Steve Haines

**Steve Haines** is the secondary antagonist of *Grand Theft Auto V.* He is a corrupt FIB Agent.

## History

### Background

Steve Haines was born in 1975 and joined the Federal Investigation Bureau in 1993. In the following years he became such a highly decorated and high-ranking FIB special agent to the point that he was given leadership over his own FIB unit and became the handler and boss of several agents including Andreas Sanchez and Dave Norton. In 2008, Haines was chosen to become the host of a then-new crime reality TV program called the Underbelly of Paradise. As host of the show, Haines and his camera crew regularly makes reports on gang activity and the overall criminal underworld of Los Santos which is divided between different crime gangs. Haines would then become a celebrity, thanks to the show.

However, despite the decorations of the FIB, leading his own unit and being a famous host, by 2013 Haines along with Sanchez were infamously corrupt. Haines in particular, was known to be on the payroll of several wealthy and powerful people including Devin Weston, whom Haines considers a "close friend". In 2013, both the FIB and rival International Affairs Agency are in a heated battle to secure government funding after cuts had been made in budgets of both organizations due to a decrease in terrorism activity. Haines actively engages in attempts to sabotage the IAA, in order to gain more prestige within the FIB by securing more funding from the government and bettering his own public image in the process.

### Grand Theft Auto V

Haines uses his influence over Dave to coerce Michael De Santa and his associates, Franklin Clinton and Trevor Phillips, into carrying out several criminal tasks for him. All these jobs are aimed at sabotaging the IAA, so the government will allocate more funding to the FIB, allowing Haines to advance his career.

The first of these tasks involves breaking into the IAA Headquarters to kidnap their prisoner, Ferdinand Kerimov. After the kidnapping is a success, Haines later has Trevor torture Kerimov to gain information, so that Michael and Dave can locate and assassinate Tahir Javan, a man suspected to be involved with Azerbaijani terrorists. After Javan is killed, Haines orders Trevor to kill Kerimov, but Trevor instead releases him, telling Kerimov to go into hiding into another country as a "torture advocate".

Later on, Michael, Franklin and Trevor meet up with Haines, Dave and Sanchez at the Murrieta Oil Field to discuss business. Haines tells the trio of his new plan to sabotage the IAA: robbing a Securicar carrying valuable government bonds that Haines claims will be used by the IAA to finance gang warfare and thus cause a situation which will require giving them more funding from the U.S. government. Using boiler suits, masks, a Trash Truck, a tow truck and a getaway vehicle, the trio attack the armored car and escape with the bonds, giving them to Devin at Haines' behest.

After some time, Haines and Dave meet with Michael and Trevor, who are now exiled in Sandy Shores. This time, the FIB wants to raid an IAA compound, where according to Haines' sources, the agency is developing an experimental neurotoxin that they plan to release in a metropolitan area as part of a staged terrorist plot mean't to draw more funding for them. However, before the raid can be pulled off, the three need to acquire enough funds to obtain the necessary equipment. To this end, the trio contacts their associate Lester Crest and hatch a plot to rob the Blaine County Savings Bank.