Former DEA spokesperson pleads guilty in federal court to an elaborate wire fraud scheme in which he posed as a covert CIA operative to steal millions of dollars from companies and individuals who believed they were supporting a government program.
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Garrison Courtney, who served in the DEA’s public affairs office between 2005 and 2009, admitted Thursday that he and other individuals posed as CIA officers to convince companies to pay him for involvement in a special operations forces program operating covertly in Africa. In exchange for those payments, Courtney promised victims they would eventually be reimbursed by the CIA -- but the program did not exist, Courtney admitted to a judge Thursday.
An American flag is displayed on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the Department of Justice, June 3, 2020.He also directed his victims to sign non-disclosure agreements and convened meetings with the unidentified companies in a make-shift 'Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility,' or SCIF, where he would search individuals before entering the room and mandate they not bring in any electronic devices.
According to his guilty plea, Courtney also convinced actual government officials that they were selected to participate in the covert government programs, and those officials then met with victim companies at Courtney’s request, he admitted Thursday.During his scheme Courtney actually gained a position working as a private contractor for the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center , a branch of NIH.
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