Remember the attack of "Anthony Pacific" and his shorts? Check this outl...
2 FBI Agents Charged With Taking Part in Stock Fraud
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 23, 2002;
Two FBI agents passed confidential information about investigations of companies to participants in a stock-manipulation scheme, according to a federal indictment unsealed yesterday.
Jeffrey A. Royer and Lynn Wingate were charged with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Royer, who resigned from the FBI in December and allegedly went to work for one of the stock manipulators, was also charged with extortion.
One of the traders allegedly wired Royer payments totaling more than $30,000 beginning in November 2000, when he was at the FBI.
Attorneys for Royer and Wingate said they plan to plead not guilty when they are arraigned next week in New York. They were released after a court hearing yesterday in Albuquerque -- Wingate on her own recognizance and Royer with electronic monitoring.
"The allegations in the indictment reveal a shocking partnership between an experienced stock manipulator and law enforcement agents, undertaken for their illicit personal financial gain," Alan Vinegrad, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release.
The alleged leader of the scheme, Amr I. Elgindy -- also known as Tony Elgindy and Anthony Pacific -- and others named in the indictment allegedly spread negative information about companies over the Internet and then "sold the stocks short" -- placed trades that stood to yield profits if the shares declined in price -- and extorted targeted companies.
An attorney for Elgindy, who remained in custody, would not comment, according to someone who answered the phone at the law office but would not identify himself.
Royer, 39, became an FBI special agent in November 1996 and worked in Oklahoma City and Gallup, N.M.
According to the indictment, Royer provided Elgindy with information from the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, which showed criminal histories, and joined in short selling of stocks.
After Royer left the FBI and went to work for Elgindy's Pacific Equity Investigations, he obtained confidential information about criminal investigations of publicly traded companies from Wingate, 34, an FBI special agent in the Albuquerque field office, the Justice Department alleged.
The department started a grand jury investigation of Elgindy in October. Royer and Wingate allegedly used the FBI's Automated Case Support database to monitor the investigation. Wingate allegedly searched the database for her own name to see if she was under investigation.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
