Ex-FBI agent pleads guilty to bribery scheme
Ex-FBI agent pleads guilty to bribery scheme
A former FBI special agent pleaded guilty on charges to have accepted bribe to provide information on a prominent citizen of Bangladesh.
Robert Lustyik, the FBI agent, said to have passed on procured internal documents of law enforcers and other confidential information to a political rival of the citizen.
"Robert Lustyik discarded the FBI's principles of fidelity, bravery, and integrity, and sold his badge to the highest bidder," said Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Leslie R. Caldwell, in a press release on December 23.
"Greed has no place in public service or law enforcement. The Department of Justice will root out corruption wherever it takes hold, and hold accountable those who abuse the public's trust for personal gain."
"Robert Lustyik today admitted to conducting a bribery scheme in which, for his own personal gain, he secretly sold information and documents to which he had access as an FBI agent," said US Attorney Bharara.
"The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to identify, investigate, and bring to justice all DOJ employees who engage in misconduct," said Inspector General Horowitz.
The five counts against former FBI agent Robery Lustyik, 52, from Westecher, New York, include conspiracy to engage in bribery, theft of government property and unauthorised disclosure of Suspicious Activity Report.
He plead guilty in all the five counts and is now awaiting sentence by US District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti on April 30 next year.
According to the court proceedings Lustyk was a special agent who worked on counterintelligence unit in the White Plains Resident Agency.
He came to meet one Rizve Ahmed, alias “Caesar,” via a friend Johannes Thaler. From September 2011 through March 2012, the three engaged in a bribery scheme.
As part of the plot, Lustyik and Thaler solicited payments from Ahmed in exchange for the info on an individual, a prominent Bangladeshi, who Ahmed said was a political rival.
Ahmed said to have sought, among other things, to obtain information about the individual, to locate and harm him and others associated with the individual.
The press release contained text messages exchanged between Lustyik and Thaler on how to pressure Ahmed to pay them more in exchange of information.
Thaler and Ahmed previously pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy to commit fraud, and are scheduled to be sentenced on January 23 next year.