Former DEA spokesman admits to posing as CIA operative, defrauding companies of millions

A man crosses the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) logo in the lobby of CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in this August 14, 2008 file photo. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

That’s right, a former spokesman for the United States Drug Control Administration pleaded guilty to orchestrating a complex plan in which he raised millions of dollars by falsely claiming to be an undercover intelligence officer.

Garrison Courtney pleaded guilty to wire fraud at a hearing before US District Judge Liam O’Grady in Alexandria, Virginia. And it is that he defrauded at least a dozen companies of more than $ 4.4 million by posing as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Likewise, Courtney told companies they needed to hire him to create “commercial coverage” that would hide his alleged CIA affiliation, prosecutors said.

A big scam behind a man

Without a doubt, Courtney has been responsible for numerous scams and is that he falsely told the companies, which were not identified in the court documents, that he would be reimbursed for these salary payments, sometimes through the award of lucrative contracts with the government of the United States.

Notably, the Associated Press reports that when some of Courtney’s victims wondered why they had not yet been paid their share, their response was that they were jeopardizing the program by speaking.

Courtney also created a fraudulent back story for himself, falsely alleging that he had to serve in the United States Army during the Gulf War and that he killed hundreds of people during the combat, according to prosecutors.

The Associated Press reports that one of the clusters Courtney targeted was the National Institutes of Health (NITAAC). He told NITAAC that the CIA would use NITAAC to distribute billions of classified contracts and then diverted the money from NITAAC to pay a private company that he had addressed separately.

It should be noted that the Associated Press has reported that Courtney could face up to 20 years in prison.

Source: Reuters | National Post