Lot of things I can’t/won’t go into detail or talk about. For obvious reasons.
If you have general questions about the job or getting the job or the FBI or whatever… ask away.
No, I don’t know who killed JFK or what’s in Roswell.
A bit on my background for reference. BS in Accounting and CPA. Worked corporate accounting before joining the FBI. Main experience with high tech, mortgage banking, and non-profit trade association. While going through the FBI selection process I obtained numerous I.T. certifications because I planned to move into the realm of financial information systems. Just in case the FBI thing didn’t work out. Ultimately helped in my FBI career too.
I applied to the FBI on September 7, 2001. Most people probably don’t remember the exact date they applied for a job but that date is memorable for the obvious reason of what happened four days later.
Finally set foot on the grounds of the FBI Academy about two years later.
Worked complex financial crimes for about 12 years, public corruption for 1.5 years, and digital forensics for eight years. Retired five days ago.
obviously anonymized to whatever degree necessary, but what’s the most complex crime you investigated? asked another way, what’s the most clever/determined perp you came across?
How much of your work involved entities (whether individuals or groups) that are intrinsically criminal as opposed to basically legitimate entities that may have gone astray?
What’s your plan post-retirement? Taking it easy or do you have something lined up? I’m in Law Enforcement in Canada and in my last couple of years before retiring. Still haven’t decided what to do in retirement, but I have time to figure it out.
It has been eight years since I last worked in the financial crime realm but if I had to guess it would be security of the systems themselves. The industry itself always has some risky financial vehicles that could go south but nothing currently screams out “Watch Out!” like the subprime issue that boned us in ‘08-‘09.
Almost nothing. So much so that nothing really comes to mind. There are parts of Silence of the Lambs like the Quantico training scenes early on and graduation at the end that were pretty spot on but sending a new agent trainee out in the field as a primary investigator hunting down a serial killer is absolutely ridiculous.
Almost everything. Obviously, Hollywood is trying to make FBI life entertaining for one or two hours so it won’t be at all realistic but a lot of our job involves sitting a boring desk like everyone else. Crimes aren’t solved in a day. Most of the tactical stuff shown in movies is bad too. I always like how the main character FBI Agent is always the first through the door with HRT or SWAT. That never, ever happens, The tac team does their thing and everyone else waits until it’s all safe and clear.
Not really when it comes to party. Not really when it comes to the President either with one very obvious exception.
I think there is more beef nowadays with other Federal agencies as mission creep is certainly a thing. I’ve had to smooth out tensions between us and HSI, USSS, and IRS more times than I’d like. The FBI still has a rep that we take over everyone’s investigations. So much so that we are overly cautious and maybe too nice about it. The US Attorney’s Office can also be part of that problem in that they lean on the FBI too much and don’t trust (for lack of a better word) other agencies enough so they get us involved.
