig 

was federally charged in 1997 for harboring a fugitive. 

The reward for Bulger is up to $2 million—the largest the 

FBI has ever offered for a Top Ten domestic fugitive.

Bulger, 81, who is known for his violent temper, was 

arrested without incident and was scheduled to appear in 

a Los Angeles court later today.

Top Ten fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger was arrested 

thanks to a tip from the public—just days after a new 

media campaign was announced to help locate the 

gangster who had been on the run for 16 years.

Bulger, who once ran South Boston’s violent Winter 

Hill Gang and was wanted for his role in 19 murders, 

was arrested with his longtime companion Catherine 

Greig Wednesday night in Santa Monica, California, 

by agents on our Violent Crimes Task Force.

“Although there are those who doubted our resolve, it 

never wavered,” said Boston Special Agent in Charge 

Richard DesLauriers. “We followed every lead, we 

explored every possibility, and when those leads ran out 

we did not sit back and wait for the phone to ring. The 

result is we have captured one of the FBI’s Ten Most 

Wanted Fugitives, a man notorious in Boston and around 

the world for the very serious crimes he is alleged to have 

committed.”

The FBI has always relied on cooperation from the 

public to help capture fugitives and solve crimes. The 

new media campaign regarding Bulger was designed to 

draw attention to Greig, who fled with Bulger in 1995. A 

30-second public service announcement (PSA) produced 

by the Bureau began airing Tuesday in 10 states where 

it was believed Bulger had resided or still had contacts. 

California was one of those states.

The PSA focused on the 60-year-old Greig’s physical appearance, habits, and personality traits and was directed 

specifically at women who might come in contact with 

her at places such as the beauty parlor or doctor’s office. 

After the PSA began to air, hundreds of tips flowed into 

the FBI, and one of them led to the arrest Wednesday 

night in a residence near Los Angeles.

“We were trying to reach a different audience to produce 

new leads in the case,” said Richard Teahan, a special 

agent in our Boston office who heads a task force that has 

searched for Bulger around the world. “We believed that 

locating Greig would lead us to Bulger. And that’s exactly 

what happened.”

James ‘Whitey’ 

Bulger Captured

Media Campaign Leads 

to Top Ten Arrest

June 23, 2011
52 2011 The FBI Story

“New York gets most of the attention regarding LCN,” 

McNamara said, “but historically, going back to the days 

of Al Capone, Chicago LCN has always been a player, 

particularly in places like Las Vegas.”

Unlike their New York counterparts, the Outfit has 

traditionally stayed away from drug trafficking, preferring 

instead crimes such as loan-sharking and online gambling 

operations and capitalizing on other profitable vices. One 

of the reasons it is so difficult to completely stamp out 

mob activity, McNamara said, is that over time the crews 

have insinuated themselves into unions and legitimate 

businesses.

“Typically they get into running restaurants and other 

legal businesses that they can use to hide money 

gained from their illicit activities,” McNamara explained. “Over the years the Outfit has learned that 

killing people brings too much heat from law enforcement. Today they might not even beat up a businessman 

who doesn’t pay back a debt,” he added. Instead, they take 

a piece of his business, and then, over time, exercise more 

and more control over the company.

The Family Secrets case, which began in 1999 and 

resulted in the indictment of 14 subjects in 2005 for 

racketeering and murder, dealt a crushing blow to the 

Chicago mob. “Our goal now,” McNamara said, “is to 

keep them from gaining strength again. We’ve got them 

down, and we’ve got to keep them down.”

He noted that some of the mobsters currently in jail as a 

result of numerous prosecutions will be getting out in the 

next few years, and they will be under pressure to start 

making money again for the Outfit’s top bosses.

“As long as there is money to be made from criminal 

activity,” McNamara said, “these guys will never stop. 

So we need to continue to be vigilant and take the long 

view. The work we do on the LCN squad requires a lot of 

patience.”

A Roman Catholic priest and former prison chaplain who 

ministered to Chicago mob boss Frank Calabrese, Sr., was 

indicted earlier this month for illegally passing jailhouse 

messages from Calabrese and plotting with his associates on the outside—a sobering reminder of how deeply 

organized crime can reach into the community, even 

from behind bars.

“Members of the mob will go to almost any lengths to 

carry out their criminal activity,” said Special Agent 

Ted McNamara, a veteran investigator who supervises 

the La Cosa Nostra (LCN) organized crime squad in 

our Chicago Field Office.

Calabrese, Sr., was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 

for his role in 18 gangland slayings in the Chicago area 

dating back to 1970. His arrest—along with 13 others—

was part of one of the most successful organized crime 

cases in FBI history, an eight-year investigation called 

Operation Family Secrets.

Because of the Family Secrets case—in which Calabrese’s 

son testified against him—“the Chicago mob does not 

have the power and influence it once had,” McNamara 

said. “But the mob still operates, and its members still 

represent a potentially serious criminal threat.”

Unlike New York’s infamous Five Families, the Chicago 

mob consists of only one family, often referred to as the 

“Outfit.” It is organized under a variety of crews that 

engage in various criminal activities. A portion of the 

crews’ illegal gains goes to the Outfit’s top bosses.

The Chicago Mafia

Down but Not Out

June 27, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 53

Currently, the FBI—with our partners—is working 

more than 2,000 corruption investigations involving 

public officials around the country. These investigative efforts certainly pay off—during fiscal year 2010, our 

cases led to more 1,330 informations/indictments and 

over 900 convictions (primarily at the federal level but 

also some at the local level).

Our ability to use sophisticated investigative tools and 

methods—like undercover operations—is one of the 

reasons why the FBI is in a unique position to investigate 

allegations of corruption. These tools and methods often 

give investigators a front-row seat to witness the actual 

exchange of bribe money or a handshake that seals an 

illegal deal.

Bribery is the most common form of corruption the 

Bureau investigates. But there are plenty more crimes—

including extortion, embezzlement, racketeering, kickbacks, money laundering, and all sorts of fraud. A significant portion of our cases involve border corruption.

At the end of the day, the majority of public officials 

are honest, hard-working individuals determined to 

improve the lives of their fellow citizens. But a small 

number of elected, appointed, or contracted officials are 

only focused on their own good. The actions of corrupt 

officials—often with the help of private sector accomplices—undermine democratic institutions and threaten 

national security, which is why the FBI ranks public 

corruption as our top criminal priority.

The FBI works plenty of high-profile public corruption 

cases—including the investigation of former Illinois 

governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted Monday 

after previous indictments.

But many of our cases—worked closely with our investigative and prosecutive partners—don’t make national 

news. Yet they are just as vital to our public corruption 

mandate—to root out those who violate the public trust. 

In fact, June was a particularly busy month on that front. 

From Florida to Arizona, there were a string of legal 

actions taken against public officials serving in a variety 

of positions.

Here are some examples:

Two commissioners in Lackawanna County, 

Pennsylvania were convicted of racketeering and 

other charges in connection with accepting and 

demanding payments and other benefits from people 

doing business with the county.

A Nashville, Tennessee police officer was indicted 

for accepting cash while delivering drugs and drug 

money to several locations for local drug dealers—all 

while wearing his uniform and driving his police car.

A special agent with the U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security 

Investigations was arrested in Arizona on charges 

that she illegally accessed, stole, and transferred 

sensitive government documents to family members 

and associates with strong ties to drug trafficking 

organizations.

A county judge in Cleveland was convicted of accepting bribes, including campaign contributions, in 

return for fixing cases. So far, this particular investigation has implicated dozens of elected officials, 

public employees, and contractors within the county.

A former mayor and a magistrate from South 

Daytona, Florida were both charged with accepting bribes from purported investors in exchange 

for lowering city code liens on a large investment 

property.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

Public Corruption 

Update

A Busy Month Comes to a Close

June 30, 2011
54 2011 The FBI Story

The eight-year investigation began when FBI undercover agents, posing as underworld criminals, helped 

make sure that shipping containers full of counterfeit 

cigarettes made it past U.S. Customs officers undetected. Over time, as undercover agents won the smugglers’ 

trust, they were asked to facilitate other illegal shipments 

such as narcotics and millions of dollars in Supernotes. 

Later, the smugglers offered a variety of Chinese militarygrade weapons, including the QW-2 surface-to-air 

missiles.

Some of the drugs—including methamphetamine and 

fake Viagra—were hidden in large cardboard boxes with 

false bottoms that contained toys. The Supernotes were 

placed between the pages of books or lined in large bolts 

of rolled-up fabric. All of the items were smuggled into 

the U.S. in 40-foot shipping containers.

Between Smoking Dragon and Royal Charm, some $4.5 

million in counterfeit currency was seized, along with 

more than $40 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes, 

drugs, and other real and phony items. The smugglers 

were also forced to forfeit a total of $24 million in cash, 

along with real estate, cars, and jewelry.

Most of the defendants were indicted in 2005 and have 

since pled guilty or been convicted. Chen was the final 

defendant to be sentenced relating to Operation Smoking 

Dragon. His was the nation’s first conviction under a 

2004 anti-terrorism statute that outlaws the importation 

of missile systems designed to destroy aircraft.

“There is only one purpose for shoulder-fired missiles 

like the QW-2, and that is to bring down aircraft,” said 

Special Agent Omar Trevino, who worked the case from 

the beginning. “Smoking Dragon dismantled an international smuggling ring, and it illustrated that organized 

crime groups will stop at nothing to make a profit.”

Mark Aveis, an assistant United States attorney in Los 

Angeles who prosecuted the Chen case, agreed with 

Agent Trevino. “Chen and his associates didn’t care 

what they smuggled as long as they made money,” he 

said. “This case highlights the FBI’s ability to carry out 

successful long-term undercover investigations—and the 

continuing need for such investigations.”

The judge who recently sentenced Yi Qing Chen noted 

that the smuggler “never saw a criminal scheme he 

didn’t want a part of.” The Southern California man was 

convicted last October of distributing methamphetamine, 

trafficking approximately 800,000 cases of counterfeit 

cigarettes, and conspiring to import Chinese-made 

shoulder-fired missiles into the U.S.

Chen is now serving a 25-year prison sentence, and 

his case marks the end of a long-running investigation 

called Operation Smoking Dragon.

Smoking Dragon and a related case in New Jersey called 

Operation Royal Charm led to the indictment of 87 

individuals from China, Taiwan, Canada, and the U.S. 

The investigations uncovered—and dismantled—an 

international smuggling ring that could have threatened 

the country’s national security.

Charges against the subjects included smuggling real 

and phony drugs and other contraband into the U.S. 

along with counterfeit $100 bills—believed to have been 

produced in North Korea—that were so nearly perfect 

and so much more sophisticated than typical counterfeit 

currency they were dubbed “Supernotes.”

“One of the most important things about Operation 

Smoking Dragon was that it demonstrated the broad 

range of international criminal activity conducted by 

today’s Asian organized crime groups,” said Special Agent 

Bud Spencer, who worked the case in our Los Angeles 

office.

Operation Smoking 

Dragon

Part 1: Dismantling an 

International Smuggling Ring

Left: Charges against the subjects included smuggling real and phony 

drugs and other contraband into the U.S., along with counterfeit 

$100 bills.

July 5, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 55

tions—were called in recently to help authenticate the 

artifacts and to facilitate their return to Iraq.

The items include two pottery dishes, four vases, an 

oil lamp, three small statues, and the seven terracotta 

relief plaques. They range in age from 2,500 to 4,000 

years old—from the Old Babylonian period to the NeoAssyrian or Neo-Babylon periods.

The terracotta plaques were made with clay and pressed 

into a mold that was then fired in an oven. Although it 

is not clear exactly how the plaques were used, experts 

believe they were thought to provide magical protection 

against evil or sickness. The plaques depict a warrior 

goddess, a woman with child, and two boxers, among 

other scenes, and could have been carried for personal 

devotion or displayed in temples or buried in foundations 

of buildings.

It was the looting of the Baghdad Museum in Iraq in 

2003 that led to the formation of the FBI’s art crime team 

the following year. “We realized then that we needed a 

group of agents who were specially trained in the area of 

stolen and looted art,” said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, 

who manages our art theft program. Since its inception, 

the art crime team has recovered more than 2,600 items 

valued at over $142 million.

Hosko added that the recovery of the antiquities during 

a case focused primarily on public corruption illustrates 

how the FBI’s intelligence-driven approach to investigations often leads to uncovering additional criminal 

activity.

Terracotta plaques and other artifacts seized during a 

2006 investigation were returned to the government of 

Iraq today in a Washington, D.C. ceremony that celebrated a successful law enforcement operation and the 

cultural significance of antiquities that are thousands of 

years old.

“These artifacts are truly invaluable,” said Ron Hosko, 

special agent in charge of the Criminal Division in our 

Washington Field Office. “The FBI is pleased to be 

able to return them to their rightful owner.”

The artifacts—some small enough to be held in the palm 

of one’s hand—were seized during a public corruption 

investigation conducted by our International Contract 

Corruption Task Force, a multi-agency task force whose 

mission is to stop fraud and corruption related to U.S. 

reconstruction efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere 

overseas.

The artifacts were illegally taken in 2004 by Department 

of Defense contractors who were traveling through 

the Babylon region of Iraq. Investigators learned that 

the contractors collected the items and used them as 

gifts and bribes or sold them to other contractors who 

then smuggled them into the United States. Two of the 

contractors were sentenced to prison for their roles in the 

fraud scheme.

“The FBI is committed to identifying and preventing 

corruption and contract fraud no matter where it takes 

place,” Hosko said during the ceremony at the Iraqi 

Cultural Center. “Working abroad does not entitle anyone 

to remove historic artifacts and treat them as mementos 

for illegal sale.”

Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Shakir Mahmood 

Sumaida’ie expressed his gratitude to the FBI and U.S. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which also 

returned items from a separate case. As Iraq works to 

“reconstruct our country and our heritage,” the ambassador said, “We are grateful for the cooperation from the 

American authorities.”

Agents on the FBI’s art crime team—who receive specialized training in art and cultural property investigaThe seized artifacts include these vases and range in age from 2,500 

to 4,000 years old.

Iraqi Antiquities 

Returned

Artifacts Seized During Public 

Corruption Investigation

July 7, 2011
56 2011 The FBI Story

“The show offers a tremendous opportunity to reach the 

public about San Diego’s most wanted criminals,” Slotter 

said during a break in filming. “And it’s also an incredible 

opportunity to partner with local law enforcement and to 

build relationships in the community. Where else are we 

going to get 30 minutes each week to talk about cases and 

initiatives involving all of San Diego’s law enforcement 

agencies?”

“The show really is a great crime-fighting tool,” said Lt. 

Andra Brown, San Diego Police Department’s public information officer. The department has captured a number 

of criminals as a result of the show, she noted. “We are 

very happy with our FBI partnership.”

Lt. Brown added that the program’s informational 

segments are also helpful. Recent and upcoming tips 

on how not to be a robbery victim and scams targeting 

the elderly, for example, provide valuable public safety 

information.

San Diego’s Most Wanted airs Saturday nights at 7:30 

p.m. and is repeated Sunday nights at 11 p.m. Tips 

are received from all over San Diego County as well 

as from across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. Agents 

are on hand to take viewers’ information and pass it on to 

the appropriate law enforcement agency. Tipsters—who 

can remain anonymous—are eligible for rewards of up 

to $1,000 for information leading to the capture of those 

featured on the show.

The idea for San Diego’s Most Wanted was an outgrowth 

of Slotter’s regular monthly appearances on Fox 5’s 

morning news program, where he talked about public 

safety matters, crime issues, and high-priority FBI cases 

in the San Diego area. “He understands the importance 

of working with the public and the media to help solve 

crimes,” said Special Agent Darrell Foxworth, who helps 

produce the show. And having San Diego’s top FBI agent 

as the host, he added, gives the program “instant credibility.”

As the episode taping drew to a close recently, Slotter 

told viewers, “Your tips could be all it takes to get these 

criminals off our streets.” He added, “We’re sure not going 

to rest until these fugitives are tracked down and caught. 

I promise you that.”

The lights were on and the cameras were rolling as the 

special agent in charge of our San Diego office got his 

cue: “This is San Diego’s Most Wanted. I’m Keith Slotter. 

Thanks for inviting us into your home. Tonight, a rash of 

robbers, pill-pinching thieves, and a criminal carjacker. 

We need your help to find them.”

So began the taping of another episode of the FBI’s 

30-minute weekly television show that runs Saturday 

nights in prime time on San Diego’s Fox affiliate, 

KSWB.

The show, based on the America’s Most Wanted format, 

celebrated its one-year anniversary recently with an 

impressive statistic: 57 criminals have been apprehended 

as a result of good police work and viewer tips.

“The main mission of the show is to catch bad guys,” said 

Slotter, who hosts San Diego’s Most Wanted along with 

correspondent Lynn Stuart. Viewer tips have led to the 

arrest of bank robbers, parole violators, and murderers. 

The very first capture was a man wanted since 2007 on 

child molestation charges.

Each week’s cases—drawn from FBI investigations and 

local police departments—feature fugitives, thieves, 

and violent criminals who have active warrants for 

their arrest. Missing children are also publicized, which 

explains the recent on-location filming at the National 

Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Washington, 

D.C.

‘San Diego’s 

Most Wanted’

Show Celebrates First 

Anniversary, 57 Captures

Left: San Diego FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter, with

correspondent Lynn Stuart, is interviewed for San Diego’s Most 

Wanted, a 30-minute program that airs Saturday nights.

July 11, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 57

have learned that ATM skimming is a favorite activity 

of Eurasian crime groups, so we sometimes investigate 

skimming—often partnering with the Secret Service—as 

part of larger organized crime cases.

Some recent case examples:

In Miami, four Romanians were charged with 

fraud and identity theft after they made and placed 

skimming devices on ATMs throughout four Florida 

counties...all four men eventually pled guilty.

In Atlanta, two Romanians were charged and pled 

guilty to being part of a criminal crew that stole 

account information from nearly 400 bank customers through the use of skimming equipment they 

installed on ATMs in the Atlanta metro area.

In Chicago, a Serbian national was arrested—and 

eventually pled guilty—for attempting to purchase an 

ATM skimming device, hoping to steal information 

from ATM users and loot their bank accounts.

In New York, a Bulgarian national referenced at 

the top of this story was sentenced yesterday to 

21 months in prison for his role in a scheme that 

used sophisticated skimming devices on ATMs to 

steal over $1.8 million from at least 1,400 customer 

accounts at New York City area banks.

One last note: ATMs aren’t the only target of skimmers—

we’ve also seen it at gas pumps and other point-of-sale 

locations where customers swipe their cards and enter 

their PIN.

▪

▪

▪

▪

Last fall, two brothers from Bulgaria were charged in 

U.S. federal court in New York with using stolen bank 

account information to defraud two banks of more than 

$1 million.

Their scheme involved installing surreptitious surveillance equipment on New York City ATMs that allowed 

them to record customers’ account information and PINs, 

create their own bank cards, and steal from customer 

accounts.

What these two did is called “ATM skimming”—basically placing an electronic device on an ATM that scoops 

information from a bank card’s magnetic strip whenever a 

customer uses the machine. ATM skimming is a growing 

criminal activity that some experts believe costs U.S. 

banks hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

The devices planted on ATMs are usually undetectable 

by users—the makers of this equipment have become 

very adept at creating them, often from plastic or plaster, 

so that they blend right into the ATM’s façade. The 

specific device used is often a realistic-looking card reader 

placed over the factory-installed card reader. Customers 

insert their ATM card into the phony reader, and their 

account info is swiped and stored on a small attached 

laptop or cell phone or sent wirelessly to the criminals 

waiting nearby.

In addition, skimming typically involves the use of a 

hidden camera, installed on or near an ATM, to record 

customers’ entry of their PINs into the ATM’s keypad. 

We have also seen instances where, instead of a hidden 

camera, criminals attach a phony keypad on top of the 

real keypad...which records every keystroke as customers 

punch in their PINs.

Skimming devices are installed for short periods of 

time—usually just a few hours—so they’re often attached 

to an ATM by nothing more than double-sided tape. 

They are then removed by the criminals, who download 

the stolen account information and encode it onto blank 

cards. The cards are used to make withdrawals from 

victims’ accounts at other ATMs.

Because of its financial jurisdiction, a large number of 

ATM skimming cases are investigated by the U.S. Secret 

Service. But through FBI investigative experience, we 

Skimming typically involves the use of hidden cameras (top) to record 

customers’ PINs and phony keypads (right) placed over real keypads 

to record keystrokes.

Taking a Trip to 

the ATM?

Beware of ‘Skimmers’

July 14, 2011
58 2011 The FBI Story

get their shipping containers into the country. The bad 

guys bought it.

Q: How was Smoking Dragon different from other 

undercover cases you worked?

Mr. Hamer: Most of my undercover assignments were 

pretty straightforward investigations, from point A to 

point B. Smoking Dragon was one of those cases that 

started at A and went all over the alphabet. We assumed 

it was just going to be about cigarettes. We never thought 

it would expand to surface-to-air missiles or counterfeit 

currency—the Supernotes. We didn’t think drugs would 

be involved or other counterfeit goods.

Q: You started on the case in 2002 and worked it until 

indictments were handed down in 2005. Was this the 

longest undercover assignment you had?

Mr. Hamer: Yes. I was undercover on Smoking Dragon 

for almost three years. As the case progressed beyond the 

initial target, I was dealing with one target or another 

almost on a daily basis. I think we added it up once that 

I had over 1,000 separate conversations during those 

three years with all the various targets. It was a full-time 

assignment, although I was working two other undercover 

operations at the same time.

Q: Why was this case so important?

Mr. Hamer: I considered one of the targets to be the 

most dangerous man in America. Whatever we wanted, 

whatever we brought up, he was capable of getting. He 

brought us the weapons deal, the Supernotes deal. He was 

Operation Smoking Dragon and a related case led to the 

indictment of 87 individuals and dismantled an international smuggling ring that brought illegal drugs, cigarettes, and counterfeit currency into the country—and 

conspired to bring in Chinese-made weapons as well.

Retired Special Agent Bob Hamer worked undercover 

on Operation Smoking Dragon and was instrumental in 

the investigation’s success. During his 26-year career with 

the Bureau, Hamer specialized in covert work, posing 

as a drug dealer, screenwriter, friend of the Mafia, even 

a pedophile. Below, he talks about Operation Smoking 

Dragon and his work undercover.

Q: How did you get involved with Smoking Dragon?

Mr. Hamer: The case agent was looking for an undercover agent to help target an Asian organized crime 

group, and he contacted me. I met with the agent and his 

informant. The informant liked me and set up a meeting 

with the person we believed was the largest importer of 

counterfeit cigarettes on the West Coast. And that was it. 

I was in.

Q: How did you convince the target that you could be 

trusted?

Mr. Hamer: My story was that I had inherited my 

grandfather’s trust and that I was a savvy investor. More 

importantly, I had a warehouse where they could store the 

cigarettes, and I had access to long-haul truck drivers and 

some contacts at the port that might be able to help them 

Operation Smoking 

Dragon

Part 2: An Undercover 

Agent Tells His Story

Left: The international smuggling ring brought illegal drugs, cigarettes, and counterfeit currency into the country.

Drugs such as methamphetamine and Ecstasy were among the items 

smuggled into the country by boat in 40-foot shipping containers.

