Re: 7/18-19/02 - [Elgindy] AP/San Diego Union Tribune: Report: FBI agents invested with inside trader from San Diego; AP/LA Times: FBI Agents Named in Elgindy Associate Case
Report: FBI agents invested with inside trader from San Diego
By Tom Hays
ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 18, 2002
NEW YORK – A former FBI agent charged in an insider trading case gave stock tips to at least two other agents in 2000 while he was still working for the agency, according to a potential witness.
The agents were named in court papers unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn during a hearing for Jeffrey Royer, a former agent charged in May with conspiring with Internet stock analyst Amr "Tony" Elgindy of San Diego and another FBI agent to commit fraud.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie jailed Royer after learning he may have violated his bail by contacting a former girlfriend, Christy Sarkey. He had been free on $500,000 bond.
In a recent letter to the judge, prosecutors accused Royer of calling and writing to Sarkey within days of his June release, despite Dearie's orders to stay away from potential witnesses.
The letter argued Sarkey, who is a police officer in Oklahoma, was a potential witness because the defendant – while investigating stock fraud for the FBI in 2000 – used inside information to give her a stock tip.
In an interview with the FBI, Sarkey said that she lost $4,000 on the deal and that "she knows that other agents and perhaps some support staff personnel invested with Royer," according to a report unsealed on Thursday. Sarkey named two agents, Charles Ruiz in New York City and Todd Temple in San Diego, as investors.
Neither the report nor any other court document accuses Ruiz or Temple of wrongdoing.
Ruiz said Thursday that he was aware his name had surfaced in the case, but he declined further comment. A call to Temple was not immediately returned.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Breen refused to comment on whether other FBI agents or other employees are under investigation.
An FBI spokesman in San Diego, John Iannarelli, referred a call to the New York City office, where spokesman Jim Margolin declined comment.
Royer, 39, already was jailed once for violating his bail by contacting a police officer and an FBI agent to discuss the case.
At a hearing Thursday in Brooklyn federal court, Royer's attorney, Lawrence Gerzog, argued that Royer's contact with the ex-girlfriend was "very personal" and "had nothing to do with the case whatsoever."
Royer, in his letter to Sarkey, said he "cried like a baby for two days" after his arrest.
"I am more scared than any time in my life," he wrote. "I know what the government can do to me and the picture they can paint. I feel vulnerable and weak."
Gerzog said his client "did not know that that woman was a potential witness."
The judge set a hearing for further arguments for Monday. He ordered Royer held without bail until then.
Royer has pleaded innocent to charges he helped Elgindy in a scheme to manipulate the market by using confidential data gleaned from government files. Elgindy, who also pleaded innocent, has been held without bail.
On Wednesday, an Elgindy associate, Derrick Cleveland, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy as part of a deal with prosecutors to testify for the government.
Court papers accused Cleveland, 36, of wiring Royer $30,000 for inside information. In his plea in Brooklyn, he admitted using the information "to realize financial gain."
Cleveland's attorney, Robert Manchester, refused to discuss the plea deal. But he made a point of telling reporters his client had a graduate degree in business from the University of Oklahoma, "home of the Sooners."
© Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
signonsandiego.com
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July 19, 2002
FBI Agents Named in Elgindy Associate Case
From Associated Press
NEW YORK -- A former FBI agent charged in an insider-trading case gave stock tips to at least two other agents in 2000 while he was still working for the agency, according to a potential witness.
The agents were named in court papers unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn during a hearing for Jeffrey Royer, a former agent charged in May with conspiring with Internet stock analyst Amr "Tony" Elgindy of San Diego and another FBI agent to commit fraud.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie jailed Royer after learning he may have violated his bail by contacting a former girlfriend, Christy Sarkey. He had been free on $500,000 bond. In a recent letter to the judge, prosecutors accused Royer of calling and writing to Sarkey within days of his June release, despite Dearie's orders to stay away from potential witnesses.
The letter argued that Sarkey, who is a police officer in Oklahoma, was a potential witness because Royer, while investigating stock fraud for the FBI in 2000, used inside information to give her a stock tip.
In an interview with the FBI, Sarkey said that she lost $4,000 on the deal and that "she knows that other agents and perhaps some support staff personnel invested with Royer," according to a report unsealed Thursday. Sarkey named two agents, Charles Ruiz in New York and Todd Temple in San Diego, as investors.
Neither the report nor any other court document accuses Ruiz or Temple of wrongdoing.
Ruiz said Thursday that he was aware his name had surfaced in the case, but he declined further comment. A call to Temple wasn't returned.
On Wednesday, an Elgindy associate, Derrick Cleveland, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy as part of a deal with prosecutors to testify for the government.
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
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