U.S.

FBI Busts One Of Its Own

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 20, 2001 / 9:27 AM EDT / CBS

An FBI security expert who had access to informant identities and witness lists is accused of selling classified files to the mafia and others involved in criminal investigations, according to a complaint filed against him by the FBI.

James J. Hill, 51, an Air Force veteran and security analyst in the Las Vegas FBI office, is charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and stealing and selling the top-secret FBI information.

The six-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, says Hill was paid $25,000 for files from November 1999 until last week. He was arrested Friday in Las Vegas after allegedly faxing classified information drawn from computer files to an FBI informant in New York.

Hill, who worked as a support employee in the FBI's Las Vegas office, is charged in a complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York with theft of government property, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, Special Agent Grant Ashley, an FBI spokesman, said.

Ashley said Hill is accused of pilfering top-secret files from the office since November of 1999 and selling them for thousands of dollars to defense attorneys and organized crime figures in New York.

Hill, who was arrested in Las Vegas last week, faces a hearing in federal court on Wednesday, where a judge will consider his request for bail. Prosecutors were expected to fly him to Brooklyn, N.Y. to — face the charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Schulke said.

Once Hill's activities were discovered within the FBI, an investigation was launched, Ashley said. FBI is still investigating but it appears that all the compromised information was about criminal cases, he said.

He said an investigation also is underway to see whether Hill's alleged activities breached national security.

Hill appeared for his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Friday, shortly after his arrest. The case had been kept quiet until Tuesday.

Special Agent Daro Borst, a division spokesman, said that because the investigation is ongoing, further details could not be provided. Hill remains in custody without bail in Las Vegas.