July 18, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 59

doing cigarettes, Ecstasy. He was talking about setting up 

a crystal meth lab. This guy could put you together with 

anybody to make any deal. He said he could get us any 

weapons—anything but nuclear weapons—and I think 

he could have. Whatever China had, this guy was capable 

of getting. To me he was dangerous, not in the sense that 

he could kill you with his bare hands, but because of his 

connections. He was a broker for everything.

Q: How did you get started doing undercover work?

Mr. Hamer: I reported to my first FBI office in San Diego 

in September 1979, and within six months I assumed my 

first undercover role. I always thought it would be exciting 

to be part of an undercover investigation. We were doing 

an organized crime case, and I volunteered to go undercover. An informant introduced me to his colleague 

who would become our target. That very first meeting 

my knees were shaking so much—not from fear but from 

adrenaline—I prayed nobody would notice. I met the 

target, and we hit it off. I came away with an adrenaline 

high that lasted for the rest of my career. I loved the work 

and did 20 separate undercover assignments in all, some 

of which lasted a day or two and some that ran for years.

Q: What does it take to be good at undercover work?

Mr. Hamer: You have to build a story that you believe 

and that you can sell. You have to love the work and 

believe in yourself. You’ve got to be quick on your feet, but 

you can’t dominate the conversation. You have to know 

who you are both in the real world and the undercover 

world, because you are on a high wire without a net. In 

Hollywood you get a chance to say your lines again if you 

make a mistake. There are no retakes in the real world. 

July 18, 2011

More than $40 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes, like the cartons 

of Marlboros shown above, were seized.

Levi’s jeans manufactured in China and smuggled into the U.S. 

looked real enough, but they were fakes.

If you make a mistake on the street, you might blow the 

case or risk getting yourself killed.

Q: Do you develop an emotional connection to the 

people you are investigating?

Mr. Hamer: That’s an issue, but it comes back to 

knowing who the real you is. You have to be one of the 

bad guys without becoming one of them. There is a line 

you can’t cross. You have to walk up to that line, but you 

can’t go over it.

Q: You retired at age 56, one year after the Smoking 

Dragon indictments were announced and one year 

before agents are required to retire. Do you miss the 

undercover life?

Mr. Hamer: Smoking Dragon was one of the biggest 

cases I worked. With only one year to go before mandatory retirement, I didn’t think I could top Smoking Dragon, 

so I retired. I do miss the work. I miss the adrenaline rush 

of being undercover, but not to the point that I would go 

work for some private detective agency. If the FBI called 

me back, yeah, I would love it. I had 26 great years in the 

FBI.
60 2011 The FBI Story

The payback for McGrue? The homeowners had to fork 

over an upfront fee ranging from $1,500 to $2,000...sign 

over the titles of their homes to Gateway...and pay 

Gateway half of their previous mortgage amount as rent 

for as long as they lived in the house.

Of course, nothing that McGrue told his victims was 

true: he didn’t own any bonds or have a U.S. Treasury 

account, plus the Treasury doesn’t even maintain 

accounts that can be used to make third-party payments. 

Lenders weren’t legally obligated to accept bonded promissory notes, which were worthless anyway. And Gateway 

International had no intention of selling back the properties to the homeowners. Evidence shown at McGrue’s 

trial revealed that it was his intent to re-sell the homes, 

once they were titled in Gateway’s name, to unsuspecting 

buyers.

The FBI began its investigation in 2008, after receiving a 

complaint from one of the victims.

During these uncertain economic times, there are 

many unscrupulous people looking to line their 

pockets at the expense of others’ misfortunes. One of 

the most effective ways to defend yourself against foreclosure fraud is awareness. According to the Federal Trade 

Commission, if you or someone you know is looking for a 

loan modification or other help to save a home, avoid any 

business that:

Offers a guarantee to get you a loan modification or 

stop the foreclosure process;

Tells you not to contact your lender, lawyer, or a 

housing counselor;

Requests upfront fees before providing you with any 

services;

Encourages you to transfer your property deed to title 

to them;

Accepts payment only by cashier’s check or wire 

transfer; or

Pressures you to sign papers you haven’t had the 

chance to read thoroughly or that you don’t understand.

Contact your local authorities or your state’s attorney 

general if you think you’ve been a victim of foreclosure 

fraud.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

He was their last hope—about 250 Southern California 

homeowners facing foreclosure and eviction believed him 

when he said he could save their homes.

But in reality, he was their worst nightmare—he ended 

up fleecing the homeowners for approximately $1 

million...and not a single home was saved in the process.

Last week, Jeff McGrue, owner of a Los Angeles-area 

foreclosure relief business, was sentenced to 25 years in 

prison for defrauding people who were at the end of their 

rope. Even the federal judge who sentenced him called 

him “heartless.”

It all started in late 2007, when McGrue—and several 

other conspirators who have pled guilty—orchestrated 

the scheme primarily through his company Gateway 

International. He paid unwitting real estate agents and 

others to serve as “consultants” to recruit customers who 

were facing foreclosure or were “upside-down” on their 

mortgages—meaning they owed more than their homes 

were worth. Many of the customers didn’t understand 

English or the contracts they were signing.

How the scam worked. McGrue and associates told the 

homeowners that “bonded promissory notes” drawn on 

a U.S. Treasury Department account would be sent to 

lenders to pay off mortgage loans and stop foreclosure 

proceedings; that lenders were required by law to accept 

the notes; and that homeowners could buy their homes 

back from Gateway and receive $25,000, regardless of 

whether they decided to re-purchase.

Foreclosure Fraud

Victims Lose Their Shirts...

and Their Homes

July 22, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 61

each and every incident. You never know when one of 

them will be real.

Q. Can you briefly explain how the WMD Directorate 

works?

Dr. Majidi: Absolutely. The main focus of our WMD 

Directorate—and the primary focus of our overall 

efforts—is prevention, to keep a WMD attack from ever 

taking place. To make that happen, we have several 

closely integrated activities that pull together resources 

from various parts of the FBI. Our countermeasures and 

preventions group includes a full spectrum of activities, 

from WMD training for domestic and international law 

enforcement partners...to outreach efforts to academia, 

industry, government, and retailers to help them spot 

indicators of potential WMD activity...to working with 

our government partners to formulate sound policies. The 

investigations and operations group addresses threatened 

or actual use of weapons of mass destruction, or the 

transfer of materials, knowledge, and technology needed 

to create a WMD. We also can and do collect evidence 

in contaminated areas, disarm hazardous devices, and 

provide command and control support in on-scene activities. Finally, our intelligence and analysis group serves 

as the foundation of our proactive approach to threats. 

Our analysts sort through data to identify relevant WMD 

information, and our agents work to identify sources of 

valuable intelligence. And because we are part of the 

intelligence community, we share information routinely 

with our partners. Through it all, we have a lot of activities and capabilities in play, and I think we’re making a 

real difference.

Five years ago this week, the FBI established its first Weapons 

of Mass Destruction (WMD) Directorate to centralize and 

coordinate all WMD-related investigative activities, intelligence analysis capabilities, and technical expertise from across 

the Bureau. Recently, FBI.gov spoke with Dr. Vahid Majidi—

the head of the WMD Directorate since its launch—on his 

office’s work over the past five years. Today, he talks about 

the current threat and specific focus of the directorate. Later 

this week, he’ll discuss case examples, lessons learned, and the 

future of the directorate.

Q. Why was the directorate created?

Dr. Majidi: The FBI has been in the WMD business 

for quite some time, more formally since 1995 when we 

created a program in our Counterterrorism Division 

to address the WMD threat. But obviously, a lot has 

happened in recent years. And it became clear that 

our WMD response crossed operational lines and also 

involved our counterintelligence, criminal, and cyber 

programs—not to mention the response and forensics expertise in the FBI Laboratory and the render-safe capabilities of our Critical Incident Response Group. We needed 

a single force to coordinate all of our WMD activities. 

The directorate gives us that.

Q. What does the WMD threat look like today?

Dr. Majidi: The nature of 

the threat hasn’t changed 

all that much over the past 

decade. International terrorist groups are still determined to get their hands on 

various forms of weapons of 

mass destruction—chemical, 

biological, radiological, 

and nuclear. Organizations 

and nation states still want 

material and expertise for 

their own programs. And 

certain domestic groups are 

still trying to acquire materials needed for basic WMD 

applications—predominately chemical or biological in 

nature.

Q. What about all those white powder letters?

Dr. Majidi: Most turn out to be hoaxes, and they require 

a lot of investigative resources, but we have to investigate 

Members of the FBI’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit enter a 

home suspected of biological contamination. AP photo.

WMD Central

Part 1: Five Years and Building

July 26, 2011

Dr. Vahid Majidi
62 2011 The FBI Story

Q. What kind of work is done overseas?

Dr. Majidi: It runs the gamut. For instance, several years 

ago, after an interdiction of highly enriched uranium in 

Georgia in the former Soviet Union, our WMD experts 

performed a forensic analysis of the material and then 

testified in Georgian courts. And when the Russian 

defector in London was poisoned with a radioactive 

isotope in 2006, our WMD personnel shadowed London 

Metropolitan Police during the ensuing investigation 

to develop lessons learned to help us prepare for such 

a scenario here. Through it all, we’ve built some strong 

relationships with our global partners.

Q. What are the WMD Directorate’s plans for the 

next five years?

Dr. Majidi: The basic knowledge and material that go 

into making weapons of mass destruction is becoming 

more readily available to anyone, anywhere in the 

world as the Information Age matures. That’s why we’ll 

continue to be all about partnerships—locally, nationally, 

and internationally. We’ll also focus even more on threats 

on the horizon. For example, we’ll look at emerging 

developments like synthetic biology from a preventative 

point of view. By collaborating with the synthetic biology 

community, we can articulate our safety and security 

concerns as they relate to weapons of mass destruction. 

We’ll also be improving our threat analysis capabilities 

to better spot potential WMD opportunities, potential 

WMD vulnerabilities, and gaps in our intelligence collection.

Q. What can the average citizen do to assist law 

enforcement with the WMD threat?

Dr. Majidi: Keep in mind that to develop weapons of 

mass destruction, you only need two things: the material 

and the know-how. So please, if you see anything suspicious or in a place where it doesn’t belong, report it to 

local law enforcement or your closest FBI Joint Terrorism 

Task Force. It could be just the tip we need to stop something serious.

Our interview continues with Dr. Vahid Majidi, head of our 

Weapons of Mass Destruction, or WMD, Directorate, which 

marked its fifth anniversary on July 26.

Q. Can you provide a few examples of successful 

WMD investigations over the past five years?

Dr. Majidi: We’ve managed quite a few cases actually, including our first major counterproliferation investigation 

that involved two Iranian men and one Iranian-American 

who were charged in California with conspiring to 

export certain technologies from the U.S. to Iran. Other 

examples include a Texas man charged with possessing 

62 pounds of sodium cyanide; a government contractor 

in Tennessee charged with trying to sell restricted U.S. 

Department of Energy materials; and a Nevada man 

charged with possessing deadly ricin.

Q. What has the FBI learned over the past five years?

Dr. Majidi: Quite a bit. For some time, we’ve had WMD 

coordinators in every one of our field offices. But we 

realize that for WMD prevention to be truly comprehensive, we need to think and act globally. So that’s 

why—in addition to our network of legal attaché offices 

and agents around the world—we’ve recently put our first 

WMD coordinators overseas, in our offices in Tbilsi and 

Singapore. We also have personnel assigned to Interpol to 

help it develop an international WMD training program 

like ours.

WMD Central

Part 2: Looking Back, 

Looking Ahead

Left: Dr. Vahid Majidi

July 29, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 63

edge of communist philosophy and an interest in wider 

intellectual and cultural issues.

After several meetings, Childs agreed to return to the 

CPUSA as an informant for the FBI. With the assistance of Jack, the Bureau helped Morris rehabilitate 

both his health and his role in the Party. Morris began 

feeling better after a Bureau-arranged stay at the Mayo 

Clinic, and within a year he started reaching out to his 

old comrades. He and Jack were accepted back into 

the CPUSA and eventually were tasked with deepening contacts with the Canadian Communist Party and 

through it, the Soviet Union.

Over four decades, Morris made more than 50 visits 

overseas for the CPUSA, each time reporting with great 

detail and insight about the issues and concerns of the 

leadership of the Soviet Union and China. Considering 

that these two nations were such closed societies, 

Morris’s intelligence was invaluable—a fact recognized 

by President Ronald Reagan when he awarded Morris 

(and posthumously, Jack) with the Presidential Medal of 

Freedom.

The intelligence work of the brothers—and later their 

wives—was handled by the FBI under the code name 

SOLO. In the coming months, stay tuned as we reveal 

more details of this long-running operation as additional 

sections of the SOLO file are released in our Vault.

In April 1958, a representative of the Communist Party 

of the United States (CPUSA) named Morris Childs 

made important trips to the Soviet Union and China. 

His purpose: to re-establish formal contact between the 

CPUSA and these countries.

First, Morris visited with key Communist Party and 

Soviet leaders in Moscow. He learned of their wider 

political goals, their concerns and fears, and their deep 

interest in restoring connections with the CPUSA. Then 

he went to Beijing, where he made similar inroads and 

met with Premier Mao Tse Tung.

After three months, Morris returned home and reported 

all he’d learned to CPUSA leaders. But as a new Freedom 

of Information Act release in the FBI Vault makes 

clear, he was also secretly talking to President Dwight 

Eisenhower, the vice president, the secretary of state, and 

a select group of other U.S. officials.

Morris, you see, was actually one of the FBI’s greatest 

Cold War agents.

Born Moishe Chilovsky in the Ukraine, Morris Childs 

and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1912. He joined 

the emerging communist movement in Chicago as a 

teenager and devoted his life to the cause. In 1947, his 

work ended after an internal power struggle removed 

him as editor of the CPUSA’s flagship newspaper and 

his continuing struggle with heart disease left him sickly 

and incapacitated. Unable to pursue other work for the 

movement, Childs was soon forgotten.

Meanwhile, America’s growing realization of the 

penetration of the U.S. government by the Soviets 

and the subsequent political debate over the role of 

communism in society became the focus of the day.

By the early 1950s, the FBI began taking a more proactive approach to dealing with Soviet intelligence. That 

included zeroing in on the CPUSA—in part, by approaching Communist officials who had left the party. 

One of the first on the list was Morris Childs’ brother 

Jack.

Jack willingly cooperated and strongly advocated that 

the Bureau contact his brother, paving the way for a 

1952 meeting between Morris and Special Agent Carl 

Freyman. The two got along quite well, sharing a knowlMorris Childs’ intelligence work was handled by the FBI under the 

code name SOLO.

A Byte Out of History

Going SOLO: Communist 

Agent Tells All

August 2, 2011
64 2011 The FBI Story

to other types of mobile devices in the near future. And 

we’ll be adding new features—including the ability to 

upload other photos stored on your smart phone—in the 

coming weeks and months.

An important note: the FBI (and iTunes for that matter) 

is not collecting or storing any photos or information 

that you enter in the app. All data resides solely on your 

mobile device unless you need to send it to authorities. 

Please read your mobile provider’s terms of service for 

information about the security of applications stored on 

your device.

Put your child’s safety in your own hands. Download the 

FBI’s Child ID app today.

Editor’s Note: In response to user feedback, the FBI Child 

ID app was updated with new features, including password 

protection and additional photo capabilities, in October 2011.

You’re shopping at the mall with your children when 

one of them suddenly disappears. A quick search of the 

nearby area is unsuccessful. What do you do?

Now there’s a free new tool from the FBI that can 

help. Our just launched Child ID app—the first mobile 

application created by the FBI—provides a convenient 

place to electronically store photos and vital information about your children so that it’s literally right at hand 

if you need it. You can show the pictures and provide 

physical identifiers such as height and weight to security 

or police officers on the spot. Using a special tab on the 

app, you can also quickly and easily e-mail the information to authorities with a few clicks.

The app also includes tips on keeping children safe as 

well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few 

crucial hours after a child goes missing.

We encourage you to share the word about this app 

with family and friends, especially during upcoming 

activities in your communities to raise awareness 

on crime and drug prevention. For its part, the FBI is 

working to publicize the app with the American Football 

Coaches Association (AFCA)—its long-time partner 

in the National Child Identification Program, which 

provides a physical kit to gather your child’s pictures, 

fingerprints, personal characteristics, and even DNA 

to keep with you in case of emergency. The AFCA is 

producing a public service announcement about the app 

and will spread the word at various football games during 

the upcoming season.

Right now, the Child ID app is only available for use on 

iPhones and can only be downloaded for free from the 

App Store on iTunes, but we plan to expand this tool 

The FBI’s Child ID App

Putting Safety in Your Hands

August 5, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 65

begin collecting data from our law enforcement partners 

on human trafficking offenses... ”

“...FACE Act violations account for a smaller percentage of our workload—just over 2 percent last year. These 

crimes—committed against those who seek to obtain 

or provide reproductive health care services—include 

threatening phone calls and mail, property damage, 

blockades, assaults, and murders. In recent years, we’ve 

also seen a rise in bio-terrorism threats, especially hoax 

anthrax letters...”

Intelligence plays an important role in our civil rights 

program. “For example,” explained Thomas, “we’ve established risk indicators for each of our subprogram areas to 

help field office agents and analysts better identify, assess, 

and ultimately address the civil rights threats within their 

regions.”

Collaboration plays a vital role as well, said Thomas. 

“Many of our civil rights investigations—in particular, 

hate crimes and human trafficking—are enhanced by 

joint efforts with law enforcement partners. Many field 

offices participate in task forces and/or working groups 

focused on major civil rights threats.” He also said the 

Bureau works closely with community and civic organizations at the local and national levels.

If you believe you’ve been the victim of or a witness to a 

civil rights crime, contact your local police department or 

FBI office.

Last month, a Tennessee man received a life sentence for 

the racially motivated killing 10 years earlier of a county 

code enforcement officer who had simply been doing his 

job.

The investigation of this murder was one of hundreds 

of civil rights cases the FBI opens each year. It’s a 

responsibility that—according to Eric Thomas, chief of 

our Civil Rights Unit at FBI Headquarters—“we take 

very seriously.”

During fiscal year 2010, said Thomas, we initiated more 

than 750 civil rights cases that fell into one of four 

categories—hate crimes, color of law violations, human 

trafficking, and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances 

(FACE) Act violations.

Thomas discussed each category in more detail:

“...Hate crimes, almost a quarter of our 2010 civil rights 

caseload, are motivated by a particular bias against the 

victim—like skin color, religion, ethnicity, or country 

of origin—and includes such things as threats, cross 

burnings, assaults, and murder. In 2009, the Matthew 

Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act 

added sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and 

disabilities to the list of biases. That law also allows us to 

prosecute violent hate crimes federally. Before that law, 

many violent hate crimes were prosecuted at the state 

level as traditional assaults, murders, etc....”

“...Color of law violations, more than half of our civil 

rights investigations last year, involve actions taken by 

someone acting under the authority of the law—local, 

state, or federal. Most of these cases are initiated based 

on allegations of excessive force by law enforcement or 

correctional officers. However, there are others that 

involve allegations of sexual assault, theft, or deprivation 

of property...”

“...Human trafficking, just over 20 percent of our 2010 

civil rights caseload, is a form of human slavery that 

cannot be tolerated. It’s a growing problem that includes 

forced physical labor, forced household service, and sex 

trafficking involving international victims or adult U.S. 

citizens. (Note: Sex trafficking of U.S. children is handled 

by the FBI’s Crimes Against Children program.) In early 

2013, the FBI’s uniform crime reporting program will 

Civil Rights 

Program Update

We Take Our Role Very Seriously

August 9, 2011
66 2011 The FBI Story

The bank told Markus he’d receive monthly $1,000 

checks—interest earned by the CDs. But after two 

checks, they stopped coming. He discovered that the CD 

accounts had been emptied and closed by Asia Oropeza. 

So how did the FBI become involved? Markus, 

becoming exceedingly frustrated, contacted a legal aid 

attorney in New York, who in turn sought the help of an 

attorney in Florida. The attorney, who worked the case 

pro bono, contacted Acting U.S. Attorney O’Neill in 

Tampa. And O’Neill got in touch with the FBI and the 

Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Our investigation revealed that the couple used the 

CDs—which were also in Asia Oropeza’s name—as 

collateral when applying for two separate mortgage loans, 

and then once the CDs matured, they used the funds to 

pay off those loans.

Outcome. Asia Oropeza pled guilty to fraud, while her 

husband was later convicted at trial. They were ordered 

to pay Markus restitution, had their real estate holdings 

seized, and received prison terms.

And last month in Tampa, during a press conference 

attended by investigators and prosecutors who worked 

the case, the 25-year-old Markus, who works as a concert 

stage hand in New York, received full restitution—a 

check for $409,662.07. He told the press that receiving 

the money gave him “a new lease on life.”

Special Agent Kelly says that the investigation brought 

him and everyone else involved a great deal of satisfaction. “Cases like this,” he explained, “show us what kind 

of impact our work actually has, and that’s what keeps us 

out there doing it every day.”

It’s almost unthinkable—parents stealing from their own 

foster child. But here’s a story about a couple who did 

exactly that.

It’s also a case that Tampa FBI Agent Dan Kelly, Florida 

Department of Law Enforcement Agent Terry Corn, 

and Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill (now U.S. 

Attorney) won’t soon forget. Said Kelly, “For financial 

crime investigations, we often don’t get to know the 

victims, but in this instance, it was hard not to be 

absorbed into this boy’s situation.”

It started back in 2000, when 13-year-old Markus Kim 

suffered an unimaginable loss—his father murdered his 

mother. Markus was eventually placed with foster parents 

Radhames and Asia Oropeza in Flushing, New York.

About six months later, Markus learned he was entitled 

to a $500,000 life insurance policy that his mother 

had taken out. He couldn’t access the money until he 

turned 18...in the interim it would be managed by the 

life insurance company. Not long after, Radhames and 

Asia Oropeza began suggesting that Markus consider real 

estate investing when he became of age.

Around the time Markus turned 18, his foster parents 

left New York without a word to him. Turns out they had 

moved to Florida, and about a year later, he was invited 

down to visit them. The Oropezas convinced their foster 

son to buy two $200,000 certificates of deposit (CDs) 

from a local bank...to better protect his money, they said. 

Because Markus trusted them, he followed their advice, 

and even allowed Asia Oropeza to co-sign bank documents.

Fraud in the Family

The Case of the Cheating 

Foster Parents

August 12, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 67

Red flags for consumers:

Cars are advertised at too-good-to-be true prices;

Sellers want to move transactions from the original 

website to another site;

Sellers claim that a buyer protection program offered 

by a major Internet company covers an auto transaction conducted outside that company’s website;

Sellers refuse to meet in person or allow potential 

buyers to inspect the car ahead of time;

Sellers who say they want to sell the car because 

they’re in the U.S. military about to be deployed, are 

moving, the car belonged to someone who recently 

died, or a similar story;

Sellers who ask for funds to be wired ahead of time.

Number of complaints. From 2008 through 2010, IC3 

has received nearly 14,000 complaints from consumers 

who have been victimized, or at least targeted, by these 

scams. Of the victims who actually lost money, the total 

dollar amount is staggering: nearly $44.5 million.

If you think you’ve been victimized by an online auto 

scam, file a complaint with IC3. Once complaints are 

received and analyzed, IC3 forwards them as appropriate 

to a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency.

