FBI Updates Congress on Threats Involving Insiders

FBI Counterintelligence executive C. Frank Figliuzzi briefed members of a House subcommittee on our efforts to disrupt economic espionage activity in the U.S., which—based on our pending cases—has resulted in losses of more than $13 billion to the American economy. Figliuzzi highlighted two growing threats: the willingness of so-called insiders to steal trade secrets and other proprietary information and hand it over to foreign entities; and the illegal transfer of U.S. technology, which could potentially end up in weapons of mass destruction.

The hearing, titled “Economic Espionage: A Foreign Intelligence Threat to Americans Jobs and Homeland Security,” also featured officials from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Figliuzzi noted that the “partnerships represented at this hearing”—coupled with public awareness—are a vital component to combating economic espionage.

Tennessee Man Sentenced to 13 Months for Making Threatening Calls to Virginia Congressman

RICHMOND, VA—Glendon Swift, 63, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, was sentenced today to 13 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for making threats against Representative Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, and his family.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Michael F. A. Morehart, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing.

Swift pled guilty on December 20, 2011, in the Eastern District of Tennessee to threatening a family member of a federal official. The defense and government jointly recommended in the plea agreement a prison sentence of 13 months.

According to court documents, an unknown male left two voicemail messages with Rep. Cantor’s Glen Allen, Virginia office the evening of October 27, 2011. The screaming, profanity-laden messages stated that the caller was going to destroy Rep. Cantor, rape his daughter, and kill his wife. A Congressional staff member retrieved the messages and alerted the U.S. Capitol Police, which sought the assistance of the FBI to identify and locate the individual who made the calls.

Swift was identified as the individual who subscribed to the phone number used to make the call. He was arrested without incident on November 2, 2011 by the FBI in Knoxville and the Lenoir City Police Department after having been interviewed by law enforcement.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Richmond and Knoxville Field Offices, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Lenoir City Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Jamie L. Mickelson from the Eastern District of Virginia and Cynthia Davidson from the Eastern District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

Former Congressman Sentenced for Obstructing Justice, Acting as Unregistered Foreign Agent

IARA Officials Also Sentenced for Transferring More Than $1 Million to Iraq

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former congressman was sentenced in federal court today for obstruction of justice and for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, related to his work for an Islamic charity with ties to international terrorism. Several officials and employees of that charity, the now-defunct Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) formerly headquartered in Columbia, Mo., were also sentenced in federal court today.

“A Missouri charity secretly funneled more than a million dollars to Iraq in violation of United States economic sanctions,” Phillips said. “IARA then hired a former congressman to lobby the government on its behalf after it was listed as a specially designated global terrorist organization due to the support its international offices provided to Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. They tried to cover up a $75,000 payment by lying to federal agents and prosecutors, but today they are being held accountable for their actions.”

Mark Deli Siljander, 60, of Great Falls, Va., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey to one year and one day in federal prison without parole. Siljander was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan and was a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations General Assembly. Siljander operated a Washington, D.C. consulting business called Global Strategies, Inc.

Several officials and employees of IARA were also sentenced in federal court today. IARA served as the U.S. office of an international organization headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan. IARA was closed in October 2004, after being identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization.

IARA Executive Director Mubarak Hamed, 55, of Columbia, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sudan, was sentenced to four years and 10 months in federal prison without parole. IARA fundraiser Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 55, of Chicago, Ill., was sentenced to two years of probation.

IARA board member Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 57, a native of Libya who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and former resident of Columbia, and IARA fundraiser Ahmad Mustafa, 59, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq and a lawful permanent resident alien, were each sentenced to six months of probation. Federal prosecutors asked the court to give Bagegni and Mustafa credit for their substantial assistance to the government in the investigation and prosecution of the case.

Special Agent in Charge Brian Truchon of the FBI stated, “The sentencing of these individuals signifies the FBI’s long-term commitment to prevent the compromise of national security caused by misappropriation of government funds and charitable donations and their use for illegal purposes and in violation of federal economic sanctions.”

