A former FBI agent has been charged with soliciting thousands of dollars to hand over confidential information to someone who wanted to harm a prominent citizen of Bangladesh.
The US attorney’s office said on Friday that the ex-agent, Robert Lustyik, was charged with conspiracy, bribery and disclosing a document. His friend Johannes Thaler has been charged with conspiracy and bribery. Their would-be customer Rizve Ahmed, a Bangladeshi living in the US, has also been charged with conspiracy and bribery.
Robert Lustyik Jr, 51, and childhood friend Johannes Thaler, a 49-year-old former Tarrytown resident, accepted $1,000 and sought tens of thousands more in exchange for an FBI ‘suspicious activity report’ on an unnamed Bangladeshi political figure.
The complaint said Lustyik and Thaler had solicited payments from Ahmed.
Lustyik is currently held in the Weber county jail on separate conspiracy charges.
Beginning in October 2011, Lustyik allegedly used his position in the FBI to derail a federal investigation from the Utah district court of Michael Taylor, according to court documents.
Lustyik’s defence attorney did not return calls. Lawyers for Thaler and Ahmed would not comment.
Rizve Ahmed and Thaler were arrested on Friday on the charges in the complaint and would be presented before US magistrate judge George A Yanthis in the federal court in White Plains.
If convicted, Lustyik, of Westchester County, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Thaler, of Fairfield county, Connecticut, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Ahmed, of Fairfield county, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
-With New Age input