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

You can buy almost anything over the Internet—including clothes, a pizza, music, a hotel room, even a car. 

And while most transactions are conducted lawfully 

and securely, there are instances when criminals insert 

themselves into the marketplace, hoping to trick potential 

victims into falling for one of their scams.

Today, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 

issued an alert about a specific type of cyber scam that 

targets consumers looking to buy vehicles online.

How the scam works. While there are variations, 

here’s a basic description: consumers find a vehicle they 

like—often at a below-market price—on a legitimate 

website. The buyer contacts the seller, usually through an 

e-mail address in the ad, to indicate their interest. The 

seller responds via e-mail, often with a hard-luck story 

about why they want to sell the vehicle and at such a 

good price.

In the e-mail, the seller asks the buyer to move the transaction to the website of another online company...for 

security reasons...and then offers a buyer protection plan 

in the name of a major Internet company (e.g., eBay). 

Through the new website, the buyer receives an invoice 

and is instructed to wire the funds for the vehicle to 

an account somewhere. In a new twist, sometimes the 

criminals pose as company representatives in a live chat 

to answer questions from buyers.

Once the funds are wired, the buyer may be asked by the 

seller to fax a receipt to show that the transaction has 

taken place. And then the seller and buyer agree upon a 

time for the delivery of the vehicle.

What actually happens: The ad the consumer sees is 

either completely phony or was hijacked from another 

website. The buyer is asked to move from a legitimate 

website to a spoofed website, where it’s easier for the 

criminal to conduct business. The buyer protection plan 

offered as part of the deal is bogus. And the buyer is 

asked to fax the seller proof of the transaction so the 

crooks know when the funds are available for stealing.

And by the time buyers realize they’ve been scammed, 

the criminals—and the money—are long gone.

Buying a Car Online?

Read This First

August 15, 2011
68 2011 The FBI Story

The FBI has always relied on gathering and using intelligence to solve crimes and to keep the country safe. 

That was true when we were hunting Nazi spies on U.S. 

soil during World War II, and it was true when agents 

were dismantling the Mafia’s Five Families in New York 

decades later. But 9/11 made it clear that our intelligence 

efforts needed to change—and change quickly—to meet 

the global threat of terrorism.

In the 10 years since 9/11, the Bureau has transformed 

itself from an organization that uses intelligence to one 

that is defined by it. Nowhere is that more apparent 

than in our intelligence analyst program.

Prior to 9/11, there were approximately 1,000 intelligence 

analysts (IAs) in the FBI. Today, there are triple that 

number. “Now, instead of just agents working cases, there 

are intelligence analysts working right alongside them,” 

said Amy Pepper, a senior intelligence manager. “And 

that’s across the entire spectrum of FBI programs.”

That means in criminal cases as well as national security 

matters, IAs are on the front lines—analyzing and disseminating actionable intelligence that enables the FBI 

and our domestic and international partners to get ahead 

of existing and emerging threats.

The Bureau’s transformation into an intelligence-driven 

organization has been successful, Pepper explained, 

“because our leadership understood that the change was 

necessary and that it was simply the right thing to do to 

mitigate the threats the country faces.”

The Directorate of Intelligence (DI), established in 2005, 

is a key component of the FBI’s National Security Branch 

and manages all Bureau intelligence activities.

“With regards to intelligence, we’re not doing anything 

today that we didn’t do before 9/11, but it wasn’t systematic then, and now it is,” said Dina Corsi, a senior 

manager in the DI and a veteran analyst who specialized 

in counterterrorism work.

Prior to 9/11, Corsi said, “IAs could always do what was 

needed, but there was no system-wide program across 

the FBI as there is now, with formal training, standardized intelligence products, and clear-cut career paths for 

analysts. In those days,” she recalled, “the efforts of IAs, 

while considerable, existed in pockets.”

Now, with the entire intelligence analyst program 

administered under the DI, all areas of the Bureau can 

leverage intelligence resources, and those resources 

can be used much more broadly and efficiently to 

connect programs and investigations. That helps agents 

in the field and underscores the value and importance of 

IAs throughout the FBI.

“The scope and topic of particular intelligence needs may 

be different for agents in Portland and in Miami,” Corsi 

explained, “but now the process and the training are the 

same, which makes information that much more accessible and analysis more consistent across the organization.”

New Bureau analysts attend the 10-week Intelligence 

Basic Course at our Quantico training facility, where 

they learn critical thinking skills, research and analysis 

techniques, and communications skills, as well as how to 

produce a variety of intelligence reports and briefings.

Within the U.S. intelligence community, Pepper said, 

“the FBI is no longer seen as just a law enforcement 

agency but also a national security intelligence entity. 

And in the intelligence community, we are one of the few 

agencies that not only have the responsibility to gather 

intelligence, but to act on it as well.”

Intelligence Analysts

Part 1: Central to the Mission

August 18, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 69

“In collection, we’re not evaluating the why of the case or 

even the threat—we’re telling you how we’re positioned 

to collect against it and what capabilities we have—or 

need—to fill the gaps,” said Dina Corsi, chief of the 

Domain Collection Operations Support Section in the 

Directorate of Intelligence.

The goal, Corsi said, is to build collection and reporting capabilities and make the results available to all 

programs across the Bureau. “So if you are working 

in counterintelligence and the Criminal Division might 

have assets you could use, you would be aware of that and 

be able to leverage it. Our job is to streamline the intelligence process.”

Like many of her IA colleagues, Rall was motivated to 

join the Bureau to fight terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. 

She is impressed with the dedication and professionalism 

of her fellow analysts.

“I have met incredibly brilliant people who are analysts 

here,” said Rall, who has a doctorate in psychology. 

“There are lawyers, scientists, people who are multilingual, national and international experts in their fields 

with priceless institutional knowledge going back over 20 

years. It’s an honor to work in this environment.”

Intelligence analysts—IAs in Bureau parlance—are 

involved in nearly every aspect of FBI operations in every 

corner of the globe. And in the decade since 9/11, their 

role has continued to expand.

“Even though analysts don’t carry weapons or arrest 

individuals, there is a growing recognition that what 

we bring to the table is extremely valuable and that we 

are an integral part of the team,” said Sally Rall, an IA 

who works in one of our regional intelligence groups 

in Sacramento.

Analysts begin their FBI training with the 10-week 

Intelligence Basic Course to learn fundamental skills. 

Soon after they begin to specialize in one of three distinct 

analytic areas: strategic, tactical, or collection/reporting. Rall, for example, is a tactical analyst who works on 

domestic terrorism matters.

“Tactical IAs are less big picture and more boots on 

the ground,” she explained. “If an agent needs to get in 

the car and go arrest someone before that person hurts 

somebody, the agent can call an IA for vital information—information that can save lives.”

Strategic analysts, on the other hand, work on longerterm threats on a broader scale. Whereas a tactical IA 

might be focused on a gang case in a particular area, the 

strategic IA might be looking at the gang’s activities from 

a national or transnational perspective.

“Strategic analysis is less about a specific case and more 

about understanding what we know and what we don’t 

know about a threat,” said Marita Cook, a strategic IA in 

our Geospatial Intelligence Unit at Headquarters. “We 

look at threats, vulnerabilities, and gaps in our knowledge for every FBI program. Often, there is so much raw 

information—from cases, sources, and other data—that 

it’s difficult to bring it all together into one clear picture,” 

Cook added. “Our job is to provide clarity.”

IAs who work in the collection/reporting discipline are 

generally responsible for understanding the Bureau’s 

intelligence collection capabilities and how they integrate 

across the FBI and with the entire U.S. intelligence 

community. They also ensure that information is disseminated in a timely manner.

August 23, 2011

Intelligence Analysts

Part 2: The Subject 

Matter Experts
70 2011 The FBI Story

and counsel to our senior leadership, so we are always 

looking at what we know and also what we don’t know.”

That means SIOs are required to understand current 

threats but are also responsible for “looking over 

the horizon to see what we should be anticipating,” 

Ugoretz added. “What do we know today? What should 

we be thinking about for the future? What are the risks 

and opportunities that present themselves? These are the 

issues tailor-made for senior intelligence officers.”

SIOs also serve as a bridge between the FBI and the 

wider intelligence community, making sure that the 

FBI’s perspective is factored into the entire intelligence 

community’s thinking—and making sure the intelligence 

community’s perspective is known to decision makers 

inside the Bureau. SIOs perform a similar liaison role 

with the academic community as well.

These senior analysts usually come from the ranks of 

career intelligence professionals and have significant 

subject matter expertise in their chosen field. “My section 

mainly focuses on intelligence for the Bureau’s executive 

decision-makers,” Ugoretz said. “Our role is to make sure 

leadership is aware of all the information and analysis we 

are generating Bureau-wide. The products we provide can 

ultimately factor into decisions made at the highest levels 

of government.”

The concept of senior intelligence officers is a relatively 

new one to the FBI, Ugoretz said. “So far, the more 

interaction our workforce has with SIOs, the more they 

see the value of the position. We look forward to building 

on that success.”

In the decade since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI’s intelligence 

program has tripled in size, and our analysts work around 

the world—from the war zone in Afghanistan to the 

White House Situation Room—to help keep the country 

safe.

Behind the scenes, Bureau administrators are working 

hard to make the FBI a great career choice for intelligence professionals by defining career paths, offering 

advanced training, and establishing senior-level positions within the organization.

Tonya Ugoretz, the Bureau’s chief intelligence officer, 

manages our senior intelligence officers (SIOs), a group 

of highly skilled professionals whose job description did 

not exist 10 years ago. “Certainly 9/11 was part of the 

reason for creating the SIO corps,” Ugoretz said. “We 

needed an entity that transcended the stove pipes of 

specific program areas, and we wanted to provide analysts 

with senior positions they could aspire to. Developing 

this career ladder helps us increase the opportunities for 

analysts, and it deepens our bench analytically.”

Currently, there are approximately a dozen SIOs whose 

expertise covers all FBI investigative programs, from 

counterterrorism and counterintelligence to criminal 

matters. Some SIOs are assigned geographic territories—

where many criminal and national security investigations 

overlap—and are acknowledged experts on key areas 

around the world.

“SIOs look at threats and issues from a very broad 

perspective,” Ugoretz explained. “Our focus is more bigpicture than day to day cases. SIOs regularly give advice 

Intelligence Analysts

Part 3: A Rewarding Career

August 26, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 71

“You have to learn to handle them all,” says Rice. “If 

people are calling in about fraud you’ve got to deal with 

it. You can’t wait for the fraud guy to come back.”

The Montana offices support each other on large operations, but individual cases are generally handled locally. 

Agents in the Kalispell office in Northwest Montana, for 

example, might focus more heavily on domestic terrorist 

threats, while in Bozeman and Billings the agents might 

be tracing the interstate flow of drugs or cyber scams. 

The 600-mile border with Canada also presents special 

challenges.

Agent Cruse says it takes a special type of agent to 

work in a resident agency, or RA. “You have to be a 

jack of all trades,” he says. “You’ve got to be willing to 

work long, odd hours, you’ve got to be able to get along 

with the local police, you’ve got to be diplomatic, and 

you’ve got to have a tough skin.”

“When you’re in a small RA,” Agent Rice adds, “you are 

the face of the FBI.”

In the early days of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, 

popular lore has it that agents who botched a job 

risked exile to the Bureau’s remote field office in Butte, 

Montana. The field office closed in 1989, but the FBI 

still sends plenty of agents to the Big Sky state. It’s not 

a punitive measure, but a concerted effort to tackle the 

same threats confronting the rest of the country.

“If you think this is a sleepy little burg, think again,” 

says Scott Cruse, an assistant special agent in charge 

in Helena, one of 10 satellite offices, or resident 

agencies, in Montana under the governance of the 

Salt Lake City Field Office, which also covers Utah and 

Idaho. Priorities here largely mirror those of every other 

field office: fraud, corruption, cyber scams, child pornography, terrorism, criminal networks. “We may not have 

the large enterprises in Montana, but we work it up the 

chain,” Cruse says. “We follow that thread.”

Oftentimes, the thread extends well beyond the state’s 

expansive borders. In one recent case, an agent in Helena 

working with local police peeled back the seedy layers 

of a child pornography web spanning at least five states. 

In another case, an agent in Bozeman unraveled a local 

conman’s ruse to trick investors into pouring millions 

into a fictitious gold-mining scheme. The cases, which we 

will feature in the coming days on FBI.gov, illustrate how 

despite the region’s relative remoteness it is not immune 

to the prevailing threats of the modern era.

“It’s not a small world for us anymore,” says Special 

Agent Greg Rice, who works in the Bozeman resident 

agency. “We tend to find a lot of cases that are connected 

to other states or even foreign nationalities.” In one such 

case, a local bank received a fax on what appeared to be 

the letterhead of a local business. The fax actually originated in Russia, instructing the teller to transfer $50,000 

to a foreign account.

“There’s a lot of wealth here,” Rice says. “The people are 

very nice. They’re very trusting.”

The FBI has 56 field offices and about 380 resident 

agencies across the U.S. While in the larger field offices 

agents might work on terrorism or white-collar squads, 

agents like Rice in the small resident agencies have to be 

generalists—capable of working any case anytime.

The FBI has 10 satellite offices, or resident agencies, in Montana 

under the governance of the Salt Lake City Field Office in Utah.

FBI in Montana

Part 1: In Resident Agencies, 

Agents are ‘Jacks of All Trades’

August 30, 2011
72 2011 The FBI Story

“She became angry over the investment and called us,” 

Rice says. When he followed the money and confirmed 

their suspect, Carl Estep, wasn’t putting his investors’ 

money where he’d promised, Rice set up a sting. Only this 

time, he would play the patsy. Working with a female FBI 

agent from the Billings resident agency, Rice staged a ruse 

to pose as husband-and-wife investors who wanted a piece 

of Estep’s venture. They set up a meeting at the airport in 

Bozeman to make it seem as though they had just arrived 

from Chicago.

“We came off the plane, we met him, and we sat down 

in the coffee shop,” Rice says. “I wore a camera and a 

wire—and he pitched the whole deal to me, the exact 

same deal that he pitched to the victim.”

It didn’t end there, though. Estep then escorted the 

would-be investors to a warehouse where he showed them 

stacks of barrels that he claimed each contained about 

1,200 ounces of unrefined gold.

“It was the exact same pattern as what he did with these 

other people,” Rice says. “He flew them out here. He 

took them to the warehouse. He showed them the barrels 

stacked up. All he’d done was get his hands on a bunch of 

barrels with gravel in them. The rest was easy for him.”

The FBI tested samples from the barrels—which didn’t 

contain gold—and identified more victims, including the 

provider of the warehouse. Confronted with the evidence, 

Estep pleaded guilty in January and is now serving a fouryear sentence.

“It’s not a small world for us anymore,” says Rice, an 

Idaho native, describing how even this once-remote area 

is no longer so, due in part to the Internet.

Special Agent Greg Rice asked questions and scribbled 

notes as the woman on the phone detailed why she 

thought she was being scammed.

Did she have records, receipts, account numbers? Was she 

still on good terms with the suspected scammer? From 

the moment he picked up the phone in the Bozeman 

Resident Agency, Rice was laying the groundwork for a 

potential case. A day earlier, he took two similar calls.

“A lot of my time is dedicated to working fraud,” says 

Rice, who was an agent in Las Vegas for eight years before 

moving to Bozeman six years ago. “We don’t take everything that comes in the door. But there’s a lot to choose 

from.”

In resident agencies, which are slimmed-down satellites of the Bureau’s 56 field offices, case agents are the 

face of the FBI for local police departments, community leaders, and the public. In the smaller offices like 

Rice’s in Bozeman—an affluent college town surrounded 

by farms, ranches, and retired millionaires—agents field 

complaints of all stripes and vet which ones cross the 

threshold for federal involvement. One such case, an 

Internet fraud scam in 2009 that reached victims as far 

afield as Florida and Texas, illustrates how complaints 

like the phone calls Rice picked up in early July can 

bloom into full-blown investigations.

In that case, a woman in Florida called Rice to report 

that she sent $225,000 to a Bozeman man who claimed 

he had a stockpile of unrefined gold and was looking for 

investors to finance refineries. He promised big returns. 

When that didn’t materialize, the investor got suspicious.

FBI in Montana

Part 2: Bozeman Fraud Case 

Shows ‘It’s Not a Small World’

September 2, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 73

In Los Angeles, six defendants—including one 

doctor—were charged for their roles in schemes to 

defraud Medicare of more than $10.7 million. 

In Brooklyn, three defendants—including two 

doctors—were charged in a fraud scheme involving 

more than $3.4 million in false claims for medically 

unnecessary physical therapy.

In Detroit, 18 additional defendants—including 

doctors, nurses, clinic operators, and other health 

care professionals—were charged for schemes involving an additional $28 million in false billing.

In addition to our role on the Medicare Fraud Strike 

Force, the FBI also operates health care fraud task 

forces or working groups in all 56 of our field offices.

Hundreds of agents and analysts—using intelligence to 

identify emerging schemes and tactics—are currently 

working more than 2,600 health care fraud investigations.

Nearly 70 percent of these cases involve governmentsponsored programs, like Medicare, since the Bureau is 

the primary investigative agency with jurisdiction over 

federal insurance programs. But we also have primary 

investigative jurisdiction over private insurance programs, 

and we work closely with private insurers to address 

threats and fraud directed towards these programs.

Taking part in this takedown were more than 400 law 

enforcement personnel from the FBI, HHS-Office of 

Inspector General, multiple Medicare fraud control 

units, and state and local law enforcement agencies.

▪

▪

▪

In Houston, two individuals were charged today with 

Medicare fraud schemes involving $62 million in false 

claims for home health care and durable medical equipment. According to the indictment, one of the defendants sold Medicare beneficiary information to 100 

different Houston-area home health care agencies, and 

the agencies used that information to bill Medicare for 

services that were unnecessary or not even provided.

But that’s just the tip of today’s enforcement iceberg:

this afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI 

Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, and other 

officials announced a nationwide takedown that took 

place over the past week involving Medicare Fraud Strike 

Force operations in seven other cities as well—Baton 

Rouge, Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, 

and Miami. A total of 91 individuals were charged with 

various Medicare fraud-related offenses, including fraudulent billings of approximately $295 million, the largest 

amount in phony claims involved in a single takedown in 

Strike Force history.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force, coordinated 

jointly by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the 

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is 

a multi-agency team of federal, state, and local investigators who combat Medicare fraud by analyzing data 

about the problem and putting an increased focus on 

community policing. The strike force is part of the Health 

Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team 

(HEAT), another joint DOJ-HHS initiative that works 

to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud 

laws. The strike force currently operates in nine U.S. 

cities (the eight cities mentioned previously, plus Tampa) 

in areas victimized by high levels of health care fraud.

Other cases announced today include:

In Miami, 45 individuals—including a doctor and a 

nurse—were charged for their participation in various 

fraud schemes involving a total of $159 million in 

fraudulent Medicare billings in the areas of home 

health care, mental health services, occupational and 

physical therapy, durable medical equipment, and 

HIV infusion.

▪

FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, left, is joined by

Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

in announcing a nationwide Medicare fraud takedown operation.

Health Care Fraud 

Takedown

Targets $295 Million in 

False Medicare Claims

September 7, 2011
74 2011 The FBI Story

man in December 2008. He was prosecuted in Montana, 

where authorities received consent to take over his online 

identity and link up his circle of acquaintances. This is 

where a larger web came into focus.

“It spun off across the country,” Damuth says.

Helena Police Department Detective Bryan Fischer 

assumed Burris’ identity and quickly honed in on Russel 

Bradney of Sacramento. Under the guise of Burris, 

Det. Fischer traded messages with Bradney and collected evidence. Meanwhile, the FBI in Sacramento was 

already making a case on Bradney and discovered he was 

trading child pornography with Thomas Elgert of New 

Jersey. Agents and ICAC officers in Sacramento moved 

on Bradney. Then Agent Damuth in Montana took 

over Bradney’s identity, continuing the correspondence 

with Elgert in New Jersey and another man, Anthony 

Richards, in Maine.

At this point, Det. Fisher was still undercover as Kyle 

Burris, and Agent Damuth was continuing the personas 

of both Bradney and the single mother in Montana. 

When Elgert got word from Bradney’s account about a 

Montana woman and her two daughters, he expressed 

interest.

“I was communicating with him at both ends,” Agent 

Damuth recalls.

In March 2009, the FBI and ICAC officers arrested 

Anthony Richards in Maine. Damuth and agents in 

Newark arrested Elgert two months later, but not before 

linking him to yet another child pornographer, Ted 

Girdner, in California. He was arrested in August 2009.

A cadre of state and federal officers and agents on 

the Innocent Images National Initiative Task Force 

and the Montana ICAC Task Force played essential 

roles, Damuth says. All the suspects received hefty prison 

sentences. Meanwhile, untold numbers of victims remain 

unidentified, the exact origins of their images unknown. 

Montana has its own share of homegrown cases, but 

Damuth and Fisher are never surprised when a trail leads 

far beyond their borders.

“When we get stuff like this it can go wherever,” says Det. 

Fischer. Adds Damuth, “Nothing surprises me anymore.”

When Kyle Burris struck up a conversation with a single 

mother of two young daughters in an online chat forum 

in 2008, he could not have imagined the direction it 

would take. What he thought was going to happen was 

this: he’d send the Montana woman some images of child 

pornography and she would reciprocate with pictures 

of her own kids being molested. So sure was Burris that 

this scenario would play out, he e-mailed images to the 

woman during their very first chat, and over the next few 

weeks began making plans to travel from New York to 

Montana.

What he did not expect was that the “woman” was 

Special Agent Kevin Damuth of the FBI’s resident agency 

in Helena, one of 10 Montana satellite offices under 

the umbrella of the Salt Lake City Field Office in Utah. 

Like most agents in the FBI’s approximately 380 resident 

agencies, Damuth is a generalist, equally aplomb at 

handling white-collar and violent crimes, fraud, and cyber 

crimes. In recent years, however, working with the Helena 

Police Department on the Montana Internet Crimes 

Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, he has developed a 

unique skill in snaring child pornographers, whose use of 

the Internet makes rural Montana as susceptible to predators as any big city.

“That’s the thing about Montana,” says Damuth, an 

agent of almost 13 years, most of them in Helena. 

“Not only are things happening here, there’s almost 

always a nexus outside of the state.”

In the Burris case, agents from Helena and the ICAC 

Task Force in Buffalo, New York arrested the 40-year-old 

FBI in Montana

Part 3: Online Operation 

Reveals Network of Predators

September 9, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 75

original intended parents had backed out. They were 

offered the opportunity to “assume” the non-existent surrogacy agreement. The parents would hand over between 

$100,000 and $150,000 to the defendants, but less than 

half of that went to the surrogate—Erickson, Neiman, 

and Chambers pocketed the rest.

The defendants typically used the Internet to recruit, 

solicit, and communicate with surrogates and intended 

parents. Most of the surrogates and parents lived 

outside of California.

One of the most critical aspects of the scheme involved 

Erickson filing fraudulent documents in California court 

stating that a surrogacy agreement had been in place 

from the start and asking for what’s called a “pre-birth 

judgment” that would establish parental rights. That way, 

under California law, the names of the intended parents 

could be placed on the birth certificate when the baby 

was born.

