Johannes Thaler and Rizve Ahmed, both from Connecticut, were convicted in US District Court in White Plains, NY, of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud and are to be sentenced Jan. 13. Robert Lustyik, former FBI Special Agent in White Plains who worked on the counterintelligence squad, is to be tried in November. Both Thaler and Ahmed have testified to participating in the scheme with Lustyik.
The Department of Justice report states that Ahmed, who is a Bangladesh native, paid Thaler and Lustyik bribes for negative confidential law enforcement information, including a Suspicious Activity Report on a political foe in Bangladesh. In addition, Ahmed also sought help in dropping another political figure’s criminal charges.
Text messages between Thaler and Ahmed reveal that the latter was to pay the two US$ 30,000 monthly for some period, along with a US$ 40,000 payment upfront.
Other texts show Lustyik telling Thaler that he will push Ahmed in order to get the US$ 40,000 quickly, claiming that he would “work his magic,” and that “pretty soon [they’ll] be having lunch in [their] oceanfront restaurant.”
In January 2012, when Lustyik learned that Ahmed was considering bribing someone else, texts to Thaler revealed that he would wire himself and have Ahmed and his associates admit that they wanted to have a politician killed. Their plan was to sell this information to the politician.
