Bangladeshi pleads guilty in FBI bribery scheme

A Bangladeshi and a US citizen living in Connecticut have pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery to get confidential information about a prominent Bangladeshi politician in a case in which a former FBI agent is also charged.

Rizve Ahmed, also known as Caesar, and Johannes Thaler entered pleas Friday, AP reports.

The two were charged in the bribery plot along with Robert Lustyik, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in White Plains Resident Agency.

They each face up to 35 years in prison at January 23 sentencing.

Lustyik has pleaded not guilty to charges that he and Thaler solicited bribes in 2011 and 2012 from Ahmed for Lustyik to provide confidential documents.

A November trial is scheduled.

Thirty-five-year-old Ahmed lives in Danbury while Thaler, 51, lives in New Fairfield, Connecticut.

Both pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services and wire fraud.

BRIBERY SCHEME

Ahmed had sought confidential information about a Bangladeshi politician to locate and harm him/her and others associated with him/her, according to a news release of the US Department of Justice.

The August 2, 2013 Department of Justice release did not reveal the name of the politician, whom it identified as "a prominent citizen of Bangladesh who was affiliated with an opposing political party".

In the complaint, Lustyik is accused of conspiring with his friend, Thaler of soliciting cash payments from Thaler’s friend, Rizve, in exchange for confidential, internal law enforcement documents and information that Lustyik could access by virtue of his position at the FBI.

Lustyik, Thaler, and Rizve were each charged in a four-count complaint. The first one charges all three with conspiring to bribe a public official; the second charges Lustyik and Thaler with soliciting and receiving bribes; the third charges Rizve with bribing a public official and offering to bribe a public official; and the fourth charges Lustyik with unlawfully disclosing a Suspicious Activity Report.

According to the complaint, between September 2011 and March 2012, Lustyik, Thaler and Rizve engaged in a bribery scheme on behalf of Rizve.

As part of the scheme, Lustyik and Thaler exchanged text messages including about how to put pressure on Rizve to pay them additional money for the information.

In one of his texts, Lustyik told Thaler, “We need to push [Rizve] for this meeting and get that 40 gs [G=1,000] quick … I will talk us into getting the cash … I will work my magic … we r soooooo close.”

Thaler responded, “I know. It’s all right there in front of us. Pretty soon we’ll be having lunch in our oceanfront restaurant …”

On another occasion in or about late January 2012, upon learning that Rizve was considering using a different source to obtain the information, Lustyik text messaged Thaler, “I want to kill [Rizve] … I hung my [****] out the window n we got nothing? … Tell [Rizve], I’ve got [the Bangladeshi politician's] number and I am pissed … I will put a wire on n get [Rizve and his associates] to admit they want [a Bangladeshi politician] offed n we sell it to [Bangladeshi politician].”

The complaint says Lustyik and Thaler accepted at least $1,000 from Rizve in exchange for confidential FBI information, including a Suspicious Activity Report.

It also alleges that Lustyik and Thaler schemed to obtain monthly cash bribes from Rizve, in increments of tens of thousands of dollars, in exchange for the provision of additional confidential law enforcement information about the individual in Bangladesh and for assistance in having criminal charges against a Bangladeshi political figure dismissed.