The scam was uncovered when one of the surrogates, 

nearly seven months pregnant, was worried that parents 

hadn’t been found for the baby she was carrying. She 

contacted a lawyer, who then contacted the FBI’s San 

Diego office.

It’s a shocking tale.

Three women recently pled guilty in San Diego, admitting to taking part in a scheme to illegally create an 

inventory of babies to sell to unwitting would-be parents 

for fees of between $100,000 and $150,000 each.

The three took advantage of couples who desperately 

wanted children, offering them seemingly legitimate 

surrogacy situations. They also took advantage of women 

recruited as “gestational carriers” to carry pregnancies to 

term after having embryos transferred to their uteruses.

The defendants in this case included two lawyers who 

specialized in reproductive law: Theresa Erickson, a 

well-known California attorney, and Hilary Neiman, who 

operated an adoption/surrogacy agency in Maryland. 

The third conspirator was Carla Chambers of Nevada, 

who served as the “surrogacy facilitator.” Together, they 

circumvented surrogacy regulations that say contracts 

between surrogates and intended parents must be 

executed before a pregnancy occurs...and lied to surrogates, intended parents, and the California family court.

Here’s how the scam worked: Chambers admitted 

visiting adoption/surrogacy-themed online chat rooms 

and forums in search of surrogates and parents. Erickson 

and Neiman also used their own sterling reputations to 

legitimize the scheme.

Surrogates were made to travel to Ukraine in Eastern 

Europe to become implanted with embryos derived from 

anonymous donors—Chambers usually made all the 

arrangements—with the promise that they would be 

compensated by the intended parents. The women were 

led to believe that they were participating in legal surrogacy arrangements and that there was a waiting list of 

potential parents for the babies. They also had to agree to 

give birth in California.

They were promised quick matches with intended 

parents, but the co-conspirators usually waited until the 

second or even third trimester of the pregnancies before 

seeking parents. Neiman and Erickson then drafted 

contracts between the surrogates and intended parents, 

well after the time frame required by law.

The hopeful couples were told the unborn babies were 

the result of legitimate surrogacy arrangements, but the 

Surrogacy Scam

Played on Emotions of 

Vulnerable Victims

September 13, 2011
76 2011 The FBI Story

Alliance members—many have staff permanently located 

at the NCFTA—then develop strategies to mitigate the 

threat. FBI agents and analysts from CIRFU, also located 

at NCFTA headquarters, use that information to open or 

further existing FBI investigations, often in concert with 

law enforcement partners around the world.

“Cyber crime has changed so much since those early days 

of spamming,” Strom said. “And the threat continues 

to evolve globally, which is why the NCFTA’s work is so 

critical to both business and law enforcement.”

The organization draws its intelligence from hundreds 

of private-sector members, Carnegie Mellon University’s 

Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), and the 

FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). That 

extensive knowledge base has helped CIRFU play a key 

role in some of the FBI’s most significant cyber cases in 

the past several years.

Training is another important role of the NCFTA.

Last year, an international internship program was held in 

which cyber investigators from Germany, Great Britain, 

Australia, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and the Ukraine 

came to the alliance headquarters for 90 days to share 

knowledge, build relationships, and help with each others’ 

investigations.

“Working with CIRFU and the NCFTA makes our 

cooperation very direct,” said Mirko Manske, a cyber 

investigator for the German Federal Criminal Police. “We 

can work in real time, sharing information and moving 

our cases forward. That is one of the biggest gains for us.”

Manske added, “If I need a contact in the U.S., I reach 

out to CIRFU, and they help me immediately. And we 

do the same for them. Basically we are opening doors for 

each other.”

When it comes to the global reach of cyber crime, 

Manske said, “The FBI gets it. They realize that no one 

organization can succeed by itself. CIRFU started all of 

this,” he added. “The unit is one of the reasons the FBI 

is recognized as one of the worldwide leaders in the fight 

against cyber crime.”

Long before it was acknowledged to be a significant 

criminal and national security threat, the FBI established 

a forward-looking organization to proactively address the 

issue of cyber crime.

Since its creation in 1997, the National Cyber 

Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), based in 

Pittsburgh, has become an international model for 

bringing together law enforcement, private industry, 

and academia to share information to stop emerging 

cyber threats and mitigate existing ones.

“The exchange of strategic and threat intelligence is 

really the bread and butter of the NCFTA,” said Special 

Agent Eric Strom, who heads the FBI unit—the Cyber 

Initiative and Resource Fusion Unit (CIRFU)—assigned 

to the NCFTA. “The success of this effort at every level 

comes down to the free flow of information among our 

partners.”

When the nonprofit NCFTA was established, the biggest 

threat to industry was from spam—those annoying 

unsolicited e-mails that fill up inboxes. Today, the 

organization deals with malicious computer viruses, stock 

manipulation schemes, telecommunication scams, and 

other financial frauds perpetrated by organized crime 

groups who cause billions of dollars in losses to companies 

and consumers.

The NCFTA essentially works as an early-warning 

system. If investigators for a major banking institution, 

for example, notice a new kind of malware attacking their 

network, they immediately pass that information to other 

NCFTA members.

The NCFTA

Combining Forces to 

Fight Cyber Crime

September 16, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 77

How often firearms were used in crimes: in 67.5 

percent of reported murders, 41.4 percent of reported 

robberies, and 20.6 percent of aggravated assaults; 

and

Total losses for victims of property crimes, excluding 

arsons: an estimated $15.7 billion.

Beyond the crime count. The report contains what’s 

called “expanded offense data.” This information involves 

additional details about some of the crimes—i.e., type of 

weapon used; locations of robberies; type or value of items 

stolen; and for the offense of murder, the age, sex, and 

race of victims and offenders, and, if known, the relationship of the victim to the offender.

It also contains arrest data on the above crimes, plus 

about 20 other offenses, including forgery/counterfeiting, 

fraud, gambling, weapons violations, drug violations, sex 

offenses, and driving under the influence.

You can browse through the statistics contained in the 

report and choose particular information you’d like to 

focus on—like national data, regional data, state totals, 

reporting agencies, cities and counties grouped by populations, and statistics from certain metropolitan areas.

We caution against drawing any kind of conclusions from the report by making direct comparisons 

between cities. Valid assessments are only possible 

with an understanding of various factors affecting each 

jurisdiction.

According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Crime in the 

United States can provide “valuable insight into the nature 

and volume of crime in small and large communities 

alike.” It can also “offer a picture that experts can study, 

and as a result, produce new strategies or improve current 

methods of combating crime.”

▪

▪

The incidence of crime nationwide decreased again, 

according to our just released Crime in the United States

report. Overall, the estimated volume of violent crimes 

in 2010 dropped 6 percent compared to the 2009 figure, 

the fourth consecutive year it has declined. For the eighth 

consecutive year, the volume of property crimes went 

down as well—2.7 percent.

The report was compiled from data submitted to us by 

more than 18,000 city, county, university and college, 

state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies 

from around the nation. It contains information on the 

number of reported murders and non-negligent manslaughters, forcible rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, 

burglaries, larceny-thefts, motor vehicle thefts, and 

arsons.

Violent crime offenses were down across the board—the 

largest decrease was robbery, down 10.0 percent. Property 

crime offenses went down as well—the largest decline, 7.4 

percent, was for motor vehicle thefts.

Here are some highlights from Crime in the United 

States, 2010:

Total number of crimes reported: 10,329,135 

(1,246,248 violent crimes and 9,082,887 property 

crimes);

Most common violent crime: aggravated assault (62.5 

percent of all violent crimes during 2010);

Most common property crime: larceny-theft (68.2 

percent of all property crimes during 2010);

Top three crimes for which law enforcement reported 

arrests: drug abuse violations (1,638,846), driving 

while intoxicated (1,412,223), and larceny-theft 

(1,271,410);

Total number of arrests, excluding traffic violations: 

13,120,947, including 552,077 for violent crimes and 

1,643,962 for property crimes (the number of arrests 

doesn’t reflect the number of individuals arrested—

some individuals may have been arrested more than 

once);

Most common characteristics of arrestees: 74.5 

percent of arrestees were male, and 69.4 percent of 

arrestees were white; 

▪

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Latest Crime Statistics

Volumes Continue to Fall

September 19, 2011
78 2011 The FBI Story

representatives of the courts, and other public officials, 

along with government buildings. When caught, most 

militia extremists are charged with weapons, explosives, 

and/or conspiracy violations.

What they believe in. Many militia extremists view 

themselves as protecting the U.S. Constitution, other 

U.S. laws, or their own individual liberties. They believe 

that the Constitution grants citizens the power to take 

back the federal government by force or violence if they 

feel it’s necessary. They oppose gun control efforts and 

fear the widespread disarming of Americans by the 

federal government.

Militia extremists often subscribe to various conspiracy 

theories regarding government. One of their primary 

theories is that the United Nations—which they refer 

to as the New World Order, or NWO—has the right to 

use its military forces anywhere in the world (it doesn’t, 

of course). The extremists often train and prepare for 

what they foresee as an inevitable invasion of the U.S. 

by United Nations forces. Many militia extremists also 

wrongly believe that the federal government will relocate 

citizens to camps controlled by the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, or force them to undergo vaccinations.

One important note: simply espousing anti-government rhetoric is not against the law. However, seeking to 

advance that ideology through force or violence is illegal, 

and that’s when the FBI and law enforcement become 

involved.

What is the FBI doing to combat the militia extremism threat? In addition to our lawful use of sophisticated 

investigative techniques, we’ve expanded our work with 

other federal agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, 

Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and with our state and 

local partners. And we use intelligence and analysis to 

help identify gaps in our knowledge, emerging tactics and 

trends, and effective investigative strategies.

As always, the combination of intelligence, coordinated 

law enforcement efforts, and an informed public is 

the most effective way to counter the threats posed by 

domestic extremists.

Last March, nine members of an extremist militia group 

were charged in Michigan with seditious conspiracy and 

attempted use of weapons of mass destruction in connection with an alleged plot to attack law enforcement and 

spark an uprising against the government.

According to the federal indictment, the nine individuals 

planned to kill a law enforcement officer and then use 

bombs to attack the caravan of cars taking part in the 

subsequent funeral procession, hoping that this violence 

would incite a larger armed conflict with authorities. 

Fortunately, the FBI and the Michigan State Police 

intervened and took the subjects into custody before they 

could carry out their alleged plot.

It’s just one example of the dangers posed by so-called 

militia extremists—the latest topic in our series to 

educate the nation on domestic terror threats that the 

FBI investigates today. Previous stories have focused on 

anarchist extremists, eco-terrorists/animal rights extremists, lone offenders, and sovereign citizen extremists.

Who they are. Like many domestic terrorism groups, 

militia extremists are anti-government. What sets them 

apart is that they’re often organized into paramilitary 

groups that follow a military-style rank hierarchy. They 

tend to stockpile illegal weapons and ammunition, trying 

illegally to get their hands on fully automatic firearms or 

attempting to convert weapons to fully automatic. They 

also try to buy or manufacture improvised explosive 

devices and typically engage in wilderness, survival, or 

other paramilitary training.

Who and what they target. They usually go after the 

government itself—including law enforcement personnel, 

Domestic Terrorism

Focus on Militia Extremism

Left: A cache of guns seized from militia extremists

September 22, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 79

farther the beam travels the more spread out it becomes. 

“At 500 feet,” Childs said, “that two-centimeter dot you 

see on your wall can be six feet wide.” To date, no aircraft 

have been lost as a result of laser incidents, he added, but 

there have been eye injuries, and perpetrators have gone 

to jail.

Those responsible for “lasering” aircraft fit two general 

profiles, Childs explained. “Consistently, it’s either minors 

with no criminal history or older men with criminal 

records.” The teens are usually curious or fall victim to 

peer pressure, Childs said. The older men simply have a 

reckless disregard for the safety of others. There are also 

intentional acts of laser pointing by human traffickers 

or drug runners seeking to thwart airborne surveillance, 

Childs added.

As for Justin Stouder, the helicopter pilot he lasered 

helped guide police to his house, where he was arrested 

minutes after the incident.

“I had no idea it illuminated the whole cockpit and 

blinded everybody inside,” Stouder said during the news 

conference. He offered a public apology and volunteered 

to tell his story in the hopes of educating the public 

about the dangers of laser pointing. “It was really a selfish 

mistake,” he said of his actions.

Justin Stouder was aiming a laser pointer at a distant 

tower from his suburban St. Louis yard one April evening 

in 2010 when a police helicopter appeared in his line of 

sight more than a mile away.

At the time, the 24-year-old had no idea that his 

decision to point the laser at the helicopter was a 

federal felony—or that the beam of light might have 

serious consequences for the pilot and his crew.

“It’s equivalent to a flash of a camera if you were in a 

pitch black car at night,” said St. Louis Metropolitan 

Police Officer Doug Reinholz, the pilot on patrol that 

night when Stouder’s green hand-held laser “painted” his 

cockpit. “It’s a temporary blinding to the pilot,” he said 

during a recent news conference highlighting the danger 

of lasers directed at airplanes and helicopters.

Interfering with the operation of an aircraft is a crime 

punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a 

$250,000 fine, and laser incidents are on the rise. Since 

the FBI and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 

began keeping records of laser events in 2004, “there has 

been an exponential increase every year,” said Tim Childs 

from the Federal Air Marshal Service, who serves as a 

liaison officer with the Bureau on laser issues.

In 2009, there were 1,489 laser events logged with the 

FAA—that is, pilots reporting that their cockpits were 

illuminated by the devices. The following year, that 

figure had nearly doubled to 2,836, an average of more 

than seven incidents every day of the year. And the 

overwhelming number of the incidents involved green 

lasers—especially dangerous because the human eye is 

most susceptible to damage from the yellow-green light 

spectrum.

Hand-held lasers—about the size of fountain pens—are 

used legitimately by astronomy hobbyists and in industrial 

applications. Anyone can purchase one, and technology 

has made them inexpensive and more powerful. Lasers 

costing as little as $1 can have ranges of two miles—

strong enough to target a variety of aircraft.

And what appears as a dot of light on the ground 

can illuminate an entire cockpit, disorienting a pilot 

or causing temporarily blindness. That’s because the 

What appears as a dot of light on the ground can illuminate an entire 

cockpit, disorienting a pilot or causing temporary blindness.

Making a Point 

About Lasers

Illegal Use of Devices 

a Serious Crime

September 26, 2011
80 2011 The FBI Story

It has been nearly 10 years since a killer stood outside 

the Seattle home of Tom Wales and fired several shots 

from a handgun through a basement window, killing the 

assistant U.S. attorney and father of two while he worked 

at his desk.

Since that time, the FBI and our law enforcement 

partners have dedicated themselves to finding those 

responsible for the murder. Now, as the 10th anniversary of the killing approaches on October 11, we are 

announcing a new media campaign to again ask for 

the public’s assistance.

“This is an active case in which we are constantly and 

aggressively pursuing leads,” said Greg Fowler, the FBI 

inspector in charge of the task force investigating the 

murder. “Information is the key,” Fowler added, “and the 

better the information, the greater the chance of finding 

those responsible.”

Wales, a prosecutor who specialized in white-collar 

crime cases, was shot at 10:40 p.m. It has been 

reported that a lone male suspect was observed leaving 

the scene.

“We know information about the crime is still out there,” 

Fowler said. “We know there are people who—because of 

fear, doubt, or other reasons—have not yet come forward. 

Regardless of the reasons, now is the time to come 

forward. Now is the time to tell us what you know. Now is 

the time to help us solve this crime.”

During the next few weeks, residents in the Seattle 

region will see and hear a variety of print, broadcast, and 

billboard advertisements regarding the Wales investigation and the reward of up to $1 million for information 

leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. 

In addition, detailed information about the case will be 

available on our website and our social media outlets, 

including Facebook.

“There are those who may not even know their information is important,” Fowler said, explaining the need for 

the media campaign. “Something seen, something heard, 

something out of place, something unusual—even the 

smallest clue may help.”

Special Agent Russ Fox, who has been supervising the 

investigation for the past two years, added that the 10th 

anniversary of the murder is a natural point to “renew 

the public’s interest in the investigation.” Fox noted that 

the murder took place exactly one month after the 9/11 

terrorist attacks, which should help people remember that 

time period.

Fox acknowledged that the case has special significance because Wales was a federal prosecutor and 

a partner to law enforcement. “But he was also a 

neighbor, a father, and a member of our community.”

The FBI, the Seattle Police Department, the King County 

Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and the Department of 

Justice—which form the Seattle Prosecutor Murder Task 

Force—“are still fully committed to this case,” Fox said.

“The murder of Tom Wales was more than a single act 

of violence against an individual,” Fowler added. “It was 

a crime that impacted many, but no one more than his 

family. Tom Wales left behind a legacy and a life that 

cannot be replaced. We remain confident that, with the 

public’s help, we will find those responsible and bring 

them to justice.”

If you have any information about the case, there are 

three ways you can contact the FBI, all of which are 

confidential:

Call (206) 622-0460;

E-mail walestips@ic.fbi.gov; or

Send a letter to P.O. Box 2755, Seattle, WA 98111.

▪

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Help Us Find a Killer

Media Campaign 

Marks Anniversary of 

Prosecutor’s Murder

September 28, 2011

Left: Amy and Tom Wales issue a plea for information about their 

father’s 2001 murder in Seattle.
2011 The FBI Story 81

“CETS has the ability to put the same information in 

one place and make it available in a unified standard 

for everyone,” said Special Agent Charles Wilder, who 

heads DARC. “That’s important because the Internet 

has removed all geographic boundaries in these types of 

crimes.”

The CETS program was created by Microsoft at the 

request of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police National 

Child Exploitation Coordination Center—investigators 

there wanted a system designed specifically for child 

exploitation cases. The program is now being used in 

Canada and Australia—and Interpol, the international 

police organization, is working with several of its member 

countries to integrate CETS into its existing systems.

The ultimate goal is to expand the number of CETS users 

and to one day integrate all the operations so investigators can share information in a truly global way. “Right 

now,” Cordero said, “the immediate benefit for the FBI is 

that CETS saves us a tremendous amount of time in the 

image review process. Bad guys who trade pornographic 

images have massive collections,” she said. “We regularly 

seize hundreds of thousands of images. CETS makes the 

review process extremely efficient.”

She added, “The FBI has terrific partnerships with cyber 

investigators in the U.S. and around the world. As we 

move forward, CETS will allow us to strengthen those 

partnerships by sharing more and more critical information. This type of technology is a model for the future.”

Investigators dedicated to rescuing child victims of sexual 

abuse and arresting those who traffic in child pornography are often faced with the difficult and time-consuming 

task of analyzing hundreds of thousands of illicit images 

traded online.

That painstaking work is critical to identifying victims 

and their abusers, however, and members of our 

Digital Analysis and Research Center (DARC)—part 

of the FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative—use 

a mix of sophisticated computer tools and domestic 

and international partnerships to get the job done.

DARC personnel, who analyze digital evidence in the 

most significant online child exploitation cases, are currently testing a software tool called the Child Exploitation 

Tracking System (CETS). The CETS program—already 

in use in several locations around the world—is designed 

to streamline investigations and integrate with other 

CETS operations so that law enforcement agencies can 

enhance their cooperation and efficiently move their 

cases forward.

“CETS has tremendous potential for the FBI,” said 

Special Agent Barbara Cordero, a veteran cyber investigator who manages research, development, and training 

for the Innocent Images National Initiative. “Eventually, 

when everyone is plugged into CETS, it will allow law 

enforcement everywhere to share key information.”

“If I’m in a small police department in Iowa, I might not 

know that another department in Maryland is investigating the same subject I am investigating,” Cordero 

explained. “CETS will tell me that, along with other 

important information.”

Essentially, CETS is a repository that can be filled 

with records pertaining to child pornography and 

child exploitation cases. The system can contain images, 

case information, identities of known offenders along 

with information about their Internet addresses, and 

other related material. The program can analyze millions 

of pornographic images, helping law enforcement personnel avoid duplication of effort. The program can also 

perform in-depth analyses, establishing links in cases that 

investigators might not have seen by themselves.

Protecting our Children

Technology, Partnerships 

Work Hand in Hand

October 3, 2011
82 2011 The FBI Story

his assistant, John Cimperman—the FBI began reviewing 

the British decrypts at MI-6 in January 1943. The bits 

of intelligence related to possible German espionage on 

U.S. soil were passed to FBI Headquarters and then on to 

Bureau agents for action.

The information was especially valuable to our work 

in South America, where in June 1940—under orders 

from President Franklin D. Roosevelt—the FBI had 

set up the Special Intelligence Service, or SIS, to 

pinpoint and neutralize Nazi spy rings and intelligence 

activities in the Western Hemisphere.

It helped us, for example, in Argentina, where a network 

of secret Nazi radio stations had sprung up after being 

shut down in Brazil in 1942. With the help of Ostrich 

messages decoded both by the British and by cryptanalysts in the FBI Laboratory, the Bureau learned of the 

strong political influence and extensive intelligence 

activities of German agent Johannes Becker, mapped out 

the operation of his ring, disrupted its work throughout 

the war, and later shut it down completely in the summer 

of 1945.

Without Ostrich, the FBI would not have been as successful in pinning down the extent of Nazi espionage 

in South America through the SIS. On a broader level, 

Ostrich intelligence enabled the Bureau to control the 

movements of its double agents and ensure they were 

successful in penetrating German intelligence. It was, in 

the end, one of the FBI’s most significant sources of intelligence in World War II.

Of course, as the war ended, so did the information 

stream provided by Ostrich and Ultra. But the lessons 

learned would continue on—most especially in our efforts 

to penetrate Soviet intelligence in the coming Cold War 

through cooperative cryptanalytic ventures like Venona. 

Today, such pioneering information-sharing initiatives are 

now widespread and widely recognized as key to the work 

of the FBI and its global partners in protecting the world 

from terrorists, spies, and dangerous criminals.

Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower thought the 

intelligence was vital to Allied victory in World War II. 

Eisenhower is said to have called it “decisive.” Churchill 

was reported to be even stronger in his assessment to 

King George VI.

The intelligence was called “Ultra’’—because it was so 

highly secret—and it consisted of intercepted and later 

decoded radio and cable messages sent by the Nazis to 

their clandestine networks in Europe and South America 

during the war. Ultra was launched by British intelligence 

in 1941 and ultimately became a cooperative Allied 

effort.

The FBI learned of Ultra in November 1942 and was 

immediately interested because of its implications 

on investigative efforts during the war. We gave the 

intelligence we were able to obtain through Ultra another 

name—“Ostrich.” The code name was arbitrary, but the 

information it provided was anything but. The intercepted messages—whether decrypted by British cipher 

experts, U.S. Army and Navy code breakers, or the new 

and rapidly improving cryptanalysis team in the FBI 

Laboratory—were invaluable to our work to protect the 

homeland from German espionage and sabotage.

The Ostrich information was often hard to come by. 

In those days, secrecy was paramount and cooperation was just beginning between the FBI and overseas 

intelligence services like the British Secret Intelligence 

Service, now more commonly known as MI-6. But 

through the Bureau’s newly formed legal attaché office in 

London—headed by Special Agent Arthur Thurston and 

A Byte Out of History

A Most Helpful Ostrich: Using 

Ultra Intelligence in World War II

Left: Special Agent Arthur Thurston, head of the FBI’s London office 

during World War II

October 6, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 83

website domain—back to the same individual. Through 

billing information, we learned that the man had made 

about $20,000 per month from his subscribers. We believe 

he had been operating the site since at least 2007.

