PatrickPretty.com

Tag: James W. McJunkin

  • BULLETIN: Stewart David Nozette, American Scientist Who Sold Out His Country For The Price Of A Used Car, Sentenced To 13 Years In Federal Prison

    BULLETIN: Stewart David Nozette, the Maryland man with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a “Top Secret” security clearance, has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison on charges of tax fraud and attempted espionage.

    The espionage case was brought by the FBI after Nozette — believing he’d been recruited by Israel’s Mossad to spy on the United States — accepted $10,000 left by the FBI in an undercover sting.  In effect, Nozette sold out his country for the price of a used car and the expectation that more cash would be forthcoming.

    Nozette already was under investigation for tax evasion and financial fraud against the United States when he was arrested in the 2009 sting.

    “Stewart Nozette’s greed exceeded his loyalty to our country” said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. of the District of Columbia. “He wasted his talent and ruined his reputation by agreeing to sell national secrets to someone he believed was a foreign agent.  His time in prison will provide him ample opportunity to reflect on his decision to betray the United States.”

    The case was notable for reasons other than Nozette’s bid to sell out his country. Indeed, elements of the case were prosecuted by Machen’s office — an office familiar to readers of the PP Blog because it brought the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme case (under then-U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor) in 2008 and supervised the return in 2011 and 2012 of more than $59 million (under Machen) to defrauded ASD investors.

    Michael K. Atkinson, the assistant U.S. Attorney who led the Nozette tax and fraud prosecutions, once was assigned to the ASD case.

    Nozette “betrayed his country and the trust that was placed in him by attempting to sell some of America’s most closely-guarded secrets for profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

    Monaco is from the Justice Department’s National Security division. She joined Machen in making the announcement about Nozette’s sentence, along with Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John A. DiCicco of the Tax Division.

    Also joining in the the announcement were James W. McJunkin, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Paul K. Martin, inspector general for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA OIG); Eric Hylton, acting special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); and John Wagner, special agent in charge of the Washington, D.C., Office of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

    “Federal agents take an oath to protect our nation ‘against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” said Wagner.  “That would include ‘insider threats’ like Stewart Nozette.”

    Nozette, 54, parlayed his impressive academic credentials and MIT doctorate in planetary science into a career in which he conducted business with the U.S. government. He worked at the White House, for example, on the National Space Council through the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

    Prosecutors said he also worked as a physicist for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and also had access to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

    “We are particularly proud that NASA OIG’s fraud investigation of Nozette, which began in 2006, served as the catalyst for further investigation and today’s outcome,” said Martin, NASA’s inspector general.

    The indictment did not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws in this case, prosecutors said.

  • BULLETIN: Suspect Whose Aim Was To Carry Out Suicide Bombing At U.S. Capitol Building In Washington Arrested; Man Also Proposed Attacks On U.S. Military Offices, Army Generals, Restaurant And Synagogue, FBI Says

    BULLETIN: The FBI and federal prosecutors in Virginia have confirmed the arrest of Amine El Khalifi, describing him as a Moroccan national living in the United States illegally and saying he planned a suicide bombing with a vest strapped to his body today at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington.

    El Khalifi, 29, resided in Alexandria, Va., and represents “the continuing threat we face from homegrown violent extremists,” said Lisa Monaco, assistant attorney general for national security.

    “[He] allegedly believed he was working with al Qaeda and devised the plot, the targets, and the methods on his own,” said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia.

    A “confidential human source” told the FBI more than  a year ago — in January 2011 — that  El Khalifi had met with other individuals at a residence in Arlington.

    During the meeting, U.S. officials said, “one individual produced what appeared to be an AK-47, two revolvers and ammunition. El Khalifi allegedly expressed agreement with a statement by this individual that the ‘war on terrorism’ was a ‘war on Muslims’ and said that the group needed to be ready for war.”

    By Dec. 1, 2011 — with El Khalifi under surveillance — “he was introduced by a man he knew as ‘Hussien’ to an individual named ‘Yusuf,’ who was, in reality, an undercover law enforcement officer,” prosecutors said.  “Throughout December 2011 and January 2012, El Khalifi allegedly proposed to carry out a bombing attack. His proposed targets included a building that contained U.S. military offices, as well as a synagogue, U.S. Army generals and a restaurant frequented by military officials.”

    After witnessing a staged explosion purportedly triggered through a cell phone at a West Virgina quarry last month, “El Khalifi expressed a desire for a larger explosion in his attack. He also selected Feb. 17, 2012, as the day of the operation,” prosecutors said.

    “El Khalifi dialed a cell phone number that he believed would detonate a bomb placed in the quarry,” prosecutors said.

    Over the next month, El Khalifi repeatedly traveled to the Capitol building to conduct surveillance, prosecutors said.

    He also asked for a gun that “he could use during the attack to shoot any officers who might attempt to stop him,” prosecutors said.

    El Khalifi was arrested today a short distance from the Capitol after traveling there to conduct the suicide bombing. But it was a sting in which equipment given to him had been rendered inert, prosecutors said.

    “This individual allegedly followed a twisted, radical ideology that is not representative of the Muslim community in the United States,” said James W. McJunkin, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: FDA Chemist Cheng Yi Liang Pleads Guilty In Insider Trading Case; ‘Shocking Abuse Of Trust,’ Feds Say Of Schemer’s Plot To Use Database To Harvest Illegal Profits

    >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Cheng Yi Liang, the FDA chemist accused in March of mining the agency’s database for drug approvals or denials and using the information to make insider trades, has pleaded guilty to securities fraud and failing to disclose illicit profits.

    Liang, 57, of Gaithersburg, Md., faces a maximum term of 25 years in federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 9. The case was one that embarrassed the FDA and its employees, but one that exposed the corruption of a federal worker who used the tools of government to line his own pockets.

    The SEC simultaneously charged Liang civilly in March, opening up a second litigation front.

    As part of a plea agreement in the Feds’ criminal case, Liang will forfeit $3.7 million, a home and condominium in Maryland and funds  in 10 bank or investment accounts, federal prosecutors said.

    The FDA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

    “Profiting based on sensitive, insider information is not only illegal, but taints the image of thousands of hard-working government employees,” said Elton Malone,  special agent in charge of the HHS-Office of Inspector General Special Investigations Branch.  “We will continue to insist that federal government employee conduct be held to the highest of standards.”

    “Mr. Liang used inside information about pharmaceutical companies — information he had access to solely because of his position at the FDA — to pocket millions in illicit profits,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. “In a shocking abuse of trust, Mr. Liang exploited his position as a chemist in the FDA’s Office of New Drug Quality Assessment to cash in, using the accounts of relatives and acquaintances to hide his illegal trading.  Now, like many others on Wall Street and elsewhere, he is facing the significant consequences of trading stocks on inside information.”

    Breuer is head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

    While employed at FDA, Liang “was required to file a Confidential Financial Disclosure form disclosing, among other things, investment assets with a value greater than $1,000 and sources of income greater than $200.,” investigators said. “During the time period of his insider trading scheme, Liang annually filed these forms and failed to disclose using the controlled accounts or his income from the illicit securities trading.”

    The FBI participated in the criminal probe.

    “Those who use privileged and valuable information for personal gain, break the trust placed in them as a government employee and the integrity of the research they conduct on behalf of the U.S. government,” said James W. McJunkin, assistant director in charge of the agency’s Washington Field Office.