Federal Bureau of Investigation

Craig Monteilh and the FBI Entrapment of Local Muslims Explored in Anaheim Friday Night

Remember Craig Monteilh, the conman-turned-FBI mole Nick Schou and I have written about because he posed as a Muslim to infiltrate Orange County mosques, in an attempt to stir up jihad so would-be terrorists would be exposed?Monteilh gets some coverage in a new book by an investigative journalist wh ... More >>

Did Lawrence Anthony Witsoe Receive the Dumbest Bribery Conviction in California History?

[Moxley Confidential] Mission Viejo lawyer faces 35 years for helping a client get charges dropped—and didn't earn a dime

'The Company You Keep': Wheezy Rider

Robert Redford and co. face the '60s—in their 70s

Manuel Diaz Shooting: Case Closed?

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait met with representatives from the United States Attorney's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation last summer regarding the incidents of July 21, 2012. Now that the Orange County District Attorney's office has completed and released its investigative letter clearing An ... More >>

Karen Elaine Hanover, Convicted FBI "Spoofer," Claims Hers Were Retaliatory Spoofs

A federal grand jury in December indicted Seal Beach real estate saleswoman Karen Elaine Hanover on mail fraud charges for an alleged commercial property investment scam that conned 50 marks out of nearly $2 million. The 46-year-old began 2012 with a six-month jail sentence and and $5,000 in fines f ... More >>

FBI Arrests Alleged Orange County Bank Robber

If the FBI is right, Orange County's Scott Robert Skallerud will soon be heading to prison for a sixth trip.This month, agents arrested Skallerud for committing an $807, June 7, 2012, robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank in Santa Ana and the June 16 attempted robbery of that city's Main Street Bank--a heis ... More >>

Tom Fuentes: Secret Agent Man?

[Moxley Confidential] Once-classified FBI files reveal the ex-Orange County GOP boss snitched for the feds and sought foreign lobbying deals

Orange County Waiter Gets Punished For Threatening High-Ranking FBI Agents

The Orange County man who made several, wild threatening calls to the FBI last year won't be heading to prison because officials believe the defendant suffers from mental health issues.This week inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, U.S. District Court Josephine Staton Tucke ... More >>

[UPDATED, with Ruling] Lawsuit Demands FBI Expunge Secret Files on OC Muslims

See the update at the end of this post on the ruling issued in Fazaga v. FBI.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 13, 2:55 P.M.: It's no secret that the government has used informants to spy on Muslim-American communities. Orange County Muslims know it well.You may have read about them here at the Weekly. Former-con ... More >>

Craig Monteilh, FBI Mole Who Spied on OC Mosques, Profiled By This American Life

If anybody's perfect for the kind of in-depth story-telling that has made public radio's This American Life the most listened to weekly radio program in America--not to mention the most downloaded podcast in the country--it's Craig Monteilh. His story possesses that certain ineffable mix of comedy a ... More >>

How NOT to Leave a Message For an FBI Agent: Lesson 8

Orange County's Thomas Troy Bitter is upset with the FBI.Bitter is--well, so sorry--bitter that evil, unethical agents can't find a foreign terrorist, scumbag Newport Beach businessman or bank robber to watch and are instead harassing him on a regular basis. And he wants them to know he isn't going ... More >>

Violent Crime Spikes in Anaheim But Down in Most of OC and Irvine Remains Safest U.S. City

What does Anaheim have in common with El Cajon, Temecula, Ventura and San Bernardino?I mean besides the exact same strip malls, fast-food joints and foreclosure signs.It's the distinction of being a Southern California city with more than 100,000 residents and a significant spike in violent crime.