After the arrest, we identified 17 additional Chineselanguage child pornography websites he allegedly maintained and operated. We also seized two servers in Dallas 

where those sites were hosted. All 18 websites have been 

shut down.

During the course of the operation, FBI and Chinese 

investigators and prosecutors met to discuss the case 

and to talk about future cooperation on similar cases.

One concrete outcome of this partnership? The Ministry 

of Public Security sent its first Chinese officer to join 

the FBI’s Innocent Images International Task Force 

and receive specialized training on such topics as legal 

principles, emerging trends and technologies, and investigative techniques. Once the fall 2011 training session 

is completed, the task force will number 100 officers in 

43 countries. Since its launch in 2004, the task force has 

built an international network of Internet child sexual 

exploitation investigators who share intelligence and work 

joint operations across national borders. Exactly what’s 

needed to combat the many child pornographers using 

the Internet to extend their nefarious reach around the 

globe.

In another example of the increasingly international 

nature of crime, a man was recently indicted on federal 

charges of running 18 Chinese-language child pornography websites out of his apartment in Flushing, New York. 

The websites were being advertised to Chinese-speaking 

individuals in China, in the U.S., and other countries.

This case serves as an example of something else as 

well: the increasingly international nature of law enforcement. While the FBI investigated this case in the U.S., 

we received what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the 

Southern District of New York called “extensive cooperation and assistance” from the Chinese Ministry of Public 

Security.

How it all started. In late 2010, the FBI—through our 

legal attaché office in Beijing—received information from 

Chinese officials about their investigation of a large-scale 

child pornography website housed on U.S. servers. And 

one of their main suspects, a Chinese-born man, was 

living in New York. So our New York office opened an investigation under our Innocent Images National Initiative 

and instituted an undercover operation.

The investigation. While the main webpage advertised 

the various categories of pornographic pictures that were 

available, our undercover agents—with the help of an FBI 

Chinese language specialist—discovered that in order 

to actually view, post, or download the pornography, you 

had to pay a membership fee ($25 quarterly, $50 annually, 

and $100 for a “lifetime” membership). The website 

conveniently accepted all payment types—credit cards, 

wire and bank transfers, online payments, and even cash 

that could be mailed to what turned out to be a money 

transfer office in New York. After becoming “members,” 

the agents saw hundreds of disturbing pictures and videos 

of children of all different nationalities engaging in 

sexually explicit conduct.

Through our investigative efforts, we were able to determine that the site—and its related online payment 

system—resided on the servers of a web hosting company 

in Dallas and that the subscriber of the website domain 

lived in Flushing. We also traced two e-mail accounts—

one featured on the site and the other affiliated with the 

18 Child Porn 

Websites Shut Down

Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation

October 11, 2011
84 2011 The FBI Story

1989, David Maxwell, the victim’s brother, began reviewing the file on his sister’s death. Maxwell reconsidered his 

plan to become a lawyer after his sister died and instead 

joined the Texas State Highway Patrol and later the Texas 

Rangers. He asked the Houston PD to review the original 

evidence and witness reports for any new leads.

A Houston newspaper ran an article publicizing the 

murder and requesting assistance from the public. At the 

same time, the Houston PD began a search for the latent 

prints lifted from the victim’s car.

Once located, the prints were searched against the 

Houston PD’s local fingerprint database and the Texas 

Department of Public Safety’s Automated Fingerprint 

Identification System. Neither searched yielded a positive 

ID.

On July 23, 2003, Texas Department of Public Safety 

Latent Print Technician Jill Kinkade prepared the prints 

for a search of the FBI’s IAFIS. In less than five hours, 

the system returned a response containing 20 potential 

matches, and Kinkade determined that the latent print 

evidence was a match to the number one candidate—

James Ray Davis.

Honing in on a suspect. Investigators discovered that 

Davis had been arrested for various crimes before and 

after Diane Maxwell Jackson’s murder—in fact, he had 

just finished a prison term nine days before the murder.

Learning about the latent print identification of Davis, 

Houston PD Sergeant James Ramsey—the case’s lead 

investigator—quickly located the suspect living along 

the Texas-Arkansas border. Investigators knew that 

because his fingerprints were recovered from the outside 

of the victim’s car, they would likely need a confession in 

order to get a conviction, After being presented with the 

forensic evidence and photographs of the crime scene, 

Davis admitted to the crimes.

He pled guilty in court, and on November 24, 2003, 

34 years after the homicide, James Ray Davis was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Diane 

Maxwell Jackson.

On December 14, 1969, a young single mother named 

Diane Maxwell Jackson arrived for her shift as a 

Southwestern Bell telephone operator in Houston. After 

parking her car in the company lot, she was forced into 

a nearby shack by an unknown individual and brutally 

raped, strangled, and stabbed to death. After a thorough 

investigation by the Houston Police Department (PD), no 

suspects were identified, and the latent prints lifted from 

the outside of the victim’s car were filed away.

Decades later, assisted by advances in technology 

and interest from the victim’s brother, the case was 

reopened and ultimately solved. And most recently, the 

Houston PD detective and Texas Department of Public 

Safety latent print technician so instrumental in the 

outcome were honored by the FBI with the 2011 “Latent 

Hit of the Year” Award.

This award is given out annually for a latent print identification made after a search of our Integrated Automated 

Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that results in 

a conviction for a major violent crime. IAFIS is a national 

fingerprint and criminal history system that responds to 

requests from our partners and our own investigators to 

help solve and prevent crimes and terrorism. It currently 

houses the fingerprints of more than 70 million criminal 

subjects.

Houston case background: Years passed after Jackson’s 

murder, and with no new leads, the case went cold. But in 

Houston Cold 

Case Solved

Forensics Personnel 

Honored by FBI

Left: A latent print removed from the victim’s car was determined to 

be a match to the suspect’s fingerprint (inset) contained in IAFIS.

October 14, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 85

sengers to subdue him until the flight landed and he was 

taken into custody.

“People are moved by the power of these artifacts,” Trost 

said.

The “War on Terror” exhibit, like “G-Men and 

Journalists,” was the result of a collaboration between the 

Newseum and the FBI—just one of the many ways our 

Office of Public Affairs tries to inform the public about 

the Bureau, its history, its people, and its mission.

“The ability to see these real pieces of history from some 

of our most important cases helps the public understand 

the Bureau’s mission and how critical it is to the nation’s 

security,” said Mike Kortan, FBI assistant director of 

public affairs. Kortan noted that the FBI is also featured 

at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment and the 

International Spy Museum and will be represented at the 

National Law Enforcement Museum—all located near 

FBI Headquarters in Washington. The Bureau is also 

working with the Ground Zero Museum in New York, he 

said.

The FBI’s fight against terrorism—our top priority 

since 9/11—is the subject of a new addition to a popular 

museum exhibit in the nation’s capital.

“War on Terror: The FBI’s New Focus,” opened last 

month at the Newseum, a museum devoted to the 

news and journalism. The new installment, part of the 

larger exhibit “G-Men and Journalists: Top News Stories 

of the FBI’s First Century,” contains 60 artifacts from the 

9/11 investigation and other well-known terror plots.

“G-Men and Journalists,” which opened in 2008 and 

has drawn more than two million visitors, “has been 

one of our most popular exhibits,” said Cathy Trost, the 

Newseum’s director of exhibit development. “But we 

realized we also needed to tell the story of the Bureau’s 

fight against terrorism, which has really defined the 

modern FBI.”

Some of the artifacts on display are small and deeply 

personal, such as the pocketbook of Ruth McCourt, 

which contained credit cards and a snapshot of Ruth 

and her 4-year-old daughter, who were on their way to 

Disneyland when their plane—Flight 175—hit the World 

Trade Center on 9/11. Our Evidence Response Teams 

recovered thousands of these types of personal items, and 

our Office for Victim Assistance later returned many of 

them to family members.

Also on display is a collection of damaged cell phones and 

pagers recovered from the World Trade Center rubble. For 

days after the attack, as first responders and law enforcement teams searched for survivors and evidence, these 

buried devices rang and rang as victims’ families and 

loved ones desperately tried to make a connection.

Other artifacts are large, chilling reminders of the 9/11 

attack’s deadly destruction, including two pieces of the 

airplane engines—one weighing some 1,500 pounds—

that crashed into the World Trade Center towers and 

were recovered blocks from Ground Zero.

The exhibit also features other investigations besides the 

9/11 attack, including the case of shoe bomber Richard 

Reid. Trained by al Qaeda, Reid tried to blow up a flight 

from Paris to Miami in December 2001 using explosives 

hidden in his hiking boots. The actual shoes are on 

display—along with a collection of belts used by pasSome of the artifacts on display in the “War on Terror: The FBI’s New 

Focus” exhibit. Photo courtesy of the Newseum.

The FBI Since 9/11

D.C. Museum Updates 

Popular Exhibit

October 17, 2011
86 2011 The FBI Story

on counterintelligence and on counterterrorism—the 

Bureau’s top priority. In 2005, FBI Director Robert S. 

Mueller assigned the newly formed National Security 

Branch to create an operational element to focus on 

chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive 

matters—what in 2006 became the Weapons of Mass 

Destruction Directorate (WMDD). Over the last five 

years, Majidi said, the directorate has “developed and 

refined capabilities.”

“WMDD’s primary mission is the prevention of 

WMD terrorism and proliferation through proactive 

programs,” Majidi said. While specific methodologies 

remain classified, Majidi listed a number of programs and 

initiatives the FBI created or collaborates on to identify, 

thwart, and investigate threats.

All 56 field offices have a Weapons of Mass 

Destruction coordinator who fosters local relationships with labs, biological companies, and academia 

and coordinates with partner agencies in the event of 

a crisis response.

The FBI and the Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention developed the Joint Criminal and 

Epidemiological Investigations training program to 

improve efforts to identify threats that are intentional 

or naturally occurring.

WMDD developed the Biological Sciences and 

Academic Workshop initiatives to build partnerships 

with academic communities and identify vulnerabilities, such attempts by terrorist groups to exploit 

experts with access to biological agents.

The FBI Laboratory developed and implemented 

the Hazardous Evidence Analysis Team, or HEAT 

program, that provides advanced training for forensic 

examiners to allow them to collect evidence in highcontainment labs.

“The FBI addresses bioterrorism threats by identifying 

points of vulnerability for biological agents, acquisitions, 

weapons development, and, ultimately, the execution 

phase,” Majidi told the panel. To that end, his prepared 

remarks outlined a few of the hundreds of cases of biological substances or suspicious powders the FBI has probed 

since 2006. They include a Pennsylvania man who was 

infected by naturally occurring anthrax in 2006 and a

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▪

In the decade since deadly anthrax spores were sent 

through the mail in 2001, killing five people and sickening 22 others, the FBI has made significant advances in 

efforts to prevent and identify bio-terror threats. That 

was the message delivered Tuesday at a Senate hearing 

entitled: “Ten Years After 9/11 and the Anthrax Attacks: 

Protecting Against Biological Threats.”

On a panel of federal experts that included the 

Departments of Homeland Security and Health and 

Human Services, Vahid Majidi—head of the FBI’s 

Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate—described 

how much the Bureau has changed since the first of 

several anthrax-laced letters began arriving in mailboxes 

a week after 9/11. Our primary focus is on prevention.

“Domestic and international terrorist groups, such 

as al Qaeda and its affiliates, have shown unwavering interest in using biological agents and toxins,”

Majidi said during the hearing before the Committee on 

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “The FBI 

is dedicated to protecting our nation and will continue to 

collaborate with the scientific community to proactively 

address new biological threats on the horizon.”

In response to the anthrax mailings, the FBI retooled to 

better target the bio-terror threat and to nurture relationships with like-minded partners in the scientific, health, 

agricultural, and law-enforcement communities.

In 2004, the 9/11 Commission recommended the FBI 

carve out a specialized branch of personnel to focus 

The FBI Since 9/11

Exec Discusses Improvements 

Since Anthrax Attacks

Left: Vahid Majidi, assistant director of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass 

Destruction Directorate, discusses changes the Bureau has made 

since a bio-terrorism attack in 2001.

October 18, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 87

October 18, 2011

Las Vegas man who was cooking up the pathogen ricin in 

his hotel room in 2008.

“Significant progress and partnerships have been made 

with all levels of government, industry, and the scientific 

community since the creation of the WMDD,” Majidi 

said, “all of which improve the FBI’s capabilities in its 

mission.”

Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, letters laced 

with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five 

Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what 

became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history.

The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partners—

code-named “Amerithrax”—has been one of the largest 

and most complex in the history of law enforcement.

In August 2008, Department of Justice and FBI officials 

announced a breakthrough in the case and released 

documents and information showing that charges were 

about to be brought against Dr. Bruce Ivins, who took 

his own life before those charges could be filed. On 

February 19, 2010, the Justice Department, the FBI, and 

the U.S. Postal Inspection Service formally concluded the 

investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks and issued an 

Investigative Summary.

The Amerithrax Task Force—which consisted of roughly 

25 to 30 full-time investigators from the FBI, the U.S. 

Postal Inspection Service, and other law enforcement 

agencies, as well as federal prosecutors from the District of 

Columbia and the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism 

Section—expended hundreds of thousands of investigator 

work hours on this case. Their efforts involved more than 

10,000 witness interviews on six different continents, the 

execution of 80 searches, and the recovery of more than 

6,000 items of potential evidence during the course of 

the investigation. The case involved the issuance of more 

than 5,750 grand jury subpoenas and the collection of 

5,730 environmental samples from 60 site locations. In 

addition, new scientific methods were developed that ultimately led to the break in the case—methods that could 

have a far-reaching impact on future investigations.

Amerithrax Investigation
88 2011 The FBI Story

“Only when detectives, use-of-force investigators, supervisors, and administrators examine the various components 

of the deadly mix will a greater understanding of these 

encounters emerge,” FBI researchers wrote in a study 

called Violent Encounters, an in-depth look at years of 

fatal altercations like those in today’s report. “To make an 

objective assessment of each case, it is necessary to carefully and completely examine all aspects of the incident 

thus allowing the facts to surface.”

The 56 officers killed is an increase over 2009, when 48 

officers were killed. However, significant conclusions 

may not be drawn from year-to-year comparisons given 

the nature of the statistics. Ten years ago, for example, 

70 officers were killed in the line of duty (excluding the 

events of 9/11), and five years ago 48 officers were feloniously killed.

The 2010 report also shows 72 officers were accidently 

killed in the line of duty, almost all of them involving 

vehicles. Meanwhile, 53,469 officers were assaulted while 

on duty—a figure that amounts to one in 10 of the sworn 

officers in more than 11,000 agencies that reported data.

All told, the figures illustrate the inherent dangers of law 

enforcement. Here’s a look at some of the data contained 

in the report:

Offenders used firearms to kill all but one of the 56 

victim officers; one officer was killed by a vehicle 

used as a weapon.

Of the 56 officers feloniously killed, 15 were 

ambushed, 14 were in arrest situations, seven were 

performing traffic stops, and six were answering 

disturbance calls.

One in three officer assaults occurred while responding to disturbance calls; 14.7 percent occurred while 

officers were attempting arrests.

The average age of officers killed feloniously and accidentally was, respectively, 38 and 39.

The UCR Program, part of the FBI’s Criminal Justice 

Information Services Division, has been collecting and 

publishing law enforcement statistics since 1937, most 

notably the annual Crime in the United States reports. In 

1972, the FBI began producing detailed reports on officer 

fatalities after the larger law enforcement community 

sought the Bureau’s involvement in preventing and investigating officer deaths.

▪

▪

▪

▪

Fifty-six law enforcement officers in 22 states and Puerto 

Rico were feloniously killed in 2010, and more than 

53,000 officers were assaulted during the same period, 

according to statistics released by the FBI.

The annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted

report released today offers the most complete public 

picture of the fatal circumstances that officers faced in 

2010. In chilling detail, the report summarizes most of 

last year’s fatal confrontations and illustrates a reality that 

every officer continually trains to recognize: that there 

are no routine engagements. Among the scenarios:

Two West Memphis Police Department officers 

were killed during a traffic stop when a 16-year-old 

passenger exited the vehicle and opened fire with a 

semiautomatic rifle.

A Chicago Police Department officer at the end of 

his shift was removing his gear near his car in the 

department’s parking lot when a man ambushed 

the 43-year-old officer and shot him with his own 

weapon.

A 62-year-old deputy sheriff in Mississippi was shot 

and killed by an uncooperative suspect while responding to a domestic disturbance call.

Information in the report, which is collected each year 

through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) 

Program, is intended to provide law enforcement agencies 

with detailed descriptions of the circumstances leading 

up to officer fatalities. The data can then be incorporated 

into tactical training.

▪

▪

▪

In the Line of Duty

56 Officers Feloniously 

Killed in 2010

Left: Law enforcement officers in 22 states and Puerto Rico were 

feloniously killed in 2010.

October 24, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 89

The plea represented the culmination of a remarkable 

effort on the part of countless Bureau personnel, including agents, analysts, surveillance teams, linguists, 

and others.

“Operation Ghost Stories sends a message to foreign 

intelligence services that espionage threats to the U.S. 

will not be tolerated,” our agent said. “The FBI’s counterintelligence mission is to identify, disrupt, and defeat the 

activities of foreign espionage agents, and we take that job 

very seriously.”

Usually, the critical work of our Counterintelligence 

Division is carried out in conjunction with our partners 

in the U.S. intelligence community with the utmost 

secrecy. Because the public rarely hears about those 

efforts, it would be easy to forget how real the threat of 

espionage is.

“And the threat is not limited to the Russians,” the agent 

said. “There are a lot of foreign services who want what 

we have, and that’s why we have agents and analysts in 

FBI field offices across the country working with other 

intelligence community partners every day to address 

these threats.”

The arrests of 10 Russian spies last year provided a 

chilling reminder that espionage on U.S. soil did not disappear when the Cold War ended. The highly publicized 

case also offered a rare glimpse into the sensitive world of 

counterintelligence and the FBI’s efforts to safeguard the 

nation from those who would steal our vital secrets.

Our case against the Russian Foreign Intelligence 

Service (SVR) operatives—dubbed Operation Ghost 

Stories—went on for more than a decade. Today we are 

releasing dozens of still images, surveillance video clips, 

and documents related to the investigation as part of a 

Freedom of Information Act request.

Although the SVR “illegals,” as they were called, never 

got their hands on any classified documents, their intent 

from the start was serious, well-funded by the SVR, and 

far-ranging.

“The Russian government spent significant funds and 

many years training and deploying these operatives,” said 

one of our counterintelligence agents who worked on 

the case. “No government does that without expecting a 

return on its investment.”

Our agents and analysts watched the deep-cover operatives as they established themselves in the U.S. (some by 

using stolen identities) and went about leading seemingly 

normal lives—getting married, buying homes, raising 

children, and assimilating into American society.

Using surveillance and sophisticated techniques, aided by 

support from intelligence analysts, investigators gathered 

information to understand the threat posed by the spies 

as well as their methods, or tradecraft.

The SVR was in it for the long haul. The illegals 

were content to wait decades to obtain their objective, 

which was to develop sources of information in U.S. 

policymaking circles.

Although they didn’t achieve that objective, the agent 

said, “without us there to stop them, given enough time 

they would have eventually become successful.”

After years of gathering intelligence and making sure we 

knew who all the players were, we arrested the illegals 

on June 27, 2010. Weeks later, they pled guilty in federal 

court to conspiring to serve as unlawful agents of the 

Russian Federation within the U.S.

Russian spy Christopher Metsos, right, swaps information in a “brush 

pass” with an official from the Russian Mission in New York in 2004. 

The image from a video is part of a trove of documents, photos, and 

surveillance released by the FBI as part of a Freedom of Information 

Act request.

Operation Ghost Stories

Inside the Russian Spy Case

October 31, 2011
90 2011 The FBI Story

Espionage may seem like a throwback to earlier days of 

world wars and cold wars, but the threat is real and as 

serious as ever.

We see it—and work hard to counter it—all the 

time. It’s not just the more traditional spies passing U.S. 

secrets to foreign governments, either to fatten their 

own wallets or to advance their ideological agendas. It’s 

also students and scientists and plenty of others stealing 

the valuable trade secrets of American universities and 

businesses—the ingenuity that drives our economy—and 

providing them to other countries. It’s nefarious actors 

sending controlled technologies overseas that help build 

bombs and weapons of mass destruction designed to hurt 

and kill Americans and others.

In late October, in fact, we took part in a multi-agency 

and multi-national operation that led to the indictment of 

five citizens of Singapore and four of their companies for 

illegally exporting thousands of radio frequency modules 

from the U.S. Allegedly, at least 16 modules were later 

found in unexploded improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

As the lead agency for exposing, preventing, and investigating intelligence activities on U.S. soil, the FBI 

continues to work to combat these threats using our 

full suite of investigative and intelligence capabilities. 

We’ve mapped out our blueprint in what we call our 

Counterintelligence National Strategy, which is regularly updated to focus resources on the most serious current 

and emerging threats.

The strategy itself is classified, but we can tell you what 

its overall goals are:

Keep weapons of mass destruction, advanced 

conventional weapons, and related technology 

from falling into the wrong hands—using intelligence to drive our investigative efforts to keep threats 

from becoming reality. Our new Counterproliferation 

Center will play a major role here.

Protect the secrets of the U.S. intelligence community—again, using intelligence to focus investigations and collaborating with government partners to 

reduce the risk of espionage and insider threats.

Protect the nation’s critical assets—like our 

advanced technologies and sensitive information in 

the defense, intelligence, economic, financial, public 

health, and science and technology sectors.

Counter the activities of foreign spies—whether 

they are representatives of foreign intelligence 

agencies or governments or are acting on their behalf, 

they all want the same thing: to steal U.S. secrets. 

Through proactive investigations, we identify who 

they are and stop what they’re doing.

One important aspect of our counterintelligence 

strategy involves strategic partnerships. And on that 

front, we focus on three specific areas:

The sharing of expertise and resources of the FBI, the 

U.S. intelligence community, other U.S. government 

agencies, and global partners to combat foreign intelligence activities;

Coordination of U.S. intelligence community efforts 

to combat insider threats among its own ranks; and

Partnerships with businesses and colleges and universities to strengthen information sharing and counterintelligence awareness.

Focus on cyber activities. Another key element of 

our counterintelligence strategy, according to FBI 

Counterintelligence Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi, is 

its emphasis on detecting and deterring foreign-sponsored 

cyber intelligence threats to government and private 

sector information systems. “Sometimes,” he said, “the 

bad guys don’t have to physically be in the U.S. to steal 

targeted information...sometimes they can be halfway 

around the world, sitting at a keyboard.”

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FBI Counterintelligence 

National Strategy

A Blueprint for Protecting 

U.S. Secrets

November 4, 2011

Left: Surveillance photo of two subjects of Operation Ghost Stories, 

an investigation into a Russian spy ring operating in the U.S.
2011 The FBI Story 91

It just got a little harder to get a phony driver’s license or 

Social Security card in the U.S.

On November 3, more than 300 law enforcement 

officers from a variety of federal and local agencies 

executed dozens of search warrants and arrests involving fraudulent document rings operating in California, 

Illinois, and Texas that reached into a number of other 

states and Mexico.

