Posted on 09/10/2001 8:52:19 AM PDT by bryedge
BC Securities Commission - Street Wire
BCSC target Mitton's Potter allies plead guilty
Thu 6 Sept 2001 Street Wire
by Brent Mudry
An FBI security analyst has pleaded guilty to selling FBI investigative records to criminal defence attorneys, including career fraudster Michael Mitton's New York lawyer Herbert Jacobi, criminal defendants, including alleged Mafia associate Robert Potter, who sold the H & R Enterprises Inc. shell with partner Peter Berney to Mr. Mitton, and grand jury targets, including members of the Genovese Mafia family.
James J. Hill of Las Vegas pleaded guilty on Tuesday in United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York to stealing hundreds of FBI records and grand jury documents and selling them to private investigator Michael Levin, a former FBI agent in Las Vegas. Mr. Levin was arrested in June and agreed in a guilty plea deal to wear a wire while selling stolen records to Mr. Jacobi on a grand jury investigation and a stock fraud case involving Mr. Potter, a star client of the New York lawyer. Mr. Jacobi, who also served as lawyer for the Berney-Potter pair and Mr. Mitton in the H & R affair, and helped the now-jailed Canadian wire H & proceeds to Panama, was among 10 defendants arrested in three indictments in the FBI records case in June.
The case is believed to be the most-serious and broadest known breach of FBI security in recent years. Mr. Potter is currently being held without bail in the FBI files case, while Mr. Berney was tracked down and arrested in Switzerland in February, 2000, in a related penny stock fraud case. Mr. Potter is an alleged Mafia associate and the stock case has been handled by the Organized Crime Strike Force of the U.S. Attorney's Office.
In Tuesday's plea agreement, Mr. Hill pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal FBI records, stealing FBI records, conspiring to obstruct justice and obstructing justice. Mr. Hill, who faces potential sentences ranging up to 10 years and a $1-million fine, is being held in custody pending his sentencing on Dec. 7.
The U.S. Attorney's Office notes the investigation continues. (c) Copyright 2001 Canjex Publishing Ltd. For educational and conversational purposes only.
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