Friday, June 29, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.
Mike Levin's transformation from FBI outcast to star witness in the bureau's secrets-for-sale scandal occurred in fewer than 24 hours, according to criminal complaints unsealed in New York.
The flashy former agent-turned private detective left Las Vegas for New York June 13 with stolen FBI documents he allegedly obtained from James J. Hill, a local FBI security analyst charged in the scandal, the complaints disclosed.
Later that day Levin met Robert Monaco, a 28-year-old target in an FBI mortgage fraud investigation, at a Manhattan restaurant to discuss the status of the criminal probe.
Levin, 36, visited Monaco again June 14 at Monaco's East Meadow, N.Y., office, but this time the meeting was under FBI surveillance. Monaco allegedly paid Levin $2,500 for information Levin had brought him and gave him two tickets to a New York Yankees game that evening.
But the smooth-talking Levin never went to the game.
He was arrested that day in the town of Oyster Bay, N.Y., on charges of stealing and selling stolen FBI records. In his possession were "302" investigative reports and electronic communications from the FBI's computer system in Nevada.
Levin agreed to cooperate with agents and tell them how he had corrupted law enforcement authorities in Las Vegas.
And he did much more than that in the days following his arrest.
With Levin's help as an undercover operative, agents in New York and Las Vegas were able to arrest nine more people in the secrets-for-sale scheme, which has become one of the more embarrassing episodes in the history of the local FBI office.
On Monday Levin pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in New York to a four-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy, theft of government property and obstruction of justice. He is being held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"The court papers indicate that he played a very significant role in the charges against the other defendants," New York FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette said.
Though a hero now to some within the FBI, Levin was not a favorite of the bureau during his stormy eight-year career in Las Vegas.
His good looks and gift for gab made him one of the FBI's better undercover agents. But he also had a penchant for fancy cars and living in the fast lane, as was the case with some of the targets he pursued.
Court records show Levin was suspended in 1994 and 1996 for abusing a government credit card. Similar allegations arose in 1997, and the FBI recommended Levin be fired. But he resigned instead and went to work as a private investigator, where he soon developed a reputation for bragging about making a lot of money.
An FBI review of Levin's telephone records found that he has had conversations with numerous people in foreign countries, including Mexico and Cuba, in recent months. His passport also showed recent trips to the cities of Medellin and Bogota, Colombia.
And prior to his June 14 arrest in New York, Levin was seen driving around Las Vegas in a new Porsche.
While detained in New York, Levin told FBI agents that he had received hundreds of confidential FBI documents since 1999 from Hill, a 10-year FBI veteran, and two law enforcement officers outside the bureau, Maria Emeterio, an investigator with the Nevada attorney general's office, and Mary Ellen Weeks, a Las Vegas Municipal Court intake services employee.
All three have been charged in the high-profile probe.
Hill, the complaints said, was paid $25,000, Weeks $10,000 and Emeterio $2,000 for securing the top-secret FBI information for Levin.
In his role as a private detective for hire, Levin passed on the documents to attorneys, criminal defendants and targets of federal grand jury investigations. Some of those buying the information were organized crime members.
For his services, Levin told the agents, he had received $100,000.
Most of the FBI information given to him by Emeterio and Weeks came from the FBI's National Crime Information Center, a computerized criminal data base used by law enforcement agencies across the country.
Hill reportedly had access to national security and electronic surveillance information, as well as confidential informants and witness data stored in the bureau's national computer system.
Following his June 14 arrest, the FBI complaints show, agents kept Levin very busy.
His first order of business was to help gather evidence to arrest Hill.
At 7:30 p.m. New York time on June 14, Levin placed a telephone call, monitored by FBI agents, to Hill at the Las Vegas FBI office and asked him to dig up information on a target of a federal grand jury probe. Levin gave Hill the name of the defendant and his Social Security number.
By 7:45 p.m., the complaints alleged, after Hill had faxed Levin the information, Hill was arrested by agents as he left the FBI office. Hill reportedly acknowledged to agents that he had been providing Levin with FBI records.
The next day -- June 15 -- Levin turned his sights on those who allegedly had been buying stolen FBI information from Levin.
In all six of those arrested, including Michael Santosus, a 40-year-old New York man targeted in a mortgage fraud grand jury investigation, were charged with purchasing the classified information.
Levin told agents he had been selling Santosus information Hill had obtained on the investigation since February 2000.
With agents listening in on June 15, Levin telephoned Santosus and scheduled a meeting at his Long Island office later in the day.
At the meeting Levin, carrying a hidden tape recorder, brought two phony FBI documents that referred to the mortgage fraud investigation. Santosus copied the documents and paid Levin $2,000.
Then on June 16, the complaints said, Levin, again carrying a tape recorder, paid another visit to Monaco at a restaurant in Bethpage, N.Y. He showed Monaco, who later was arrested, another fictitious FBI document agents had created about the mortgage fraud probe, and the two discussed their previous conversations about the investigation.
That evening, about 7:30 p.m., Levin telephoned Herbert Jacobi, a New York lawyer representing Las Vegan Robert Potter, who is under indictment in an FBI securities fraud probe. Levin had been providing Potter and Jacobi with stolen FBI information for months.
In the conversation, monitored by FBI agents, Levin arranged to meet with Jacobi at the lawyer's Long Island home to show him what he said was a newly obtained stolen FBI document.
Levin, armed with the document, which again was specially created by agents for the sting, went to Jacobi's house wearing a hidden body wire and a tape recorder, the complaints said. Jacobi copied the document and paid Levin $500.
Then the attorney asked Levin how he would be able to use the document in Potter's case knowing he legally wasn't supposed to have it.
"Just say, 'Hey yo, a little bird told me,' " Levin responded.
Jacobi and Potter also were among those ultimately arrested by FBI agents.
As his undercover work was nearing its end on June 18, Levin helped the FBI nail his other two sources of information, Weeks and Emeterio.
At 3:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, with FBI agents listening, Levin telephoned Weeks at Municipal Court and asked her for NCIC information on a grand jury target, the complaints charged.
He gave her a fax number in Long Island and said he would pay her for the information when he returned to Las Vegas.
"Sounds like the plan," Weeks responded.
Weeks, now on administrative leave following her arrest, later allegedly faxed Levin the NCIC information.
Then at 3:44 p.m., the complaints said, Levin called Emeterio's cellular phone seeking similar NCIC records.
Emeterio, who resigned this week, complained that Levin still owed her money from a previous request, and as with Weeks, Levin responded that he would pay her when he flew back from New York.
After faxing Levin the new records, Emeterio left a message on his cell phone allegedly asking him to confirm that he had received the information.
Levin called her back and again said he would "take care" of her when he returned, the complaints alleged.
"No problem," Emeterio reportedly responded.
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