One of the main targets of the investigation was 

Alejandro Morales Serrano, who is believed to be a key 

player in this criminal conspiracy. Serrano and a number 

of his associates allegedly manufactured and sold the 

raw materials used to create the phony documents—like 

sheets of plastic laminates, monochrome card printer 

ribbons, hard plastic cards, and magnetic card

reader/writer machines. Serrano was also one of those 

arrested during the law enforcement sweep.

The indictment alleges that the false documents were 

created on a large scale in California, Nevada, Oregon, 

Texas, Illinois, and Michigan. In addition to U.S. driver’s 

licenses and Social Security cards, these documents also 

included U.S. Permanent Residency cards (a.k.a., “green 

cards”), Mexican consular ID cards, and Mexican driver’s 

licenses.

According to the indictment, the illegal documentmaking operation supported the manufacturing of 

fake driver’s licenses for approximately 40 U.S. states 

and a number of Mexican states.

Searches conducted during the takedown resulted in 

significant seizures from various residences, other locations, and vehicles and included plastic laminates used to 

produce the documents, computers, and stacks of phony 

documents that would have undoubtedly ended up on 

the black market had it not been for law enforcement’s 

intervention.

The indictment doesn’t specify when Serrano began his 

alleged “manufacturing” career, but it does state that he 

was heard on a law enforcement wiretap telling someone 

he’d been engaged in the business for more than a 

decade.

What were the phony identification documents used 

for? The investigation revealed that they were used by 

illegal aliens to get jobs as well as to apply for citizenship 

and residency-related benefits. We also believe that the 

operation supported other crimes—and criminals—like 

credit and bank fraud, tax fraud, identity theft, and 

pharmaceutical diversion.

Of course, one of law enforcement’s concerns about 

fraudulent document activity is that a fake identity 

document could potentially end up in the hands of 

someone with a more nefarious plan in mind—like a spy 

or a terrorist trying to enter the U.S. to steal information 

or harm Americans.

Explained Steven Gomez, Special Agent in Charge of 

the Counterterrorism Branch in our Los Angeles office, 

“False documents are utilized by a wide variety of criminals to facilitate their illegal activity as well as to conceal 

their identities from law enforcement. This multi-agency 

operation disrupted criminal activity, but also identified a 

national security vulnerability.”

In a related case worked by the FBI and the Los 

Angeles Sheriff’s Department, several individuals were 

identified in a conspiracy to manufacture and distribute false identification documents with the materials 

supplied by Serrano.

Both investigations and subsequent takedowns were 

the result of the collaborative efforts of many agencies, 

including the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, 

the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Drug 

Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Immigration and 

Customers Enforcement, as well as agencies in Illinois, 

Texas, and elsewhere in California.

Phony Document 

Rings Broken Up

Alleged California 

Ringleader Arrested

November 7, 2011
92 2011 The FBI Story

Six Estonian nationals have been arrested and charged 

with running a sophisticated Internet fraud ring that 

infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus and 

enabled the thieves to manipulate the multi-billion-dollar 

Internet advertising industry. Users of infected machines 

were unaware that their computers had been compromised—or that the malicious software rendered their 

machines vulnerable to a host of other viruses.

Details of the two-year FBI investigation called 

Operation Ghost Click were announced today in New 

York when a federal indictment was unsealed. Officials 

also described their efforts to make sure infected users’ 

Internet access would not be disrupted as a result of the 

operation.

The indictment, said Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director 

in charge of our New York office, “describes an intricate 

international conspiracy conceived and carried out by 

sophisticated criminals.” She added, “The harm inflicted 

by the defendants was not merely a matter of reaping 

illegitimate income.”

Beginning in 2007, the cyber ring used a class of malware 

called DNSChanger to infect approximately 4 million 

computers in more than 100 countries. There were about 

500,000 infections in the U.S., including computers 

belonging to individuals, businesses, and government 

agencies such as NASA. The thieves were able to manipulate Internet advertising to generate at least $14 

million in illicit fees. In some cases, the malware had the 

additional effect of preventing users’ anti-virus software 

and operating systems from updating, thereby exposing 

infected machines to even more malicious software.

“They were organized and operating as a traditional 

business but profiting illegally as the result of the 

malware,” said one of our cyber agents who worked the 

case. “There was a level of complexity here that we 

haven’t seen before.”

DNS—Domain Name System—is a critical Internet 

service that converts user-friendly domain names, such as 

www.fbi.gov, into numerical addresses that allow computers to talk to each other. Without DNS and the DNS 

servers operated by Internet service providers, computer 

users would not be able to browse websites or send e-mail.

DNSChanger redirected unsuspecting users to rogue 

servers controlled by the cyber thieves, allowing 

them to manipulate users’ web activity. When users 

of infected computers clicked on the link for the official 

website of iTunes, for example, they were instead taken to 

a website for a business unaffiliated with Apple Inc. that 

purported to sell Apple software. Not only did the cyber 

thieves make money from these schemes, they deprived 

legitimate website operators and advertisers of substantial 

revenue.

The six cyber criminals were taken into custody yesterday 

in Estonia by local authorities, and the U.S. will seek 

to extradite them. In conjunction with the arrests, U.S. 

authorities seized computers and rogue DNS servers at 

various locations. As part of a federal court order, the 

rogue DNS servers have been replaced with legitimate 

servers in the hopes that users who were infected will not 

have their Internet access disrupted.

It is important to note that the replacement servers will 

not remove the DNSChanger malware—or other viruses 

it may have facilitated—from infected computers. Users 

who believe their computers may be infected should 

contact a computer professional. They can also find 

additional information in the links on the FBI website, 

including how to register as a victim of the DNSChanger 

malware. And the FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance will 

provide case updates periodically at 877-236-8947.

Operation Ghost Click

International Cyber Ring 

That Infected Millions of 

Computers Dismantled

November 9, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 93

these offenses; simple assault for 34.8 percent; and 

aggravated assault for 18.4 percent.

There were 2,861 reported offenses of crimes against 

property—the majority (81.1 percent) were acts of 

destruction/damage/vandalism.

Of the 6,008 known offenders, 58.6 were white and 

18.4 percent were black.

31.4 percent of reported hate crime incidents took 

place in or near homes.

The FBI takes its role in investigating hate crimes very 

seriously—it’s the number one priority of our civil 

rights program. “Almost a fourth of our 2010 civil rights 

caseload involved crimes motivated by a particular bias 

against the victim,” said Eric Thomas, our civil rights 

chief in Washington, D.C., “and we frequently worked 

these cases with state and local law enforcement to 

ensure that justice was done—whether at the state level 

or at the federal level.”

This report, and the FBI’s hate crime data collection 

effort as a whole, would not have been possible without 

the support of national and state criminal justice organizations and the thousands of law enforcement agencies 

nationwide whose officers investigate, identify, and report 

hate crimes to us.

▪

▪

▪

Intimidation...vandalism...assault...rape...murder. These 

are crimes by anyone’s definition. But add an element of 

bias against the victims—because of their race or religion, 

for example—and these traditional crimes become hate 

crimes.

And based on data from the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics 

report for 2010, the 6,628 hate crime incidents reported 

to us by our law enforcement partners stayed consistent 

with the 6,604 incidents reported in 2009.

Today, we’re releasing on our website the full 2010 

report, which contains information about the types 

of biases that motivate hate crimes, the nature of the 

offenses, and some information about the victims and 

offenders. It also breaks down hate crimes by jurisdiction 

and includes data by state and by agency.

The hate crimes report is fairly reflective of the 

country—agencies that participated in the Uniform 

Crime Reporting Hate Crime Statistics Program effort in 

2010 represented more than 285 million people, or 92.3 

percent of the nation’s population, and their jurisdictions 

covered 49 states and the District of Columbia. Of the 

14,977 agencies that submitted data, 1,949 reported that 

hate crime incidents had occurred in their jurisdictions.

Here are some of the report’s highlights:

Law enforcement reported 8,208 victims of hate 

crimes—a “victim” can be an individual, a business, 

an institution, or society as a whole.

Of the 6,628 hate crime incidents reported to us for 

2010, nearly all (6,624) involved a single bias—47.3 

percent of the single-bias incidents were motivated by 

race; 20 percent by religion; 19.3 by sexual orientation; 12.8 percent by an ethnicity/national origin bias; 

and 0.6 by physical or mental disability.

As a result of the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James 

Byrd, Jr., Hate Crime Prevention Act, the FBI is 

implementing changes to collect additional data for 

crimes motivated by a bias against a particular gender 

or gender identity, as well as for hate crimes committed by or directed against juveniles.

A reported 4,824 offenses were crimes against 

persons—intimidation accounted for 46.2 percent of 

▪

▪

▪

▪

Hate Crimes 

Remain Steady

2010 FBI Report Released

November 14, 2011
94 2011 The FBI Story

Cyber thieves in Eastern Europe drain bank accounts 

in America. Spies steal industry secrets and sell them 

overseas. And alone in their bedrooms, disaffected youths 

become radicalized by Internet propaganda and vow to 

wage jihad.

It is difficult to remember a time when Americans did 

not have to worry about terrorists plotting violence on 

U.S. soil and criminals reaching through the Internet 

to target individuals, businesses, and government, but 

that is how drastically the world has changed since the 

9/11 attacks.

“The horrific events of that day were the prelude to a 

decade of political, economic, and cultural transformation,” said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, “and globalization and technology have accelerated these changes.”

The hyper-connectivity that helped spawn this new 

globalization is empowering “both friend and foe alike,” 

Mueller said this afternoon during a speech in San 

Francisco. “Today, our world can change in the blink of 

an eye. ... If we in the FBI fail to recognize how the world 

is changing, the consequences can be devastating.”

Mueller noted that “terrorists, spies, and hackers are 

always thinking of new ways to harm us.” He provided 

examples of several recent cases and outlined how the 

Bureau plans to stay ahead of these threats while remaining ever-mindful of protecting civil liberties.

Regarding terrorism, al Qaeda has been weakened since 

9/11, and dozens of attacks have been prevented. But 

“core al Qaeda operating out of Pakistan remains committed to high-profile attacks against the West,” Mueller 

said—a fact confirmed by records seized from Usama Bin 

Laden’s compound after his death. In Yemen, al Qaeda in 

the Arabian Peninsula has attempted several attacks on 

the U.S., Mueller added. And of particular concern are 

homegrown terrorists who may become self-radicalized 

online and are willing to act alone, which makes them 

difficult to find and to stop.

In the area of espionage, “nations will always try to 

learn one another’s secrets to gain political, military, 

or economic advantage,” Mueller said. And because 

“so much sensitive data is now stored on computer 

networks,” he added, “our adversaries often find it 

as effective, or even more effective, to steal secrets 

through cyber intrusions.”

And while state-sponsored cyber espionage is a growing 

problem, “it is but one aspect of the cyber threat,” Mueller 

pointed out. Hacktivist groups, for example, are engaging 

in digital anarchy, and cyber attacks against our critical 

infrastructure are a real possibility.

The FBI must stay one step ahead of these threats by 

gathering and sharing intelligence and continuing to 

emphasize our partnerships. “No single agency, company, 

or nation can defeat these complex, global threats alone,” 

Mueller said.

He also noted that the FBI needs the right tools to 

address evolving cyber threats, especially with regard to 

lawfully intercepting electronic communications from 

social networks. “Laws covering this area have not been 

updated since 1994—a lifetime ago in the Internet age,” 

Mueller said. “So we are working with Congress, the 

courts, our law enforcement partners, and the private 

sector to ensure that our ability to intercept communications is not eroded by advances in technology.”

While the Bureau must change to combat evolving 

threats, “our values can never change,” Mueller said. “The 

rule of law will remain the FBI’s guiding principle. In the 

end, we know we will be judged not only by our ability to 

keep Americans safe, but also by whether we safeguard 

the liberties for which we are fighting.”

Terrorists, Spies, 

and Hackers

The New National 

Security Landscape

November 17, 2011

Left: Director Robert S. Mueller delivers remarks in San Francisco. 

“Terrorists, spies, and hackers are always thinking of new ways to 

harm us,” Mueller said.
2011 The FBI Story 95

program, focusing resources on long-range investigations 

involving national and international conspiracies that 

greatly impacted U.S. commerce.

Antitrust violations include:

Price-fixing—when competitors agree to raise, lower, 

or maintain the price at which their products or 

services are sold; 

Bid rigging—an agreement that competitors work 

out ahead of time about who’s going to be awarded a 

contract and at what price; and 

Market allocation—involving agreements among 

conspirators on how to divvy up market share, either 

geographically or by customer.

To conduct antitrust investigations, we use the full 

arsenal of investigative tools available to us in all criminal 

cases, including the execution of search warrants on businesses, interviews, analysis of hard copy and electronic 

records, court-authorized electronic surveillance, and 

cooperating witnesses.

Importance of international cooperation. A vital piece 

of our antitrust effort is increased support and assistance from our global law enforcement partners—the 

Department of Justice currently has in place antitrust 

cooperation agreements with approximately 10 countries, 

including Russia and China.

These agreements come in very handy when our antitrust 

investigations lead us overseas...which happens nearly 

every day as more companies expand their operations 

worldwide.

▪

▪

▪

What are the two greatest investments for most 

Americans? Homes and vehicles. And the FBI is working 

alongside our partners in the Antitrust Division at the 

Department of Justice (DOJ) to make sure consumers 

aren’t defrauded by artificial increases in car prices or 

deflation of home values as a result of antitrust practices.

For example: In September, a Japanese auto parts 

company with operations in the U.S.—along with three 

of its executives—agreed to plead guilty in federal court 

in Detroit to a price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy 

with other companies involving the sale of parts to 

automobile manufacturers. The victims in this case? 

Other auto parts dealers who were shut out of the bidding 

process, car manufacturers who paid higher prices for auto 

parts, and ultimately, American car buyers who paid more 

for the price of a car.

A second example: As of October, 18 real estate investors have pled guilty in connection with two separate 

conspiracies to rig bids by agreeing to refrain from bidding 

against one another at public real estate foreclosure 

auctions in Northern California. When real estate properties are sold at these auctions, the proceeds pay off the 

mortgage and other debt attached to the property. These 

conspiracies cause the homes to be sold for less than they 

would go for at a fair and competitive auction. This lower 

price directly affects anyone in that neighborhood trying 

to sell their home.

Of course, antitrust violations go beyond auto parts 

and real estate. Recent criminal antitrust investigations 

have involved a number of industries, including freightforwarding, concrete-mixing, optical disks, refrigerant 

compressors, and electronic LCD panels.

Antitrust activities raise prices and suppress competition, hurting businesses who play by the rules as well as 

consumers who pay more for products or services. And 

increasingly, profits from antitrust conspiracies to go 

foreign companies, which can impact the ability of U.S. 

businesses to remain competitive in the world market.

DOJ’s Antitrust Division is charged with civil and 

criminal enforcement of federal antitrust laws, and 

FBI investigators work jointly with DOJ antitrust 

prosecutors at several regional DOJ antitrust offices.

In the mid-1990s, that partnership really took off when 

we embarked on a highly aggressive antitrust enforcement 

Antitrust Enforcement

Success of DOJ/FBI Partnership

November 21, 2011
96 2011 The FBI Story

nine participating states. Now, all 50 states participate, 

and NDIS currently contains over 10 million DNA 

profiles.

Q: What is a DNA profile?

Hares: A DNA profile, or type, is just a series of 

numbers. These numbers are assigned to an individual 

based on specific identification markers on his or her 

DNA molecule. In CODIS, those numbers represent a 

person’s one-of-a-kind DNA profile.

Q: How does CODIS use those profiles to solve 

crimes?

Hares: A forensic laboratory receives evidence in a 

criminal investigation and is asked to perform DNA 

testing on that evidence. The evidence may be part of 

a rape case or a homicide. Or maybe there is a murder 

weapon that contains DNA. The DNA profile obtained 

from the crime scene evidence is called a forensic 

unknown. The laboratory doesn’t know whose profile 

it is, but they know it is associated with the crime. The 

laboratory enters that profile into CODIS. If it’s a local 

case, the profile is entered into the local CODIS system 

and uploaded to the state level. At the state level, the 

profile will be compared with all the offenders from that 

state’s database. The forensic unknown may or may not 

match with other DNA records at the state level. On a 

weekly basis, the state uploads its DNA records to NDIS, 

the national level. We search the profile against all 50 

states’ offender profiles to see if there is a match; if there 

is, the CODIS software automatically returns messages 

in the system to the laboratories involved. The local 

labs evaluate the matches and release that information 

to the law enforcement agency. That is how a previously unknown DNA profile is associated with a known 

offender.

Q: Who has access to CODIS?

Hares: By federal law, access is generally limited to 

criminal justice agencies for law enforcement identification purposes. That federal law also authorizes access for 

criminal defense purposes to a defendant in connection 

with his or her case. CODIS was designed to ensure the 

confidentiality of the DNA record. No personal identifiers—such as name, Social Security number, or date of 

birth—are stored in CODIS.

The use of DNA—which carries individuals’ unique 

genetic information—to help solve crimes has become 

such a fundamental tool for law enforcement that it’s hard 

to believe this technique of matching unknown profiles to 

known offenders is a fairly recent phenomenon.

The FBI launched the National DNA Index System 

(NDIS) in 1998—along with the Combined DNA Index 

System (CODIS) software to manage the program—and 

since that time it has become the world’s largest repository of known offender DNA records. Last year, in partnership with local, state, and federal crime laboratories and 

law enforcement agencies, CODIS aided nearly 25,000 

criminal investigations.

FBI.gov recently sat down with Douglas Hares, a Ph.D. 

scientist at the FBI Laboratory who is the custodian of 

the National DNA Database.

Q: How did the Bureau come to play such a key role 

in using DNA to help solve crimes?

Hares: DNA technology was first introduced in criminal 

court cases around 1988. When the FBI saw the potential for exchanging and comparing DNA profiles to 

help solve crimes—crimes that might not be solved in 

any other way—the concept of a national program was 

born. In 1994, Congress passed the DNA Identification 

Act, which gave the FBI authority to establish a national 

database. During the next few years, the FBI developed, 

tested, and implemented the CODIS software as well as 

training support for states authorized to collect DNA 

samples from offenders. In 1998, we started NDIS with 

The FBI and DNA

Part 1: A Look at the Nationwide 

System that Helps Solve Crimes

November 23, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 97

develop. The FBI encountered such a situation when the 

law expanded DNA sample collection to federal arrestees and detainees. But thanks to a National Institute of 

Justice grant and the use of robotics and expert systems, 

we eliminated a backlog of more than 300,000 offender 

profiles in a matter of months. That achievement was 

recognized in a recent audit by the Department of Justice 

Office of Inspector General.

Q: As technology is integrated into DNA processes, 

what can we expect from CODIS in the future?

Hares: We have seen that as the number of DNA profiles 

in CODIS increases, the system helps solve more crimes. 

Now we are aiding more investigations in a single year 

than we did in the first five years of the system’s existence. It’s all due to the size of the database—increasing the number of authorized profiles for the state and 

national databases results in additional DNA profiles that 

could be linked to unsolved crimes. Since the creation 

of CODIS, we have aided over 152,000 investigations—

that’s an impressive number of crimes that may not have 

been solved by any other method. The statistics speak 

for themselves. As we continue to add more profiles, 

the potential to solve more crimes—and also to rule out 

suspects who are innocent—continues to increase.

Part 2 of an interview with Douglas Hares, a Ph.D. scientist 

at the FBI Laboratory who is the custodian of the National 

DNA Index System (NDIS), which is supported by the 

Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) software.

Q: How does CODIS handle high-profile cases such 

as serial killer Ted Bundy’s DNA, which was recently 

tested so it could be entered into the system?

Hares: At the national level, we don’t know about the 

evidentiary profiles entered into CODIS by the states. 

While the DNA profiles use specimen identification 

numbers, such identification numbers do not contain 

personal identifiers that would allow us to pick out a particular profile from the database as belonging to a specific 

person. For example, even if a state informs us that they 

have uploaded a high-profile sample like Bundy’s, at the 

national level we don’t know which profile is his because 

there is no personal identifying information attached to 

it. The system is designed to be completely anonymous to 

protect personal privacy—until a match occurs and the 

requesting state can learn the offender’s identity. But this 

raises the importance of analyzing the DNA from such 

serial offenders, even if the offender is deceased, so that 

the DNA profile can be searched against those unsolved 

cold cases.

Q: Is CODIS effective in cold cases?

Hares: Absolutely—that demonstrates the power of 

CODIS. If you are able to obtain a DNA profile from a 

case that remained unsolved from years ago and place 

that profile into the system, there is a good chance you 

may get a hit because the offender may have committed other crimes and been required to provide a DNA 

sample.

Q: How does technology help CODIS?

Hares: It’s important that all authorized profiles are 

entered into CODIS in a timely manner. The sooner 

profiles are entered into the system, the sooner CODIS 

can help solve crimes. Sometimes, when DNA database 

programs with limited resources expand to add categories 

of persons required to provide DNA samples, backlogs 

in samples to be analyzed and entered into CODIS may 

The FBI and DNA

Part 2: More About the 

Nationwide System that 

Helps Solve Crimes

November 28, 2011
98 2011 The FBI Story

Background Check System—helps keep guns out of 

felons’ hands. In the last fiscal year, NICS conducted 

more than 15.9 million background checks in accordance 

with federal law, and more than 76,000 gun transfers 

were denied based on buyers’ criminal records. Our 

Law Enforcement National Data Exchange—N-DEx—

provides a secure, online national information-sharing 

system for records related to bookings, arrests, probation, 

and parole report data. More than 4,100 agencies contribute to N-DEx, and the system has more than 124 million 

searchable records. And, of course, CJIS maintains the 

largest collection of fingerprint records in the world. 

During the last fiscal year, the Integrated Automated 

Fingerprint Identification System—IAFIS—identified 

more than 307,000 fugitives. These programs are only 

part of the important work we do at CJIS. Our recently 

released annual report highlights other programs and 

many of our record-setting accomplishments.

Q: Does CJIS share information with partners outside 

of law enforcement?

Cuthbertson: Absolutely. We 

provide information to the U.S. 

intelligence community for 

national security matters, and 

our data is also relied upon for 

civil uses such as criminal checks 

for employment and licensing. 

Teachers and school bus drivers, 

for example, are subject to 

background checks as required 

by state law, and CJIS systems 

provide that information to 

authorized users.

Q: Given the vast number of records in CJIS databases, how do you safeguard Americans’ privacy and 

civil liberties?

Cuthbertson: We balance civil liberties with everything 

we do. It’s important to remember that we only retain 

information related to a person’s criminal history based 

on lawful contacts with law enforcement. We don’t retain 

files on employment checks, for instance. By law, even 

gun background checks that come to us through NICS 

are destroyed every night—unless the purchase was 

lawfully denied. There are many similar protections in 

place to protect the privacy of American citizens.

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services 

Division—better known as CJIS—provides critical information to help our partners fight crime and protect the 

nation. Whether it’s answering a patrolman’s request for 

a subject’s criminal record during a traffic stop, verifying 

that a potential gun buyer is not a felon, or ensuring that 

a local municipality is not hiring a teacher who is a registered sex offender, CJIS receives millions of electronic 

requests every day for criminal information records and 

returns responses with amazing speed and accuracy.