Craig Monteilh, Con Artist and FBI's Mosque Spy, Now Peddling Pillow Talk

​You've got to hand it to Craig Monteilh. His story keeps changing, but it keeps getting more sexy every time. First, he cons the FBI into paying him thousands of dollars a week to spy on Orange County's Islamic community, despite a criminal record as a con artist. Then, pretending to be a Mu ... More >>

Karen Elaine Hanover, Once Looking at 40 Years in Spoofing Case, Gets 6 Months in Jail

​Karen Elaine Hanover, a 44-year-old Seal Beach real estate saleswoman convicted for using "spoofing" technology to impersonate FBI agents threatening business clients over the phone, was sentenced this week to six months in jail and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines. That's a much lighter sentence ... More >>

[UPDATED with Judge's Ruling:] Justice Dept. Must Pay for Lying in Suit Against FBI by OC Muslims

​UPDATE, NOV. 18, 10:57 A.M.: "The Court must impose monetary sanctions to deter the Government from deceiving the Court again," Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana writes in his Islamic Shura Council v. FBI ruling. He gave the council 14 days to come up with ... More >>

Pyramid Scheme

Men boasting CIA and FBI ties met in Newport Beach to convince a mysterious billionaire to buy into a secret economy, and nothing was what it seemed

Attorney General Eric Holder Chastised for Move to Quash Suit Against FBI for Spying on Muslims in OC

Monteilh​Attorneys for Muslims who have been spied on by the government through paid informants like Irvine's Craig Monteilh asked a federal court to reject U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's move to dismiss their lawsuit against the FBI on grounds the case exposes state secrets."It is shocking t ... More >>

[UPDATED: Feds' Records Stay Secret, Judge Rules] More Mosque Mole Fallout: ACLU and CAIR Sue FBI

Craig Monteilh​[UPDATED April 28, 12:12 pm] The Associated Press is reporting today that Judge Cormac Carney has ruled that CAIR and the ACLU may not obtain FBI records pertaining to surveillance of Muslims in Southern California because of unspecified U.S. National Security concerns. Carney made ... More >>

Pop and Lock Bandits Frontin' It OC-Style

​The FBI and the Orange County Sheriff's Department have issued a special bulletin and $10,000 reward for information leading to a live look at that breakin' and frontin' act taking center stage at local banks, the Pop and Lock Crew.B-boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyz!Check that: being sought for capture ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Craig Monteilh, OC's Islamic Mosque Spy, is Dealt a Blow in his Lawsuit Against the FBI

​UPDATE: Federal Judge James V. Selna did not, as expected, dismiss a lawsuit a former informant brought against the FBI but gave the complaint 20 more days of life so it may be amended (updates throughout) . . .Craig Monteilh, the Irvine fitness instructor who posed as a Muslim to infiltrate ... More >>

Vo Duong Tran, Ex-FBI Agent Who Staged Home-Invasion Robbery, Gets 30 Years

​United States District Judge Andrew J. Guilford in Santa Ana sentenced 42-year-old former FBI special agent Vo Duong Tran to 30 years in federal prison for scheming to commit a home-invasion robbery at a Fountain Valley residence he mistakenly thought was a drug "stash house."

Dr. George Steven Kooshian Gets Prison, Restitution for AIDS Dosing, Billing Scam

Kooshian on the move.​Nine and a half years after the Weekly's R. Scott Moxley broke the story about well-known AIDS doctor George Steven Kooshian having injected patients with saline and vitamins instead of the expensive drugs they were billed for, the 59-year-old was sentenced Monday to 15 month ... More >>

FBI Rejects OC Mosque Informant's Complaint; Lawsuit Looms

Give me Money! And Come Visit My Phony Facebook Page!​Remember Craig Monteilh, that wacky convicted con artist who somehow convinced the FBI to pay him to spy on Muslims?He's been trying for almost a year now to win recognition as a hero for supposedly stymieing unspecified (and unproven) terroris ... More >>

OC-Raised Lawyer Says New FBI Footage Shows OK City Bombing Coverup

​On March 31, 2008, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue won an unprecedented legal victory over the FBI in his years-old lawsuit to force the agency to hand over everything it has on the mysterious death of his brother, former Westminster resident Kenneth Trentadue. That day, the US District C ... More >>

Irvine Mosque Speaks: OC Weekly World Exclusive!

