The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2

With our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the FBI worked thousands of investigations during 2010, from cyber crime and espionage to public corruption and multi-million-dollar fraud schemes. As the year draws to a close, we take a look back at some of 2010’s most significant cases.

Part 1 focused on terrorism. This segment highlights some of the year’s top cases from the FBI’s other investigative priorities:

Operation Broken Trust: Earlier this month, we announced the largest investment fraud sweep ever conducted in the U.S.—211 cases involving more than 120,000 victims who lost more than $8 billion. The multi-agency investigation focused on scams directly targeting individual investors.

Operation Cross Country V: In November, a three-day operation in 40 U.S. cities led to the recovery of 69 children who were being victimized through prostitution. More than 850 individuals—including nearly 100 pimps—were arrested on state and local charges.

Health care fraud: In October, 73 defendants—including associates of an Armenian-American organized crime group—were indicted in five states in one of the largest Medicare fraud cases to date. Fraudulent billings and other related crimes totaled more than $163 million.

Operation Guard Shack: In what was likely the largest police corruption case in FBI history, nearly 1,000 Bureau personnel took part in a massive bust in San Juan, Puerto Rico in October to arrest 133 subjects, most of whom were police officers.

Operation Trident Breach: Also in October, a global investigation with our international partners resulted in a major cyber bust targeting a theft ring that used a Trojan horse virus to steal more than $70 million.

Piracy on the high seas: In August, a Somali man pled guilty in Virginia to acts of piracy against the USS Ashland in April. The man and five Somali accomplices believed the ship—cruising in the Gulf of Aden—was a merchant vessel and they attempted to seize it and hold it for ransom.

Russian spies arrested: In July, 10 individuals living seemingly normal lives in the U.S. pled guilty to being Russian spies and agreed to leave the country immediately. They had been arrested a month earlier after a lengthy undercover operation.

Operation Stolen Dreams: In June, nearly 500 people—from industry insiders to straw buyers—were arrested in a multi-agency nationwide mortgage fraud takedown. Total losses from a variety of fraud schemes were estimated to exceed $2 billion.

Project Deliverance: Also in June, we announced the results of a two-year multi-agency investigation on the U.S. Southwest border that yielded 2,200 arrests as well as seizures that included $154 million in U.S. currency and more than 71 tons of cocaine and marijuana.

Gang takedown: In May, nearly 600 local, state, and federal officers took part in one of the New York area’s largest gang takedowns in recent memory. Indictments were unsealed against 78 members of two violent gangs, the Bloods and the Latin Kings.

For more information about the FBI’s investigations and other activities, see our weekly Top Ten News Stories in our Press Room.