FBI Bribe Case Goes to Trial

A San Diego financial analyst bribed an FBI agent for inside information about white-collar investigations, then used it to manipulate stock prices for his own gain, a prosecutor alleged Monday.

Anthony Elgindy, 36, promoted himself on his website as “a crusader against fraud,” prosecutor Valerie Szczepanik said during opening arguments at Elgindy’s federal trial in Brooklyn, N.Y. “The exact opposite was true: Elgindy was an opportunistic thief.”

Elgindy, who was known as Amr Ibrahim Elgindy before legally changing his name last year, and his codefendant, former FBI Agent Jeffrey Royer, have pleaded not guilty to securities fraud and other charges.

The charges against Elgindy were denied by his lawyers, who said he had a solid reputation for protecting investors by working with regulators to expose fraud by small publicly traded companies.

“Even the U.S. government admired him,” defense attorney Barry Burke told the jury.

Burke claimed that in the midst of the alleged scheme in 2001, a Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer called his client “a crusader for propriety in the marketplace.”

Prosecutors allege that an associate of Elgindy, Derrick Cleveland, recruited Royer and paid him for negative information gleaned from confidential FBI databases.

Elgindy allegedly spread the information on his website, InsideTruth.com, while betting that the companies’ stock would go down.

Behind the scenes, Royer was referred to as Elgindy’s “personal FBI agent,” Szczepanik said. “Instead of chasing down criminals, he was chasing down information for his personal profit.”