We're living through real-life events that could be out of House of Cards or the Blacklist. It doesn't leave me feeling good about our future that people this close to protecting our senior leadership (in this case the President's family) may have been at risk of sophisticated schemes. Worse it appears that they only unraveled because some flunky made a mistake. The lack of details here makes a huge difference. They are characterizing these foreign actors (I'm seeing them described as Iranian in some discussions but unconfirmed IMO) as providing "free apartments and other gifts" but what we don't know if these agents believed they were gifts. In effect, were these agents recruited knowingly for some goal or did they believe they were brought into a task force. This story is just crazy.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged two men they say were posing as federal agents, giving free apartments and other gifts to U.S. Secret Service agents, including one who worked on the first lady’s security detail.
The two men — Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 — were taken into custody as more than a dozen FBI agents charged into a luxury apartment building in Southeast Washington on Wednesday evening.
Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating gang and violence connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. They allege the two posed as law enforcement officers to integrate with actual federal agents.
Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.
He also offered to let them use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say. In one instance, Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the first lady.
Prosecutors said four Secret Service employees were placed on leave earlier this week as part of the investigation.
The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault involving a mail carrier at the apartment building and the men identified themselves as being part of a phony Homeland Security unit they called the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit.
Prosecutors say the men had also set up surveillance in the building and had been telling residents there that they could access any of their cellphones at any time. The residents also told investigators they believed the men had access to their personal information.
...
Authorities did not detail what, if anything, the men were aiming to accomplish by posing as law enforcement officers or by providing the gifts. Prosecutors said the investigation remains ongoing.
They claimed they were “special police” officers involved in undercover gang-related investigations and probes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the affidavit states. Other residents told the inspector the men used several apartments in the building, claiming the Department of Homeland Security paid the rent, and used an SUV equipped with emergency lights they identified as “their official DHS vehicle.”
The inspector learned the men were in contact with several members of the Secret Service and had provided gifts to them or their families and use of the SUV, the affidavit states. The document did not explain how the inspector learned about the gifts.
...
The affidavit included photos of the men in police tactical gear with “POLICE” emblazoned on their clothing. And in one instance, Taherzadeh sent a stock photo from the Internet to one witness and claimed to be in Homeland Security Investigations training, investigators alleged.
The affidavit also detailed interviews from several witnesses. One said Taherzadeh lives in and has several apartments in the complex. He provided one person with a rent-free penthouse apartment for about one year, a value of about $40,200, the affidavit said. One of the uniformed Secret Service members assigned to protect the White House complex allegedly lived in a three-bedroom apartment valued at $48,240 from February 2021 to January 2022, the court file said.
Another witness reported seeing “a significant amount of law enforcement paraphernalia, including SWAT vests, a large safe, computers, a high-powered telescope and internal surveillance cameras in [Taherzadeh’s] apartment.”
One big question is whether the defendants were private actors (criminals) or were working for a foreign government. If it's the latter...obviously raises massive security concerns.
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El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:07 am
One big question is whether the defendants were private actors (criminals) or were working for a foreign government. If it's the latter...obviously raises massive security concerns.
If they were private actors, where would they be getting the enormous resources necessary for this?
Authorities did not detail what, if anything, the men were aiming to accomplish by posing as law enforcement officers or by providing the gifts.
Jesus, can no one just be kind-hearted these days? It's always gotta be about "getting something"?! Maybe their love language is "gifts". Occam's Razor FFS!
The guy had been running this scam for years based on some OSINT that people are pulling up on the guy. Apparently he formed some of the precursor companies around 2006. In any case, the question where all the money is coming from is probably a Secret Service top priority as they race the other agencies to find out how bad this is. They've been plagued with embarrassing scandals over the last 10 years and this really makes you wonder wth is going on.
El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 11:07 am
One big question is whether the defendants were private actors (criminals) or were working for a foreign government. If it's the latter...obviously raises massive security concerns.
If they were private actors, where would they be getting the enormous resources necessary for this?
There are certainly private actors with plenty of money. My question is more how were they making enough to turn a profit, or was this ultimately a blackmail scheme or attack of some type (or to at least have the potential for an attack).
