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WarDocumentary via youtube1 of 10
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are given access to some of the most classified data that the United States has to offer. We trust that they won't use that access for evil, but they're human and humans make mistakes. Sometimes they make big ones. In this feature, we'll spotlight ten FBI agents who went rogue in startling ways.
Richard Miller
Let's start with the very first FBI agent to ever be convicted of going to the other side. Richard Miller was a bumbling special agent who got no respect from his fellow FBI employees because he was kind of a mess. He'd often take three-hour lunches at a local 7-Eleven eating snack food and reading comic books. How he stayed in the agency's employ for two decades was an absolute mystery, but in 1984 his house of cards came crashing down. Miller was arrested in the company of two Russian immigrants who were covert KGB agents. He had been passing them secret documents for years while having an affair with the Russian woman.
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Patriotledger2 of 10
John Connolly
FBI agents work with some of the criminal world's nastiest elements for the greater good, but sometimes the lure of easy money from the dark side is too much to resist. John Connolly grew up in Boston watching famous gangster "Whitey" Bulger win the hearts of neighborhood kids. Naturally, when he grew up and got a job with the FBI, he transitioned into organized crime investigation. The lure of the old neighborhood was too much for him to handle, however, and he soon started working with Bulger by tipping him off on future investigations. He's currently serving a 40-year prison term.
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WBUR3 of 10
Jerry Sullivan
There's a lot of cash floating around FBI investigations, and it's a serious temptation to take some of it home. That's what nailed Jerry Sullivan, a 25-year veteran of the Bureau who at one point headed up the organized crime investigations in Florida. To pay off nearly a half-million dollars in gambling debts, Sullivan swiped cash from criminal seizures and embezzled cash from the budgets of undercover operations. He also lied to his supervisors to protect Mafia men who promised to loan him money, and even perjured himself in front of a federal judge to win early release for a drug dealer. His gambling came to an end in 1998, though, when he was given five years in prison.
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Department of Energy Hanford4 of 10
Earl Edwin Pitts
The Soviet Union was the prime motivator for FBI agents to turn traitor during the 20th century, and for Earl Edwin Pitts, the dual motivation of money and revenge were enough to convince him to give away secrets for five years. Pitts, an agent in the Bureau's New York office, handed over a staggering amount of confidential documentation to the KGB during the late 1980s, including the names of agents working covertly in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately for Pitts, a Soviet defector to the United States fingered him and helped catch him in a sting operation. When he was debriefed, he said that he wanted to "pay the FBI back" for grievances he had with the job.
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Tickle the Wire5 of 10
Robert Hanssen
The Cold War occupied intelligence services in the United States and the Soviet Union for decades, and one of the juiciest prizes imaginable was to get a KGB agent to come over to our side. Unfortunately, they also turned a few of our guys, most notably Robert Hanssen. The lifelong agent joined the FBI in 1976 after leaving dental school, and it wasn't long before he realized that the Soviets would pay big for what he knew. Just three years later, he approached the GRU (the precursor to the KGB) and offered his services. He continued to sell secrets until 2001, when he was arrested and charged with 15 counts of espionage. He pled guilty and was given 15 consecutive life sentences.
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Wikimedia Commons6 of 10
Gene Bennett
Most FBI agents go over to the other side due to greed, but in the case of Gene Bennett, jealousy tipped the scales for him. Gene was married to a fellow FBI agent, a woman named Margo Bennett who worked in the training facility at Quantico. He abused his power in numerous ways throughout his career, including defrauding the Bureau out of a significant amount of cash. But when Margo started a lesbian affair with crime writer Patricia Cornwell, Gene snapped. He tried to kidnap his wife at a local church until she pepper sprayed and subdued him until the police came. The subsequent investigation revealed that Gene had planted "death packages" around town, including a bizarre nail bomb with a black vibrator attached.
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Boston Herald7 of 10
Paul Rico
FBI agents are notorious for using every tool in the toolbox to "flip" criminals into informants. Paul Rico was a master at this technique, convincing Mafia men that a hit was out on them and only the Feds could offer them protection. He'd then drain them of information that the FBI would use to put the competition away. Unfortunately for Rico, he got a little too close to some of his street contacts, and perjured himself in court while they put innocent men away for crimes his own guys committed. The biggest breach of FBI protocol came in 1981, when the Winter Hill Gang assassinated businessman Roger Wheeler, for whom Rico had worked as head of security. Rico died before he could come to trial in the case.
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Chicago Sun Times8 of 10
Vo Duong Tran
Is there any more inspiring story than a kid born and raised in Communist Vietnam escaping to America and joining up with the good guys in the FBI? Unfortunately, Vo Duong Tran didn't stop there. His tenure in the FBI was marked by multiple citations for unsavory behavior, and it wasn't long before he was bounced out of the agency. He then moved west and decided to go into business for himself, plotting the robbery of an Orange County drug house with two accomplices. One of his cohorts was an undercover FBI agent himself, though, and he made multiple recordings of Tran talking about killing cops, gambling debts and more. It didn't take long for a jury to find him guilty and give him 30 years in prison.
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Lohud9 of 10
Robert Lustyik, Jr.
The power that an FBI agent wields can be a serious temptation, and it's not surprising that some agents go rogue for the cash. Robert Lustyik, Jr. was a 30-year veteran of law enforcement who worked with the Bureau on sensitive counterintelligence cases. In 2012, at the age of 50, he was preparing to retire but wasn't confident in his government pension. So he started working with a man named Michael Taylor, a former Special Forces operative who got a $54 million contract to train Afghan soldiers through graft and kickbacks. He promised Lustyik a cool million plus lucrative security contracts of his own in exchange for making an investigation go away. It didn't work. Lystyik was arrested and charged with using his position to derail a federal probe. He is currently in prison awaiting trial.
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Wikimedia Commons10 of 10Next: The Mandatory Facts Machine
G. Gordon Liddy
Perhaps the most notorious FBI rogue in history, G. Gordon Liddy started his law enforcement career in style, becoming the youngest bureau supervisor at the FBI's national headquarters at age 29. However, the restrictive rules of the U.S. government sent Liddy into private practice in 1962. He worked as a private prosecutor and ran the Nixon campaign in New York. When Tricky Dick took office, he was hired to lead the group of operatives called "Plumbers" that hatched plans to humiliate Democrats and anti-war protesters. The most famous operation that Liddy was involved with was the Watergate burglary, which ended Nixon's presidency and landed Liddy in prison for 20 years.
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