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So yesterday, I tweeted this out with my usual #ButNothingsHappening hashtag.
A little bit of research has made it even more interesting!
An allegedly dirty retired FBI agent Babak Broumand connected to so many things and his co-conspirators connected to some gigantic cases. https://twitter.com/USAO_LosAngeles/status/1253798057289887746
A little bit of research has made it even more interesting!
An allegedly dirty retired FBI agent Babak Broumand connected to so many things and his co-conspirators connected to some gigantic cases. https://twitter.com/USAO_LosAngeles/status/1253798057289887746
So who is Special Agent Babak Broumand and who is he connected to?
Well when he left the FBI in January 2019, he landed in a very nice post as University of California at Berkeley investigating Whistleblower complaints...
Well when he left the FBI in January 2019, he landed in a very nice post as University of California at Berkeley investigating Whistleblower complaints...
Before that he spent 20 years with the FBI staying in the San Francisco area he entire career. While using some of it to line his pocket taking pay offs for information to help organized crime evade FBI investigations. His focus national security cases, terrorism & counterintel.
What else was he in charge of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases! He did a great job of learning how to translate FBI speak into Corporate Security speak!
Broumand appears to be a smart guy, got his law degree in 1993...
But a search of the California Bar website shows no listing of him ever getting a license to practice law, but that isn't unusual for cops with degrees.
But a search of the California Bar website shows no listing of him ever getting a license to practice law, but that isn't unusual for cops with degrees.
The indictment gets interesting, and it looks like Broumand was intentionally recruited based on his access to law enforcement databases. So that crooks could spy upon the FBI using him to do the queries of FBI databases for them...
Did I mention OIG was involved in finding him?
Did I mention OIG was involved in finding him?
I wonder if OIG found some suspicious queries by this agent & that is what lead them to investigate him & his other 'employers'.
But it seems very odd that someone who wasn't even out of law school yet would be recruiting senior FBI agents as sources...
But it seems very odd that someone who wasn't even out of law school yet would be recruiting senior FBI agents as sources...
Allegedly, this was a singular involvement in corruption by the FBI agent who was recruited & turned by Cooperating Witness 1. Well, that's interesting, the person who recruited this FBI CI agent is cooperating with the investigation.
This is a very bizarre tale, so a not yet an attorney, a law student most likely, is a criminal trolling private cigar bars in Beverly Hills for agents with expensive tastes that might be recruited?
That sounds like a professional approach, not a coincidence.
That sounds like a professional approach, not a coincidence.
His first corrupt act in 2015, was searching CW1's name in FBI databases to find & defuse any FBI investigations into him. So what law student needs to pay for this kind of service?
One working for an Armenian American mobster, whose file was the next one searched by the agent.
One working for an Armenian American mobster, whose file was the next one searched by the agent.
That mobster was Lev Dermen, who was convicted in a $1B green fuels case by US Attorney Huber last month. The FBI agent accessed a case file in May 2016, likely in an effort to find out what the feds knew & who they had to get to to shut down their case... https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-finds-los-angeles-businessman-guilty-1-billion-biodiesel-tax-fraud-scheme
That case connects into so many things it is insane, I'll try to post so links from others who have investigated it, it's connections to Turkey, money laundering & other fraud. But it isn't my main focus. The Dermen case also connects to corruption by former Sheriff of LA County.
Baca went to prison early in 2020 for a case that started in 2011, where the LA Sheriff & his deputies were involved in corruption. Including trying to disappear an FBI informant & threatening to arrest FBI agents.
Using dirty cops to evade other cops... https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-27/la-county-sheriff-lee-baca-fraud-scheme-utah
Using dirty cops to evade other cops... https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-27/la-county-sheriff-lee-baca-fraud-scheme-utah
So who defended Dermen at his recent trial?
CNN contributor & lawyer to the stars Mark Geragos & his firm.
Is it possible that Cooperating Witness 1 was working for Mark Geragos the law firm defending Derman while also working for Derman to corrupt cops? https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/01/27/polygamy-bribes-luxury/
CNN contributor & lawyer to the stars Mark Geragos & his firm.
Is it possible that Cooperating Witness 1 was working for Mark Geragos the law firm defending Derman while also working for Derman to corrupt cops? https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/01/27/polygamy-bribes-luxury/
Mark Geragos has been essentially an unidicted co-conspirator is several of the cases where Michael Avenatti has got into trouble over: Nike, NXIVM, & more. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1221814326354415618.html
So I searched Geragos's website, no lawyers who got their license in 2016 according to the California Bar association records. But then I searched their website on the Internet Archive & found one lawyer who got his license in Dec. 2016 but is no longer listed on their website.
I am not stating that this person is Cooperating Witness #1. I am not making any accusation. I am only laying out publicly available dots here. But could this explain why a law student was hanging out at private cigar bars attempting to corrupt FBI agents for mobsters?
The only associate lawyer that got their license & works or worked at the firm that defended Dermen is Eric Y. Hahn. They may have other associates that never made it onto their website, CW1 may not work for the firm that defended Demen.
I say worked or works for Geragos because he doesn't show up on their website, but his LinkedIn profile lists it as one of his current jobs (it may not have been updated). It shows him working for 2 different law firms at the same time since 2018.
His CA Bar Association registration is in the name of a 3rd firm, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Mitchell and he is listed on their website. So I have no clue what his actual employment status is at the moment.
IF, and that is a huge if, he was the not quite lawyer who recruited the FBI agent in LA, how would a law student make that connection?
Well Eric Hahn was working on an externship at the time of the meeting for a US Federal Judge in Los Angeles, might get you invited to that!
Well Eric Hahn was working on an externship at the time of the meeting for a US Federal Judge in Los Angeles, might get you invited to that!
So what would a young law student working for a Federal Judge have to use to connect to a seasoned FBI veteran to elicit information? Well Eric Hahn's LinkedIn says he was a graduate of UC, San Diego. Where did Babak Broumanddo his undergraduate work? UC San Diego
That could all be a coincidence, that this young lawyer & student was in all the right places at the right stages & times. But it raises my #ButNothingsHappening alarm bells when I see coincidences like that.
The case touches on so many things & Dermen was allegedly recruiting retiring CIA agents to use their networks to help his corrupt partners. Partners that may have included a member of the Qatari royal family...
Daily Beast said he retired under suspicion https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-fbi-agent-babak-broumand-worked-for-mobsters-on-the-side-feds
Daily Beast said he retired under suspicion https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-fbi-agent-babak-broumand-worked-for-mobsters-on-the-side-feds
In another coincidence, as Broumand was being retired from the FBI Sacramento office. Supervisory Special Agent Joseph Pientka was being assigned there as the second in command of the office. Yeah, the Pientka who interviewed @GenFlynn & wrote the 302 that is missing...
What a coincidence that a former FBI special agent who was working for mobsters with connections to Turkey & Qatar gets indicted on the same day that we learn that the DOJ has turned over exculpatory evidence to General Flynn's judge & defense team...
Coincidences all around!
Coincidences all around!
Dermen who is also known as Levon Termendzhyan was not only trying to corrupt FBI & CIA agents, he was also targeting agents with US Department of Homeland Security Investigations! https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/federal-law-enforcement-agent-sentenced-federal-prison-helping-mexican-national
Similar activity, bribing federal agents to query databases to help criminals sneak into the country & to evade law enforcement. Do I keep saying 'query' a lot?
They even got CBP to release the suspects passport & let him illegally reenter the US.
They even got CBP to release the suspects passport & let him illegally reenter the US.