On Feb. 21, FBI agents arrested Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, an Afghan immigrant, and charged him with lying about his brother-in-law's status as an alleged Al Qaeda terrorist. A few days later, Craig Monteilh, a convicted con artist, held a press conference to announce that he was an FBI informant and ha ... More >>

How Do You Stop Terrorists? Ask A Con-Artist!

Craig Monteilh, everybody's favorite convicted con artist and FBI mole, hit the airwaves last night in an in-depth interview with KFI AM 640 talk show host Bryan Suits. The topic of the conversation: an FBI sting operation that led to the arrest of four Muslim converts in upstate New York on Wednesd ... More >>

The FBI, the Islamic Center of Irvine and Craig Monteilh: Who Was Conning Whom?

FBI Spying on Mosques Draws Senate Attention; Rights Workshop Helps Local Muslims Deal With the Feds

A Senate Judiciary Committee questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Wednesday about a Muslim coalition's consideration of breaking ties with the bureau following the highly publicized federal government spying on an Irvine mosque.Meanwhile, a workshop has been organized for this Sunday to help local ... More >>

Interesting Op-Ed Pieces on FBI Informant, Toll Roads

In "Breach of Trust: FBI Wants It Both Ways," the editorial board of UC Irvine's New University student newspaper takes issue with the indictment of a Muslim resident of Tustin and the use of a controversial government informant. (Background is here and here.) The case is bound to have a chilling ef ... More >>

Man Claiming to be FBI Informant Spins Quite a Tale

A location scout for a spy movie could not have picked a better location for my late December meeting with Craig Monteilh: a table outside a restaurant in a bustling Irvine shopping center. A lensman would appreciate the shadow-erasing clouds hovering overhead on the warm winter morning. And cen ... More >>

Up In Smoke: Orange County Edition

If you’ve stepped outside of your house today, chances are you’ve smelled the faint scent of burning. But don’t go calling the FBI on your stoner neighbors just yet. The reason behind that smell lingering in the air is wildfire, and it’s right in your back yard—in Brea, Yorba Linda and Cor ... More >>

Declassified FBI Files Exonerate Joel Dvorman, OC's Original Conservative Scapegoat

So I Married a Terrorist . . .

Saraah Olsons strange trip through the U.S. war on terror

Finally, Santa Ana isn't First or Last

SanTana is a city of many ignoble stats: the country's youngest, most-Latino, most-crowded, most-Spanish speaking big city and also the toughest to live in. One of California's fattest. A mini-Mexico where a campaign sign can hang for months after an election and no one gives a damn. Where gang shoo ... More >>

Requiescat in Pace, IVth Amendment

FOURTH AMENDMENT: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to b ... More >>

What's Good for the Goose ain't for the Zealot

So some young, misdirected, religious zealots who authorities conceive were too impoverished and unsophisticated to carry out plots to blow up an FBI building and the Sears Tower in Chicago are arrested in Miami. By the way, the kids are black. Meanwhile, older, misdirected zealots who reportedly ha ... More >>

Art as Terror

Call it performance art: Feds subpoena UCI artist in their case against artists

Buckle Up for Terrorism

Multi-agency sweep results in major arrests . . . for not wearing seatbelts

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

You Wanna See Some Real Terror?

The travails of Hummercide suspect Josh Connole

Suspicious Minds

Local libertarians look licked

Is That a Stinger Missile in Your Pants?

Way of the Gun

Ashcroft to Mueller to Anybody Else

Witness for the Persecution

Crack Cop

New FBI documents add to the mystery surrounding a former Laguna cop who says he ran coke for the Nicaraguan rebels

Crack Cop

FBI documents link an ex-Laguna cop and drug runner to an Irvine executive with ties to the CIA

Bigger Than the Beatles

UC Irvine professor Jon Wieners fight for John Lennons FBI file reveals something ugly about democracy in America

The (Imaginary) Plague

Rethinking crime and punishment

Invisible Enemies

Who's the real threat in Little Saigon? Ask the FBI.