FBI.gov recently spoke with Special Agent David 

Cuthbertson, the newly appointed assistant director of 

CJIS, about the division’s accomplishments in 2011 and 

what to expect from the FBI’s largest division in the 

future.

Q: CJIS has been described as a lifeline to law enforcement. What are some of the division’s main programs?

Cuthbertson: The term “lifeline” aptly describes what 

we do day in and day out at CJIS. Our main programs 

include NCIC—the National Crime Information 

Center—and the Interstate Identification Index, which is 

the nation’s criminal history repository. NCIC is searched 

by law enforcement nearly 8 million times every day. And 

those requests—related to stolen property and information on wanted, missing, and unidentified persons—are 

returned to officers on the street within fractions 

of a second. NICS—the National Instant Criminal 

A Year of Records 

for CJIS

Part 1: FBI’s Largest Division 

Provides Information to 

Protect the Nation

Left: The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, or 

CJIS, is located in West Virginia.

December 1, 2011

David Cuthbertson,

assistant director of CJIS
2011 The FBI Story 99

tions, the center supports and analyzes new research so 

that we can take these cutting-edge technologies and 

use them operationally. On the international front, CJIS 

serves in an advisory role to foreign governments that are 

either developing biometrics systems from the ground up 

or expanding existing systems. We work closely with the 

U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security to 

put biometrics agreements in place with foreign governments that will guarantee interoperability. Here at home, 

we have partnered with the Department of Defense to 

build a Biometrics Technology Center on our campus in 

Clarksburg, West Virginia. The center is under construction and scheduled for completion in the spring of 2014. It 

will be a tremendous resource to carry us into the future.

Q: What else can we expect from CJIS in the future?

Cuthbertson: We are well-positioned for success going 

forward. I anticipate expansion of our legally mandated 

biometrics and identity verification programs regarding 

visa issuance and other areas related to foreign travel. 

We need to continue to help states and federal agencies 

that protect the nation’s borders. We are also expanding 

our systems to include latent palm print functionality. 

Beginning next year, the FBI will have the ability to 

search palm prints for the first time. Studies have shown 

that a significant percentage of crime scene marks or 

latent prints are actually palm prints. With this enhancement to our systems, we will identify more criminals. We 

are very proud of the work being done at CJIS and look 

forward to continued success in the future.

Part 2 of an interview with Special Agent David 

Cuthbertson, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice 

Information Services Division (CJIS).

Q: Since its creation in 1992 as the FBI’s central 

repository for criminal justice information, CJIS has 

experienced tremendous growth. To what do you attribute this success?

Cuthbertson: There is no question that our success is 

fueled by collaboration with our partners. We rely on 

participating agencies for data, and we organize, store, 

and share that data nationwide. This collective effort 

helps everyone leverage invaluable crime-fighting resources. Our annual Uniform Crime Report, for example, 

produces crime statistics that police agencies and public 

administrators rely on to make decisions about how they 

run their cities. The 2011 report included data from more 

than 18,000 law enforcement agencies. That’s just one of 

many programs that illustrate our collaborative partnerships.

Q: How has technology contributed to the success of 

CJIS?

Cuthbertson: A few years ago, 70,000 requests per day 

for fingerprint checks broke records. Now we’re seeing 

about 140,000 requests per day. That has everything to 

do with technology. We recently implemented a new 

fingerprint-matching algorithm that improved our reliability numbers from 92 percent to 99 percent. That’s a 

significant increase in accuracy, and for police officers on 

the street it translates into a greater ability to identify an 

individual claiming to be a different person. We continue 

to build our systems with next-generation technology and 

have made billion-dollar enhancements to our biometrics 

program, adding facial recognition and iris scan systems 

to our state-of-the-art fingerprint capabilities.

Q: CJIS has a number of biometrics initiatives. Can 

you explain them?

Cuthbertson: Our Biometric Center of Excellence 

represents the FBI’s investment in staying current with 

emerging technologies. Leveraging our academic partnerships with West Virginia University and other instituA Year of Records 

for CJIS

Part 2: Cutting-Edge 

Technology Fuels Growth

December 5, 2011
100 2011 The FBI Story

forward, “but more than anything,” Fazenbaker added, 

“this case is a classic example of how local, state, and 

federal agencies work together to solve cases, each providing their own expertise.”

In this case, ERT’s highly trained members provided the 

evidence, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation used 

it to identify Goggins’ remains through a DNA match. 

The FBI also provided a victim specialist to work with 

members of Goggins’ family who lived out of state.

“I encourage all law enforcement agencies here to work 

together,” said Mike Bottoms, district attorney general for 

the 22nd Judicial District of Tennessee, who prosecuted 

the Goggins case. “In a rural area, you have to work 

together because out here, no one is completely self-sufficient.”

“Investigations can be different in rural settings,” 

Fazenbaker added. “You might be 120 miles from 

your office, and you have to depend on your local 

partners—and you know they are depending on you.”

A few days after the missing person report, Beersdorf 

and his wife were arrested and charged with first-degree 

murder. Beersdorf later confessed to strangling Goggins. 

There had been friction in the house, Beersdorf told 

investigators, and on that January day it spilled over into 

a fight that cost Goggins her life. Last March, rather than 

stand trial, the couple pled guilty. Beersdorf was sentenced to life in prison. His wife, who did not participate 

in the murder, received a 15-year sentence.

“The FBI was extremely helpful in this investigation,” said 

Bottoms. “When the Bureau gets involved in a case like 

this,” he added, “it’s not just for the three or four days of 

searching and evidence gathering. It’s also a commitment 

to attend court hearings and participate in a trial if it 

comes to that.”

Fazenbaker noted that agents working in rural resident 

agencies “pretty much handle whatever cases come in the 

door. Out here in these small communities,” he said, “we 

are proud of the fact that we can really make a difference.”

When the missing person report was filed for Rose 

Goggins, a 21-year-old mother who lived with her fiancé’s 

parents in rural Tennessee, the response was immediate: 

local police, firefighters, rescue squads, and volunteers 

began an intensive search using floodlights and bloodhounds. Along the banks of the Tennessee River on that 

cold night in January 2010 where the search was concentrated, it looked like a military encampment.

It was Goggins’ fiancé’s father—the grandfather of her 

11-month-old son—who called in the missing person 

report. But officers from the Wayne County Sheriff’s 

Department soon began to doubt Steven Beersdorf’s 

story. At the request of local authorities, our agent on the 

scene called in the FBI’s Evidence Response Team (ERT) 

from our Memphis office to conduct a different kind of 

search.

Working in the cold and snow with local law enforcement, ERT members found flesh and small bone fragments, including a palm-sized piece of skull, on the 

Beersdorf property, providing critical clues that Goggins 

was not missing, but had been murdered—while her 

fiancé, a National Guard reservist, was training in 

Mississippi for deployment to Iraq.

“Beersdorf took extraordinary steps to dispose of the 

body,” said Special Agent Brian Fazenbaker, who works 

out of our Memphis office and covers eight southern 

counties in Middle Tennessee. It was the painstaking 

work of ERT members that helped move the investigation 

From Missing Person 

to Murder Victim

Strong Partnerships Help 

Solve Rural Tennessee Case

Left: Members of the Memphis Evidence Response Team found bone 

fragments at this muddy search site, which helped turn a missing 

person case into a murder investigation.

December 8, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 101

The new board also approved a number of “consulting” agreements for hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

This consulting work was never performed, and the 

proceeds went to the criminals.

Scarfo and Pelullo allegedly purchased items like expensive homes, luxury vehicles, yachts, and jewelry. And 

like any good mob soldiers, they also allegedly purchased 

weapons.

Since FPFG was a public company, it was obligated 

to file reports with the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (SEC). The indictment alleges that, in 

order to conceal the involvement of former felons Scarfo 

and Pelullo in the company, their henchman at FPFG 

filed fraudulent paperwork. Scarfo is also accused of 

concealing his involvement in FPFG from his probation 

officer—at the time of the scheme, he had been released 

from prison and was under federal supervision.

In addition, the indictment alleges that the Scarfo-Pelullo 

conspiracy was operated with the assistance and direction 

of members and associates of La Cosa Nostra and that 

some of the financial proceeds from the scheme ended up 

in the hands of the LCN.

This multi-year investigation was very complex 

and required not only using sensitive investigative 

techniques, but also carefully analyzing voluminous 

financial records and following the money trail 

through various financial accounts. And we didn’t do 

it alone—we worked with the Department of Labor’s 

Inspector General; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 

Firearms, Explosives; and the SEC.

▪

It’s a criminal’s dream—owning a financial company that 

can be looted at will. That’s just what 13 individuals—including two with ties to organized crime families—are 

accused of in a federal indictment announced last month 

in New Jersey.

Among those charged in the 25-count indictment is 

Nicodemo Scarfo—a member of the Lucchese crime 

family and son of Nicodemo Scarfo Sr., the imprisoned 

former boss of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra (LCN) 

crime family. Also charged were Salvatore Pelullo—an associate of the Lucchese and Philadelphia LCN families—

and 11 others...all in connection with an alleged criminal 

takeover of FirstPlus Financial Group (FPFG), a publicly 

held company based in Texas. The takeover resulted in 

honest FPFG shareholders losing at least $12 million; the 

company ultimately filed for bankruptcy.

The group was charged with various crimes in connection 

with this racketeering conspiracy, including securities 

fraud; wire, mail, and bank fraud; extortion; money laundering; and obstruction of justice. In addition to Scarfo 

and Pelullo, other members of the criminal enterprise 

included five attorneys, a certified public accountant, and 

Scarfo’s wife.

How did they do it? According to the indictment, 

members of the criminal enterprise devised a plan in 

2007 to take over FPFG by replacing its board of directors 

and management with individuals who would serve at the 

direction of Scarfo and Pelullo. To accomplish this, they 

allegedly accused board members of financial improprieties that, if brought to light, would result in costly 

lawsuits. Eventually, through threats and intimidation, 

every member of the board and executive management 

left.

After gaining control of the company, the looting began:

The new board approved the acquisition of “companies” owned by Scarfo and Pelullo for millions 

of dollars and several hundred thousand shares of 

FPFG stock—except that these companies were 

really nothing more than shell corporations and had 

virtually no value. Proceeds from the sale of the 

companies ended up in the pockets of the criminal 

conspirators.

▪

Mafia Family Fraud

The Case of the Stolen Company

December 12, 2011
102 2011 The FBI Story

areas of the attacks,” said Special Agent Erin Sheridan. 

“The suspect is generally described as an AfricanAmerican male of medium build who is currently believed 

to be in his 40s or 50s.”

A task force—made up of the FBI, MPD, Maryland’s 

Montgomery County Police Department, and the U.S. 

Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia—is 

working to capture the Potomac River Rapist. Using a 

variety of digital platforms such as FBI.gov, social media, 

radio spots, and digital billboards, the media campaign 

provides information about the case and the offender.

“We believe that someone in the public will help solve 

this case,” Sheridan said. “Because law enforcement is 

in possession of DNA evidence that can either positively 

link the suspect to his crimes or exclude innocent parties, 

the public should not hesitate to provide information, 

even if it is just the name of a potential suspect.”

Witnesses at the time of Mirzayan’s murder helped artists 

create a composite sketch shown here that has since been 

age-enhanced. That individual is being sought in connection with the case.

Most of the assaults followed a similar pattern. “The 

rapist used a blitz attack, surprising his victims with 

force—sometimes wielding a knife or screwdriver—and 

throwing a blanket or towel over their heads,” said 

Capt. David Gillespie of the Montgomery County Police 

Department. “He often stalked his targets, breaking into 

their homes and waiting, sometimes for hours, for them to 

come home.”

“It has been more than 20 years since this predator began 

stalking, hunting, and sexually assaulting women,” said 

Todd Williams, an MPD detective who is part of the 

Potomac River Rapist Task Force. “He became increasingly violent during these attacks and killed Christine 

Mirzayan by bludgeoning her with a boulder. He is 

extremely violent and dangerous and needs to be caught 

and taken off the streets.”

We need your help. Law enforcement agencies are 

asking anyone with information to contact the MPD at 

(202) 727-9099 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-

225-5324). Additionally, anonymous information may be 

submitted to the police department’s TEXT TIP LINE by 

text messaging 50411. You can also submit a tip at tips.fbi.

gov.

Christine Mirzayan was 29 years old, a National Academy 

of Sciences intern, and had a promising career ahead 

of her on the summer evening in 1998 when she was 

walking home from a cookout in Washington, D.C. 

Tragically, she never made it. Her killer—a serial rapist 

who had previously attacked eight other women—is still 

at large.

Today, the FBI and its law 

enforcement partners are 

reaching out to the public—

and a reward of up to 

$25,000 is being offered by 

Washington’s Metropolitan 

Police Department (MPD)—

for assistance in apprehending the offender known as 

the Potomac River Rapist.

Between 1991 and Mirzayan’s 

murder seven years later, the 

Potomac River Rapist brazenly 

and brutally preyed upon women in the Washington area. 

Victims were attacked in their homes and included an 

18-year-old babysitter and a mother whose infant was in 

the house at the time of the attack. Seven of the nine 

attacks have been linked by DNA, and all are linked by 

the offender’s similar violent methods.

“It is believed the suspect lived in, spent a considerable 

amount of time in, or was otherwise familiar with the 

Potomac River 

Rapist Cold Case

Help Us Catch a Murderer 

and Serial Rapist

December 15, 2011

Christine Mirzayan
2011 The FBI Story 103

planning, resource allocation, assessment of police 

operations, etc., to help address crime problems at various 

levels.

Also, criminal justice researchers can study the nature, 

cause, and movement of crime over time. Legislators can 

draft anti-crime measures using the research findings 

and recommendations of law enforcement administrators, planners, and public and private entities concerned 

with the problem of crime. Chambers of commerce and 

tourism agencies can examine the data to see how it 

impacts the geographic jurisdictions they represent. And 

the news media can use crime statistics to inform the 

public about the state of crime locally and nationally.

What this UCR data should not be used for: To 

compile rankings of individual jurisdictions and institutions of higher learning and/or to evaluate the effectiveness of individual law enforcement agencies. These 

incomplete analyses have often created misleading 

perceptions that adversely affect geographic entities and 

their residents. UCR statistics include only jurisdictional 

population figures along with reported crimes, clearance, 

or arrest data—not the many socio-economic and other 

factors that cause the volume and type of crime to vary 

from place to place.

The preliminary full-year crime statistics will be released 

next summer, and the final Crime in the United States 

2011 report will be available in the fall.

According to the FBI’s just-released Preliminary 

Semiannual Uniform Crime Report—which covers January 

through June 2011—the number of violent crimes 

and property crimes reported to us showed a decrease 

compared to figures from the same time frame in 2010, 

continuing a downward trend.

Overall, violent crimes were down 6.4 percent, while 

property crimes fell 3.7 percent.

Here are some highlights of our preliminary crime 

statistics for the first six months of 2011, as compared 

to the same period last year:

The occurrence of all four offense types in the violent 

crime category decreased—murder was down 5.7 

percent; rape dropped 5.1 percent, robbery fell 7.7 

percent, and aggravated assault declined 5.9 percent. 

And it didn’t matter what region of the country you 

lived in—decreases in each category were seen in the 

Northeast, Midwest, South, and West.

Overall violent crime declined in all six city population groups and metropolitan and non-metropolitan 

counties, with most violent crime offenses showing 

decreases. There were some upticks: murder in cities 

with populations between 500,000 and 999,999 (up 

1.2 percent); murder in cities with under 10,000 

people (2.6 percent); rape in cities of 1 million or 

more (1.0 percent); rape in cities of 500,000 to 

999,999 (6.7 percent); and rape in cities of 250,000 to 

499.999 (0.1 percent).

Like violent crime, all offense types in the property 

crime category showed decreases—burglary (down 

2.2 percent), larceny-theft (4.0 percent), and motor 

vehicle theft (5.0 percent). And like violent crime, 

these declines occurred in all four regions of the 

country.

All three property crime types fell in all six city population groups and in metropolitan counties. Just one 

exception in non-metropolitan counties—larcenytheft was up 0.5 percent.

Arson, which declined 8.6 percent overall, also saw 

individual decreases in all four areas of the country 

and in every population group.

Uses for the UCR data: To provide law enforcement with data that can help with budget formulation, 

▪

▪

▪

▪

▪

Preliminary Crime Stats

For the First Half of 2011

December 19, 2011
104 2011 The FBI Story

threats for the operational arm of the Innocent Images 

National Initiative, which targets child pornography and 

sexual predators.

“The way that images are being posted in real time allows 

others who have access to see the metadata and see where 

the photos were taken and reveal their location at that 

time,” Gutfleish said.

An intelligence analyst in the FBI Criminal Division’s 

Crimes Against Children Unit said these details can 

reveal a “pattern of life,” particularly when images posted 

over time are clustered in geographic locations.

“It doesn’t have to be in real time to be dangerous,” said 

the analyst. “Historical data can tell you a lot about individuals’ day-to-day habits and may indicate where they 

are most likely to be at a certain time.”

Some popular social media sites automatically scrub 

metadata from images before they are published. On the 

other hand, some leverage the data to display location 

information beside the images. An amateur sleuth could 

easily pinpoint a location using the available latitude and 

longitude coordinates.

“Even if they don’t intentionally say where they are, the 

photos could reveal that,” Gutfleish said. “And that could 

present a potential danger.”

Gutfleish said he has seen an increase in intelligence 

reports and complaints about the potential misuse of 

the metadata embedded in photos. He said the proliferation of online tools that aggregate personal information 

from social networking and image hosting sites is enough 

to urge a level of caution.

He suggests mobile phone users at the very least check 

the “options” or “settings” on their phones (and any 

applicable mobile applications) to see if they are sharing 

location information. In many cases, the default setting is 

to share location information.

“It’s just a best-practice if you don’t want to give out your 

location,” Gutfleish says. “We simply want to make sure 

people know this is happening.”

This story is the first in an occasional series aimed at providing practical web advice and tips for parents and their kids.

With the explosive popularity of smartphones and social 

media platforms, sharing photos has never been easier. 

Millions of pictures are uploaded to the web every day, 

and camera-enabled mobile phones are the perennial topselling consumer electronic devices. So it’s a safe bet that 

even more photos will be cropping up on image-hosting 

communities and personal websites.

But what exactly is being shared?

In some cases, you might unwittingly be letting 

others know where you live and work and your travel 

patterns and habits. These details can be revealed 

through bits of information embedded in images taken 

with smartphones and some digital cameras and then 

shared on public websites. The information, called 

metadata, often includes the times, dates, and geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) where images are 

taken.

While the geospatial data can be helpful in myriad web 

applications that plot image locations, it also opens a door 

for criminals, including burglars, stalkers, and predators. 

It’s not a stretch to imagine young teens’ images of their 

ventures to the mall or beach being culled by web predators and meticulously plotted on online maps.

“It’s not something we think is happening. We know it’s 

happening,” said Kevin Gutfleish, head of the Innocent 

Images Intelligence Unit in the FBI’s Cyber Division. 

The unit provides analysis and assessments of emerging 

Cyber Alerts for 

Parents & Kids

Tip #1: Be Prudent When 

Posting Images Online

Left: Geocoordinates are embedded in the image, which was

transmitted via a smartphone. The data make it easy to plot the 

sender’s location on a map.

December 22, 2011
2011 The FBI Story 105

Pakistan to join a radical jihadist fighting group. He was 

arrested while trying to catch a flight out of the country.

Texas bomb plot: A 21-year-old soldier who was absent 

without leave was charged in July with planning to 

detonate a bomb inside a restaurant frequented by soldiers 

from Fort Hood. When he was arrested, the individual 

was in possession of a variety of bomb-making components. In November he was charged with additional 

crimes including attempted murder.

Plot to attack Seattle military installation: Two men 

were indicted in July for conspiring to use a weapon 

of mass destruction to attack a military installation in 

Seattle with the intention of killing U.S. citizens. Law 

enforcement first became aware of the plot when an individual alerted them that he had been approached about 

participating in the attack.

Conduit to terror: A Somali national in his mid-20s was 

indicted in July for providing material support to foreign 

terror organizations al Shabaab and al Qaeda in the 

Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He was captured in the Gulf 

region by the U.S. military in April 2011 and was allegedly a conduit between al Shabaab and AQAP.

Iraq bomb attacks: An Iraqi citizen who allegedly carried 

out numerous improvised explosive device (IED) attacks 

against U.S. troops in Iraq and another Iraqi national 

alleged to have participated in the Iraq insurgency were 

indicted in May on terrorism charges in Kentucky, where 

both were residents.

Jihadist indictment: A 20-year-old Saudi Arabia citizen 

and Texas resident was arrested in February and charged 

with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in 

connection with the purchase of chemicals and equipment used to make an IED and his research of potential 

U.S. targets. The individual came to the U.S. in 2008 on 

a student visa.

The FBI conducted thousands of investigations in 2011, 

from terrorists bent on murder and cyber thieves hacking 

networks to corrupt government officials and fraudsters 

stealing billions of dollars from innocent victims.

As the year comes to a close, here is a look at some of the 

most significant cases the Bureau investigated with the 

help of our domestic and international law enforcement 

and intelligence community partners.

Part 1 focuses on our top investigative priority: protecting the nation from terrorist attack. The death of 

Osama bin Laden in May was a milestone, but al Qaeda 

remains committed to high-profile attacks against the 

U.S. And on the home front, lone offenders radicalized on the Internet continue to pose a serious threat to 

national security.

Here are some of the top terror cases of 2011, in reverse 

chronological order:

Murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq: A 38-year-old Canadian 

citizen was indicted this month by a New York grand jury 

for his role in the murder of five American soldiers in a 

suicide-bomb attack in Iraq in 2009. The individual was 

arrested last January in Canada, and the U.S. is seeking 

his extradition.

Indictment of senior citizens in ricin plot: Four Georgia 

men in their 60s and 70s were arrested last month for 

planning to manufacture the biological toxin ricin and 

purchasing explosives for use in attacks against American 

citizens. The defendants are alleged to be part of a fringe 

militia group.

Plot against Saudi ambassador: Two individuals were 

charged in October for their participation in a plot 

directed by elements of the Iranian government to murder 

the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. with explosives while 

the ambassador was on U.S. soil. One of the individuals is 

in custody; the other is still at large.

Attack planned on U.S. Capitol: A 26-year-old 

Massachusetts man was arrested in September and 

charged with plotting to bomb the Pentagon and U.S. 

Capitol using remote-controlled aircraft filled with 

explosives.

Material support to terrorists: An Albanian citizen 

living in New York was charged in September with providing material support to terrorists for planning travel to 

The Year in Review

A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1

December 27, 2011
106 2011 The FBI Story

With our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the FBI worked thousands of investigations during 2011, from cyber and hate crimes to public 

corruption and multi-million-dollar fraud schemes. As 

the year draws to a close, we take a look back at some of 

2011’s most significant cases.

Part 1 focused on terrorism. This segment highlights 

some of the year’s top cases from the FBI’s other 

investigative priorities:

Martin Luther King Jr. Day attempted bombing: A 

Washington state man was sentenced to 32 years in 

prison last week for attempting to bomb a Martin Luther 

King Jr. Day parade last January in Spokane.