It feels more like black mail/espionage but it's also just weird. Why shoot the guy with an airsoft?
As part of the 'HSI recruiting process,' TAHERZADEH tasked Witness 1 to conduct research into an individual who worked for the United States government as a contractor. Specifically, this individual provided support to the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.
El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 07, 2022 1:38 pm
My question is more how were they making enough to turn a profit, or was this ultimately a blackmail scheme or attack of some type (or to at least have the potential for an attack).
Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.
He also offered to let them use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say.
It could also be an intelligence gathering scheme. Apartments, phones, electronics, vehicles - all could be rigged to hell and back for surveillance before being offered. Just let a member of a protection detail carry a single item with him in his vehicle on duty, and they could get all sorts of information, including potentially listening in on classified discussions or exposing targets of an attack.
The story within gets wilder and makes the Secret Service look even more keystone. Apparently the government was unable to convince the justice to jail them until trial. The judge's conclusions (some below) are based on the lack of evidence presented about motives, planned violence, conspiracy, etc. That very well could be because as the Reuter's story documents the FBI investigation had only just begun. Unfortunately a Secret Service investigator emailed the SUBJECT OF THE INVESTIGATION to ask questions. This prompted a snap warrant and raid of the premises by the FBI and the government has had to throw together a case over the weekend essentially. This is the very sort of thing DHS coordination with DOJ is supposed to prevent.
Reuters wrote:A U.S. judge on Tuesday declined to jail two men accused of impersonating federal agents and supplying Secret Service personnel with gifts, dealing a blow to prosecutors who had argued that the defendants pose a danger and should be detained.
Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, were arrested last week and are accused of providing gifts worth thousands of dollars such as rent-free apartments and iPhones to Secret Service agents, including one who protected first lady Jill Biden. The Secret Service is the agency responsible for protecting the president and other top U.S. officials.
"There's been no showing that national security information has been compromised," U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey said.
Harvey ordered both men to remain in home confinement, subject to GPS monitoring, with their parents and that they surrender their passports and stay away from airports and embassies. Harvey agreed to stay his order until Wednesday morning while the government mulls whether to appeal.
The judge said prosecutors did not prove the defendants tried to infiltrate the Secret Service with nefarious purposes, and noted they were so "spectacularly outed" that there is no risk anymore that they can continue to pose as agents.
Harvey said neither defendant is charged with a violent crime and neither one faces a stiff prison term if convicted - all elements that work against the prosecution's claims they pose a danger to the community. Harvey added there have been "significantly worse and more dangerous impersonation cases" before the court in the past.
Last edited by malchior on Wed Apr 13, 2022 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
And some more context from WaPo. The boil down is that even if this didn't go anywhere it shows serious gaps of judgement in people who are hired and trained to know better. And it isn't the first time.
Secret Service leaders are downplaying any risk to national security after four of its employees — including an agent assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden — were allegedly hoodwinked by two men impersonating federal agents and plying them with gifts, telling congressional committees and allies that the severity of the breach has been overblown by prosecutors and the media, according to people familiar with the conversations.
But several former Secret Service officials warn that the alleged infiltration of the elite protection agency reveals a major vulnerability extending well beyond this particular case. They said the revelations suggest that agents who had regular access to the White House and the Biden family — and who are supposed to be trained to spot scammers or spies seeking to ingratiate themselves — were either too greedy or gullible to question a dubious cover story.
“If you can compromise Secret Service personnel by cozying up to their agents and their uniformed officers, unwelcome sources can get to the president and the first family,” said Jim Helminski, a retired agency executive and former leader of Joe Biden’s vice-presidential detail.
The case is the latest in a string of embarrassing security breaches and incidents of misconduct involving the Secret Service over the past decade. The scandals have included agents getting drunk and hiring prostitutes on a trip to Cartagena, Colombia, in 2012; an incident in 2014 when a wounded veteran was able to jump the White House fence and get past dozens of armed Secret Service officers and into the executive mansion; and an officer investigated last year after posting comments on Facebook in which she accused lawmakers who formalized President Biden’s win of treason.