“I wish to acknowledge the outstanding work of the investigators and prosecutors involved with this case,” said Michael G. Carroll, the Acting Inspector General for USAID. “We remain committed to hold individuals accountable who violate U.S. laws by supporting international terrorist organizations. I sincerely hope that this will serve as a clear warning. We will continue to bring forth all of the necessary resources of the U.S. government to identify and prosecute violators with terrorist affiliations.”

“IRS CI plays a significant role in the government’s counter-terrorism efforts,” said Stephen Boyd, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation. “Our primary focus is to attack the financial infrastructure of terrorism, its organized criminal activities, and those engaged in fundraising activities to support terrorism, especially if tax exempt organizations are being used. We are pleased with the successful resolution of this investigation due to the cooperative efforts of our law enforcement partners.”

Hamed pleaded guilty on June 25, 2010, to conspiring to illegally transfer more than $1 million to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions, and to obstructing the administration of the laws governing tax‑exempt charities.

Hamed used IARA to solicit charitable contributions throughout the United States, taking in between $1 million and $3 million in contributions annually from 1991 to 2003, and then illegally transferred funds to Iraq with the assistance of a Jordanian identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist. Hamed also impaired and impeded the administration of the Internal Revenue laws by misusing IARA’s tax‑exempt status, providing false information to the IRS, and lying to federal agents.

Hamed and El‑Siddig hired Siljander in 2004 to lobby for IARA’s removal from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism, and its reinstatement as an approved government contractor. IARA lost its status as an approved government contractor in 1999, when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) terminated grants for two relief projects in Mali, Africa. USAID informed the organization that the grants were not in the national security interest of the United States.

Siljander, Hamed and El‑Siddig agreed with each other to conceal Siljander’s efforts on IARA’s behalf. In order to do so, Siljander instructed Hamed and El‑Siddig to transfer $75,000 of IARA’s funds to him by funneling them through nonprofit entities. El-Siddig carried at least three checks issued to Siljander’s charities from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and gave them to Siljander.

In exchange for the payments, during the summer of 2004, Siljander acted as an agent for IARA by contacting persons at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, USAID, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Army, in an effort to have IARA removed from the USAID list of debarred entities, and to remove IARA from the Senate Finance Committee’s list of charities suspected of funding terrorism. Federal law requires anyone who serves as an agent of a foreign entity, including an organization, to register with the U.S. Attorney General.

Siljander admitted that in two separate interviews he repeatedly lied to FBI agents and prosecutors acting on behalf of a federal grand jury. Siljander obstructed justice by falsely denying that he was hired to advocate for IARA, and by falsely claiming that the payments from IARA were charitable donations intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity.

Siljander pleaded guilty on July 7, 2010, to obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

El-Siddig pleaded guilty on July 7, 2010, to conspiring to hire Siljander to lobby for IARA’s removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of having terrorist ties, while concealing this advocacy and not registering with the proper authorities.

Mustafa was a fundraiser for IARA from 1996 until it was closed in 2004, but at the time he worked for the organization he was unaware it had no permission to send funds to Iraq. Mustafa pleaded guilty on Dec. 17, 2009, to illegally transferring funds to a family member in Iraq in violation of federal sanctions.

Bagegni pleaded guilty on April 6, 2010, to his role in the conspiracy to illegally transfer funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony P. Gonzalez, Steven M. Mohlhenrich, Dan Stewart and Brian Casey from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, and Trial Attorney Paul G. Casey from the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation and U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of the Inspector General.

Director Testifies on FBI’s Evolution Over Past Decade

The Director described the continuing threats posed by al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations and the ongoing difficulty of detecting homegrown extremists. He specifically cited the example of the self-radicalized Rezwan Ferdaus, a Boston graduate student who allegedly planned to use unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft to attack the Capitol and other D.C. locations before his arrest in September.