International cyber takedown: Six Estonian nationals were arrested last month for running a sophisticated 

Internet fraud ring that infected millions of computers worldwide with a virus and enabled the thieves to 

manipulate the multi-billion-dollar Internet advertising 

industry.

Operation Delta Blues: After a two-year investigation 

dubbed Operation Delta Blues, 70 individuals—including 

five law enforcement officers—were charged in Arkansas 

in October with crimes including public corruption, drug 

trafficking, money laundering, and firearms offenses.

Corporate fraud scheme: The former chairman and 

owner of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW), a privately 

held mortgage lending company, was sentenced in June to 

30 years in prison for his role in a more than $2.9 billion 

fraud scheme that contributed to the failure of TBW and 

Colonial Bank, one of the 25 largest banks in the U.S. 

James “Whitey” Bulger arrest: Top Ten fugitive James 

“Whitey” Bulger was arrested in June thanks to a tip from 

the public—just days after a new FBI media campaign 

was launched to help locate the Boston gangster who had 

been on the run for 16 years.

Cyber fraud organization disruption: In an unprecedented move in the fight against cyber crime, the FBI 

disrupted an international cyber fraud operation in April 

by seizing the servers that had infected as many as two 

million computers with malicious software.

Southwest border gang arrests: Thirty-five members 

and associates of the Barrio Azteca gang were charged in 

March with various counts of racketeering, murder, drug 

offenses, and money laundering. Ten of the defendants 

were Mexican nationals and were also charged in connection with the 2010 murders in Juarez, Mexico of a U.S. 

Consulate employee, her husband, and the husband of a 

U.S. Consulate employee.

Health care fraud takedown: Twenty individuals, 

including three doctors, were charged in South Florida in 

February for their participation in a fraud scheme involving $200 million in Medicare billing for mental health 

services. The charges coincided with a national federal 

health care fraud takedown involving 111 defendants in 

nine cities.

Selling secrets for profit: A 66-year-old resident of 

Hawaii was sentenced in January to 32 years in prison for 

communicating classified national defense information 

about U.S. military planes to the People’s Republic of 

China, along with illegally exporting military technical 

data and other offenses.

Massive Mafia takedown: Nearly 130 members of the 

Mafia in New York City and other East Coast cities were 

arrested in January in the largest nationally coordinated 

organized crime takedown in FBI history. Charges 

included murder, drug trafficking, arson, loan sharking, 

illegal gambling, witness tampering, labor racketeering, 

and extortion.

December 29, 2011

The Year in Review

A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2
2011 The FBI Story 107
108 2011 The FBI Story

Domestic Terrorism: Focus on Militia Extremism, page 78

The FBI Since 9/11: D.C. Museum Updates Popular

Exhibit, page 85

The FBI Since 9/11: Exec Discusses Improvements Since

Anthrax Attacks, pages 86-87

Terrorists, Spies, and Hackers: The New National

Security Landscape, page 94

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1,

page 105

Crimes Against Children

Keeping Kids Safe Online: FBI Program Offered in

Schools, page 3

Child Predators: The Online Threat Continues to Grow,

page 38

FBI in Montana: Part 3: Online Operation Reveals

Network of Predators, page 74

Protecting our Children: Technology, Partnerships Work

Hand in Hand, page 81

18 Child Porn Websites Shut Down: Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation, page 83

Cyber Alerts for Parents & Kids: Tip #1: Be Prudent

When Posting Images Online, page 104

Criminal Justice Information Services

New and Improved N-DEx: About to Go Nationwide,

page 9

Crimes Rates Fall Again: According to Preliminary Stats,

page 40

Biometric Sharing Initiative: Making the World Safer,

page 47

Latest Crime Statistics: Volumes Continue to Fall,

page 77

Houston Cold Case Solved: Forensics Personnel Honored

by FBI, page 84

In the Line of Duty: 56 Officers Feloniously Killed in

2010, page 88

Art Theft

National Treasures: Recovering Artwork Owned by the

U.S. Government, page 46

Iraqi Antiquities Returned: Artifacts Seized During

Public Corruption Investigation, page 55

Civil Rights

Human Traffickers Indicted: Massive Case Involves 600

Thai Victims, page 8

Civil Rights Program Update: We Take Our Role Very

Seriously, page 65

Hate Crimes Remain Steady: 2010 FBI Report Released,

page 93

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

Counterterrorism

Mission Afghanistan: Part 1: Our Role in the War Zone,

page 31

Mission Afghanistan: Part 2: The Major Crimes Task

Force, page 32

Mission Afghanistan: Contract Corruption: Part 3:

Holding Americans Accountable in a War Zone,

page 33

Mission Afghanistan: Biometrics: Part 4: A Measure of

Progress, page 34

Most Wanted Terrorist Dead: Bin Laden Killed in

‘Targeted Operation’, page 35

Mission Afghanistan: Analysts in the War Zone: Part 6:

Turning Information Into Intelligence, page 42

Mission Afghanistan: Legat Kabul: Part 7: An Early

Presence in the War Zone, page 44

Mission Afghanistan: A Model for the Future: Part 8:

Legat Kabul and the International Fusion Cell, page 45

WMD Central: Part 1: Five Years and Building, page 61

WMD Central: Part 2: Looking Back, Looking Ahead,

page 62

2011: The FBI Story Index
2011 The FBI Story 109

Hate Crimes Remain Steady: 2010 FBI Report Released,

page 93

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 1: FBI’s Largest Division

Provides Information to Protect the Nation, page 98

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 2: Cutting-Edge

Technology Fuels Growth, page 99

Preliminary Crime Stats: For the First Half of 2011,

page 103

Cyber Crimes

Keeping Kids Safe Online: FBI Program Offered in

Schools, page 3

Internet Crime Trends: The Latest Report, page 16

Botnet Operation Disabled: FBI Seizes Servers to Stop

Cyber Fraud, page 30

Child Predators: The Online Threat Continues to Grow,

page 38

‘Scareware’ Distributors Targeted: 12 Nations Coordinate

Anti-Cyber Crime Effort, page 50

Buying a Car Online?: Read This First, page 67

The NCFTA: Combining Forces to Fight Cyber Crime,

page 76

Protecting our Children: Technology, Partnerships Work

Hand in Hand, page 81

18 Child Porn Websites Shut Down Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation, page 83

Operation Ghost Click: International Cyber Ring That

Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled, page 92

Terrorists, Spies, and Hackers: The New National

Security Landscape, page 94

Cyber Alerts for Parents & Kids: Tip #1: Be Prudent

When Posting Images Online, page 104

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

Director/FBI Leadership

Improving Communities: Leaders Honored in

Washington, page 24

Intelligence in Action: The Director’s Briefer, page 28

National Police Week 2011: Honoring Those Who Serve,

page 37

WMD Central: Part 1: Five Years and Building, page 61

WMD Central: Part 2: Looking Back, Looking Ahead,

page 62

Health Care Fraud Takedown: Targets $295 Million in

False Medicare Claims, page 73

The FBI Since 9/11: Exec Discusses Improvements Since

Anthrax Attacks, pages 86-87

Terrorists, Spies, and Hackers: The New National

Security Landscape, page 94

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 1: FBI’s Largest Division

Provides Information to Protect the Nation, page 98

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 2: Cutting-Edge

Technology Fuels Growth, page 99

Field Cases

Successes in Gang Enforcement: From Coast to Coast,

page 5

Mafia Takedown: Largest Coordinated Arrest in FBI

History, page 6

A Case of Florida Fraud: With a Few Added Twists,

page 7

Human Traffickers Indicted: Massive Case Involves 600

Thai Victims, page 8

The I-35 Bandit: Help Us Catch a Serial Bank Robber,

page 10

Operation Bad Medicine: Major Health Care Fraud

Takedown, page 11

House of Cards: Casino Cheating Ring Dismantled,

page 12

Health Care Fraud: 111 Charged Nationwide, page 14

Help Us Catch the East Coast Rapist: New Digital

Billboard Campaign Launched, page 17

Operation Power Outage: Armenian Organized Crime

Group Targeted, page 18

2011: The FBI Story Index
110 2011 The FBI Story

Moving Money Illegally: A $172 Million Case Example,

page 19

Serial Scammer: Targeted L.A. Latino Community,

page 22

Private Tender: Anti-Government Group Mints Its Own

Coins, page 27

A Byte Out of History: Fatal Firefight in Miami, page 29

Mafia Takedown: Philadelphia Boss Charged, page 41

Chicago’s Violent Crime Fighters: Partnerships Key to

Task Force Success, page 48

The ‘Whitey’ Bulger Case: New Campaign Focuses on

Mobster’s Companion, page 49

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Captured: Media Campaign Leads

to Top Ten Arrest, page 51

The Chicago Mafia: Down but Not Out, page 52

Public Corruption Update: A Busy Month Comes to a

Close, page 53

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 1: Dismantling an

International Smuggling Ring, page 54

Iraqi Antiquities Returned: Artifacts Seized During

Public Corruption Investigation, page 55

‘San Diego’s Most Wanted’: Show Celebrates First

Anniversary, 57 Captures, page 56

Taking a Trip to the ATM?: Beware of ‘Skimmers’,

page 57

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 2: An Undercover

Agent Tells His Story, pages 58-59

Foreclosure Fraud: Victims Lose Their Shirts...and Their

Homes, page 60

Fraud in the Family: The Case of the Cheating Foster

Parents, page 66

FBI in Montana: Part 1: In Resident Agencies, Agents

are ‘Jacks of All Trades’, page 71

FBI in Montana: Part 2: Bozeman Fraud Case Shows ‘It’s

Not a Small World’, page 72

FBI in Montana: Part 3: Online Operation Reveals

Network of Predators, page 74

Surrogacy Scam: Played on Emotions of Vulnerable

Victims, page 75

Making a Point About Lasers: Illegal Use of Devices a

Serious Crime, page 79

Help Us Find a Killer: Media Campaign Marks

Anniversary of Prosecutor’s Murder, page 80

18 Child Porn Websites Shut Down: Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation, page 83

Operation Ghost Click: International Cyber Ring That

Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled, page 92

From Missing Person to Murder Victim: Strong

Partnerships Help Solve Rural Tennessee Case,

page 100

Mafia Family Fraud: The Case of the Stolen Company,

page 101

Potomac River Rapist Cold Case: Help Us Catch a

Murderer and Serial Rapist, page 102

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1, page

105

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2, page

106

Foreign Counterintelligence

A Byte Out of History: Going SOLO: Communist Agent

Tells All, page 63

Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case,

page 89

FBI Counterintelligence National Strategy: A Blueprint

for Protecting U.S. Secrets, page 90

Terrorists, Spies, and Hackers: The New National

Security Landscape, page 94

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

General

FBI Records: New ‘Vault’ Comes Online, page 26

Private Tender: Anti-Government Group Mints Its Own

Coins, page 27

2011: The FBI Story Index
2011 The FBI Story 111

FBI in Montana: Part 1: In Resident Agencies, Agents

are ‘Jacks of All Trades’, page 71

In the Line of Duty: 56 Officers Feloniously Killed in

2010, page 88

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1,

page 105

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

History

Legal Attaché Paris: Then and Now, page 2

A Byte Out of History: Early African-American Agents,

page 13

FBI Records: New ‘Vault’ Comes Online, page 26

A Byte Out of History: Fatal Firefight in Miami, page 29

National Treasures: Recovering Artwork Owned by the

U.S. Government, page 46

A Byte Out of History: Going SOLO: Communist Agent

Tells All, page 63

A Byte Out of History: A Most Helpful Ostrich: Using

Ultra Intelligence in World War II, page 82

The FBI Since 9/11: D.C. Museum Updates Popular

Exhibit, page 85

Intelligence

Intelligence in Action: The Director’s Briefer, page 28

Mission Afghanistan: Analysts in the War Zone: Part 6:

Turning Information Into Intelligence, page 42

A Byte Out of History: Going SOLO: Communist Agent

Tells All, page 63

Intelligence Analysts: Part 1: Central to the Mission,

page 68

Intelligence Analysts: Part 2: The Subject Matter Experts,

page 69

Intelligence Analysts: Part 3: A Rewarding Career,

page 70

A Byte Out of History: A Most Helpful Ostrich: Using

Ultra Intelligence in World War II, page 82

Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case,

page 89

FBI Counterintelligence National Strategy: A Blueprint

for Protecting U.S. Secrets, page 90

International

Legal Attaché Paris: Then and Now, page 2

Moving Money Illegally: A $172 Million Case Example,

page 19

Violent Border Gang Indicted: Members Charged in

Consulate Murders, page 20

Botnet Operation Disabled: FBI Seizes Servers to Stop

Cyber Fraud, page 30

Mission Afghanistan: Part 1: Our Role in the War Zone,

page 31

Mission Afghanistan: Part 2: The Major Crimes Task

Force, page 32

Mission Afghanistan: Contract Corruption: Part 3:

Holding Americans Accountable in a War Zone,

page 33

Mission Afghanistan: Biometrics: Part 4: A Measure of

Progress, page 34

Mission Afghanistan: Pamir Air Crash: Part 5:

Humanitarian Effort in the War Zone, page 39

Mission Afghanistan: Analysts in the War Zone: Part 6:

Turning Information Into Intelligence, page 42

Mission Afghanistan: Legat Kabul: Part 7: An Early

Presence in the War Zone, page 44

Mission Afghanistan: A Model for the Future: Part 8:

Legat Kabul and the International Fusion Cell, page 45

Biometric Sharing Initiative: Making the World Safer,

page 47

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 1: Dismantling an

International Smuggling Ring, page 54

Iraqi Antiquities Returned: Artifacts Seized During

Public Corruption Investigation, page 55

2011: The FBI Story Index
112 2011 The FBI Story

2011: The FBI Story Index

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 2: An Undercover

Agent Tells His Story, pages 58-59

Surrogacy Scam: Played on Emotions of Vulnerable

Victims, page 75

18 Child Porn Websites Shut Down: Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation, page 83

Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case,

page 89

Phony Document Rings Broken Up: Alleged California

Ringleader Arrested, page 91

Operation Ghost Click: International Cyber Ring That

Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled, page 92

Lab/Operational Technology

Cryptanalysts: Part 1: Breaking Codes to Stop Crime,

page 23

Cryptanalysts: Part 2: Help Solve an Open Murder Case,

page 25

Behavioral Interview Program: Attempting to Understand

Violent Offenders, page 36

Mission Afghanistan: Pamir Air Crash: Part 5:

Humanitarian Effort in the War Zone, page 39

Digital Forensics: Regional Labs Help Solve Local

Crimes, page 43

The FBI Since 9/11: Exec Discusses Improvements Since

Anthrax Attacks, pages 86-87

The FBI and DNA: Part 1: A Look at the Nationwide

System that Helps Solve Crimes, page 96

The FBI and DNA: Part 2: More About the Nationwide 

System that Helps Solve Crimes, page 97

Major Thefts/Violent Crime

Organized Retail Theft: A $30 Billion-a-Year Industry,

page 1

Operation Secondhand Smoke: Cigarette Case Yields

Unexpected Results, page 4

Successes in Gang Enforcement: From Coast to Coast,

page 5

The I-35 Bandit: Help Us Catch a Serial Bank Robber,

page 10

Help Us Catch the East Coast Rapist: New Digital

Billboard Campaign Launched, page 17

Moving Money Illegally: A $172 Million Case Example,

page 19

Violent Border Gang Indicted: Members Charged in

Consulate Murders, page 20

Mafia Takedown: Philadelphia Boss Charged, page 41

Chicago’s Violent Crime Fighters: Partnerships Key to

Task Force Success, page 48

The ‘Whitey’ Bulger Case: New Campaign Focuses on

Mobster’s Companion, page 49

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Captured: Media Campaign Leads

to Top Ten Arrest, page 51

Iraqi Antiquities Returned: Artifacts Seized During

Public Corruption Investigation, page 55

‘San Diego’s Most Wanted’: Show Celebrates First

Anniversary, 57 Captures, page 56

Making a Point About Lasers: Illegal Use of Devices a

Serious Crime, page 79

Help Us Find a Killer: Media Campaign Marks

Anniversary of Prosecutor’s Murder, page 80

Hate Crimes Remain Steady: 2010 FBI Report Released,

page 93

From Missing Person to Murder Victim: Strong

Partnerships Help Solve Rural Tennessee Case,

page 100

Potomac River Rapist Cold Case: Help Us Catch a

Murderer and Serial Rapist, page 102

Preliminary Crime Stats: For the First Half of 2011,

page 103

Organized Crime/Drugs

Organized Retail Theft: A $30 Billion-a-Year Industry,

page 1

Mafia Takedown: Largest Coordinated Arrest in FBI

History, page 6
2011 The FBI Story 113

House of Cards: Casino Cheating Ring Dismantled,

page 12

Operation Power Outage: Armenian Organized Crime

Group Targeted, page 18

Moving Money Illegally: A $172 Million Case Example,

page 19

Violent Border Gang Indicted: Members Charged in

Consulate Murders, page 20

Mafia Takedown: Philadelphia Boss Charged, page 41

The ‘Whitey’ Bulger Case: New Campaign Focuses on

Mobster’s Companion, page 49

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Captured: Media Campaign Leads

to Top Ten Arrest, page 51

The Chicago Mafia: Down but Not Out, page 52

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 1: Dismantling an

International Smuggling Ring, page 54

Operation Smoking Dragon: Part 2: An Undercover

Agent Tells His Story, pages 58-59

Phony Document Rings Broken Up: Alleged California

Ringleader Arrested, page 91

Mafia Family Fraud: The Case of the Stolen Company,

page 101

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

Partnerships

New and Improved N-DEx: About to Go Nationwide,

page 9

The I-35 Bandit: Help Us Catch a Serial Bank Robber,

page 10

Domestic Security: Combating Crime, Protecting

Commerce, page 21

Serial Scammer: Targeted L.A. Latino Community,

page 22

Private Tender: Anti-Government Group Mints Its Own

Coins, page 27

National Police Week 2011: Honoring Those Who Serve,

page 37

Crimes Rates Fall Again: According to Preliminary Stats,

page 40

Digital Forensics: Regional Labs Help Solve Local

Crimes, page 43

National Treasures: Recovering Artwork Owned by the

U.S. Government, page 46

Biometric Sharing Initiative: Making the World Safer,

page 47

Chicago’s Violent Crime Fighters: Partnerships Key to

Task Force Success, page 48

The ‘Whitey’ Bulger Case: New Campaign Focuses on

Mobster’s Companion, page 49

‘Scareware’ Distributors Targeted: 12 Nations Coordinate

Anti-Cyber Crime Effort, page 50

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger Captured: Media Campaign Leads

to Top Ten Arrest, page 51

‘San Diego’s Most Wanted’: Show Celebrates First

Anniversary, 57 Captures, page 56

The FBI’s Child ID App: Putting Safety in Your Hands,

page 64

Health Care Fraud Takedown: Targets $295 Million in

False Medicare Claims, page 73

FBI in Montana: Part 3: Online Operation Reveals

Network of Predators, page 74

The NCFTA: Combining Forces to Fight Cyber Crime,

page 76

Latest Crime Statistics: Volumes Continue to Fall,

page 77

Making a Point About Lasers: Illegal Use of Devices a

Serious Crime, page 79

Protecting our Children: Technology, Partnerships Work

Hand in Hand, page 81

18 Child Porn Websites Shut Down: Result of Joint

U.S.-China Cooperation, page 83

2011: The FBI Story Index
114 2011 The FBI Story

2011: The FBI Story Index

Houston Cold Case Solved: Forensics Personnel Honored

by FBI, page 84

In the Line of Duty: 56 Officers Feloniously Killed in

2010, page 88

Phony Document Rings Broken Up: Alleged California

Ringleader Arrested, page 91

Antitrust Enforcement: Success of DOJ/FBI Partnership,

page 95

The FBI and DNA: Part 1: A Look at the Nationwide

System that Helps Solve Crimes, page 96

The FBI and DNA: Part 2: More About the Nationwide 

System that Helps Solve Crimes, page 97

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 1: FBI’s Largest Division

Provides Information to Protect the Nation, page 98

A Year of Records for CJIS: Part 2: Cutting-Edge

Technology Fuels Growth, page 99

From Missing Person to Murder Victim: Strong

Partnerships Help Solve Rural Tennessee Case,

page 100

Potomac River Rapist Cold Case: Help Us Catch a

Murderer and Serial Rapist, page 102

Public/Community Outreach

Keeping Kids Safe Online: FBI Program Offered in

Schools, page 3

To Catch a Fugitive: New Tools to Find FBI’s Most

Wanted, page 15

Improving Communities: Leaders Honored in

Washington, page 24

Child Predators: The Online Threat Continues to Grow,

page 38

The FBI’s Child ID App: Putting Safety in Your Hands,

page 64

Making a Point About Lasers: Illegal Use of Devices a

Serious Crime, page 79

Help Us Find a Killer: Media Campaign Marks

Anniversary of Prosecutor’s Murder, page 80

The FBI Since 9/11: D.C. Museum Updates Popular

Exhibit, page 85

Cyber Alerts for Parents & Kids: Tip #1: Be Prudent

When Posting Images Online, page 104

Public Corruption

Public Corruption Update: A Busy Month Comes to a

Close, page 53

Iraqi Antiquities Returned: Artifacts Seized During

Public Corruption Investigation, page 55

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106

Technology

New and Improved N-DEx: About to Go Nationwide,

page 9

To Catch a Fugitive: New Tools to Find FBI’s Most

Wanted, page 15

FBI Records: New ‘Vault’ Comes Online, page 26

The FBI’s Child ID App: Putting Safety in Your Hands,

page 64

Protecting our Children: Technology, Partnerships Work

Hand in Hand, page 81

Training

Intelligence Analysts: Part 1: Central to the Mission,

page 68

Intelligence Analysts: Part 2: The Subject Matter Experts,

page 69

Intelligence Analysts: Part 3: A Rewarding Career,

page 70

White-Collar Crime

Operation Secondhand Smoke: Cigarette Case Yields

Unexpected Results, page 4

A Case of Florida Fraud: With a Few Added Twists,

page 7

Operation Bad Medicine: Major Health Care Fraud

Takedown, page 11
2011 The FBI Story 115

2011: The FBI Story Index

House of Cards: Casino Cheating Ring Dismantled,

page 12

Health Care Fraud: 111 Charged Nationwide, page 14

Moving Money Illegally: A $172 Million Case Example,

page 19

Serial Scammer: Targeted L.A. Latino Community,

page 22

Taking a Trip to the ATM?: Beware of ‘Skimmers’,

page 57

Foreclosure Fraud: Victims Lose Their Shirts...and Their

Homes, page 60

Fraud in the Family: The Case of the Cheating Foster

Parents, page 66

FBI in Montana: Part 2: Bozeman Fraud Case Shows ‘It’s

Not a Small World’, page 72

Health Care Fraud Takedown: Targets $295 Million in

False Medicare Claims, page 73

Phony Document Rings Broken Up: Alleged California

Ringleader Arrested, page 91

Antitrust Enforcement: Success of DOJ/FBI Partnership,

page 95

Mafia Family Fraud: The Case of the Stolen Company,

page 101

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2,

page 106
FBI OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20535

Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brenda Heck—wearing an FBI JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) jacket—at a news conference in 

June 2011 concerning a suspicious vehicle found near the Pentagon. Joining her are partners from the Arlington Police Department (left) and U.S. 

Park Police (right). AP Photo/Alex Brandon.