On the cyber front, the Director indicated that the FBI last year “arrested a record 202 individuals for criminal intrusions, up from 159 in 2009,” including five of the world’s top cyber criminals. He also mentioned the FBI’s work to bring down the international Coreflood botnet in April and to help take down last month a cyber criminal network that had infected four million computers in more than 100 countries.

In the area of corporate and securities fraud, the Director said that the “FBI and its law enforcement partners continue to uncover major frauds, insider trading activity, and Ponzi schemes.” He said that at the end of fiscal year 2011 (September 30), the FBI “had more than 2,500 active corporate and securities fraud investigations,” a 47 percent increase since fiscal year 2008, and that during 2011 the FBI helped obtain an historic high of 611 convictions. The Director reaffirmed that the “FBI is pursuing those who commit fraud at every level and is working to ensure that those who played a role in the recent financial crisis are brought to justice.”

Our Continuing Efforts to Prevent Youth Violence

The following post appears courtesy of  Attorney General Eric Holder.

Throughout my career, I have seen the devastating effects of youth violence far too often.  As a prosecutor and a judge; as a U.S. Attorney, as Deputy Attorney General – and, above all, as the father of three teenage children – I’ve been determined to make the progress that our nation’s young people deserve. 

In September of 2009, this country was shocked by a video depicting the brutal beating and murder of a 16-year-old Chicago honor student.  That savage attack was seared into our collective memory, and it left an indelible mark on the community where it took place.  But, tragically, it is just one horrifying example of the violence that many young people face every day, in cities and towns across this country.

In response to this crisis, last year, President Obama directed the Departments of Justice and Education to partner with other federal agencies – and with representatives from six cities – to launch the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, a network of committed stakeholders dedicated to stopping the brutality and bloodshed that devastates too many of the youngest members of our society.  The six cities participating in the Forum — Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, Calif. and San Jose, Calif. — have made great strides toward developing and implementing comprehensive crime prevention strategies tailored to eradicating the violence that has ravaged their communities and stolen so many promising futures.

Last week, teams from these cities — comprised of law enforcement officers, policy and public-health experts, educators, researchers, city officials, social services providers, community and faith leaders, and concerned parents — gathered in Washington, D.C., to share their progress in using cost-effective and evidence-based strategies to prevent youth violence and help formerly incarcerated youth become productive citizens.

Also last week, at a hearing before the House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security,  Congressmen Bobby Scott, John Conyers, and Steve Cohen congratulated Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, and this Administration for our efforts on the Forum and urged us to keep up the important work.

It’s clear that these efforts are already beginning to take hold.  For example, the City of Memphis launched a Crime Prevention Unit this year that includes 90 officers focused on reaching youth before they come in contact with the criminal justice system.   Meanwhile, officials in Chicago have established a Youth Shooting Review panel — a pilot project that reviews fatal and non-fatal shootings, drawing on both public health and criminal justice perspectives, to gain a more substantive understanding of their causes and context.  The panel will identify patterns, gaps in key services, and effective strategies to prevent shootings among school-age youth. 

Forum participants have also taken steps to better understand, and more thoroughly address, the joblessness, illiteracy, violence, and other challenges that formerly incarcerated young people often face when they return to their communities.  To improve the outcomes for these youth and help them become contributing community members, San Jose, Calif. has become part of a county-wide Reentry Network.  The Network provides assessment and programming to youth who are both in custody and in the community, along with resources to help them transition to a more stable, self-sufficient and successful lifestyle.

In each of these six cities, the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention has brought local experts together with federal officials and other key stakeholders, in order to share best practices; to develop strategies for reducing brutality among, and directed toward, young people; and to address and overcome common challenges.

I’m proud to say that the work we are leading is sending an unmistakable message that, in this country, we will not give up on our children.  And it’s ensuring that the priorities we set now will allow America’s next generation of leaders to break destructive cycles and seize tomorrow’s opportunities.