All language subtitles for American Greed s04e04 The Mad Max of Wall Street

This is a CNBC original.

In this episode of American Greed, he's
young, self -assured, and loaded.

The cars and the houses and the money,
you know, he was living a pretty fast

-paced life.

Tony Elgindig claims to be a crusader
fighting fraud on Wall Street.

He wanted to be known as the greatest
short seller of all time. He wanted that

following. He had a persona that he
cultivated, a bad guy going good.

But this so -called good guy is running
an insider trading scam.

And his partner in crime is a crooked
FBI agent.

This wasn't a crusade for good. It was a
crusade for evil.

The rise and fall of Anthony L. Guindy
begins in San Diego, California.

In 1988, this Egyptian -American is a 20
-year -old college dropout selling

sports cars.

He likes the job and makes decent money
pulling in a few grand a month.

But one day, fate shows him another more
appealing path.

A stockbroker came in.

Put this gorgeous young woman on his arm
and was going to buy a Corvette.

And this guy from the stock brokerage
world claimed to be making $20 ,000 a

month. And suddenly Tony thought, gee,
why sell cars?

I should probably be selling stock.

After pounding the pavement for months,
the dropout finds a brokerage house

willing to take a chance on him.

It's a firm with a bit of a reputation
called Blinder Robinson.

Some employees are seen here in this
1980s video.

They became known as Blindem and Robbem.

They made markets and basically promoted
their own in -house stocks, and that's

pretty much all they wanted you to
recommend to your customers.

It's a pump -and -dump operation, also
known as a boiler room.

Brokers make high -pressure sales
pitches to investors, pumping up

stock.

After the price soars, the brokers sell
their shares.

When the share price plummets, investors
who hold on suffer huge losses.

Linder Robinson is not the most credible
way to launch a career.

But Tony Elgindi is hooked.

He was sort of bitten by the stock bug,
and he wanted to stay in the securities

business. Got his securities licenses
along the way.

But just months after he joins, Blinder
Robinson's founder, Meyer Blinder, is

investigated for racketeering and
securities fraud.

He's eventually sent to prison, and the
firm is liquidated.

Al -Gindi finds a position at another
firm, Armstrong McKinley, but trouble

follows.

Federal investigators suspect brokers at
Armstrong of taking bribes, to promote

stock they wouldn't otherwise recommend.

Al -Gindi talked about it in a 1997
television interview.

Instead of recommending IBM Ford General
Motors to their customer, now they have

an extra payment, extra incentive, to
recommend something they normally

recommend.

It's looking like Al -Gindi is 0 for 2.

Both firms he's worked for in his short
career have been shut down by the feds.

He turns federal informant and avoids
charges.

He was apparently quite helpful to the
feds, but it really was his first close,

I think, brush with the federal criminal
justice system.

He decides his pump and dump days are
over.

He said later that he sort of got
sickened by that process where there

many overvalued, overhyped, fraudulent
stocks being sold.

In 1995, El Guindy starts over.

He opens up shop in Dallas, Texas and
starts trading, but this time as a short

seller.

Rather than hoping the price of shares
go up, short sellers bet on the price of

stock to fall.

And the bigger the drop, the more money
they make.

Al -Gindi is a new man now with a new
career and a new mission.

Al -Gindi wants to expose puffery, hype,
and fraud.

Or at least, that's what he starts out
doing.

He begins to post diatribes on trading
websites like siliconinvestor .com,

giving his opinions about which stocks
are overvalued and why.

Tony was very good at doing reports.

Traders, including Jeff Mitchell, sit up
and take notice.

I invested in some stock, and Anthony
comes along and says, your company is

streaks on the toilet bowl.

Naturally, that gets you thinking, uh
-oh, did I make a mistake here?

El Guindy's brash tone is entertaining.

He becomes so popular, he starts his own
thread.

called Dear Anthony.

Tony came on and he says, these
companies I'm going to discuss are bad

companies. I deal with overhyped,
overvalued, fraudulent, promoted,

suspect equities. And no one had really
done that side of the market before.

So right away, he offers something
different that we hadn't seen on message

boards. The ability to go online and
rant and rave and educate and insult.

and also possibly make huge amounts of
money doing it, was like a narcotic for

Tony. It was just like the best thing in
the world for him.

But El Guindy's rants make him a target.

Short -selling, and especially the world
of penny stocks, had always been sort

of the dark underbelly of Wall Street.
It was a world where brokers looked like

bouncers, where you had organized crime,
shady dealings, all kinds of different

things going on.

It was well far enough the lush Park
Avenue offices of Wall Street.

In 1997, El -Gindi sits down with the
primetime news program.

He claims that his short selling has put
him on a mob hit list.

I received a bullet in the mail. A
bullet with my name on it. 300 -pound

walking into an office, beating you up,
making you do this, do this. It's

happening. It's happening on Wall
Street.

That's not going to happen to me.

But Al Guindy's biggest threat isn't the
mob.

It's the FBI.

When American greed returns, see how a
do -gooder turns bad.

There was always that risk, you know,
you knew about Tony, that was he going

cross the line somehow?

In 1998, 31 -year -old Anthony Elgindi
has made a name for himself as a short

seller with a mission.

He claims to expose overhyped companies,
and that's what he does, at least for

now.

He makes money betting that their stock
prices will fall.

Traders love Elgindi, but companies fear
him.

With just a few keystrokes, his brash,
caustic comments can send a stock

tumbling down.

He was a kind of a boisterous character,
very funny. It was kind of a show. It

was entertaining just to be in the site.

There was a lot of entertainment value
in addition to the information that was

coming through.

High on his newfound fame, in 1999, El
Guindy launches AnthonyPacific .com.

Subscribers to the site pay $600 a month
for access to El Guindy's tips and

trades.

Dan Cohen is one of El Guindy's
subscribers.

It wasn't just him. It was really the
collective, you know, several hundred

people sharing information and sharing
their research.

One after another after another was
exposed as being a fraud, and eventually

prices went down. If you could hold the
position and manage the risk, you'd make

money. The culture of the site was true
and honest.

Elkendy claims to be a former fraudster
gone straight.

He once worked for a notorious boiler
room doing pump -and -dump schemes.

Using the logic that it takes a thief to
catch a thief, He says he's the perfect

person to root out fraud.

Tony was able to sniff them out because
he had seen a hundred of them before,

and basically they all followed the same
recipe.

Al -Gindi relishes his role as a
supposed fraud fighter, and he even

online video of his investigations.

In one, he exposes a company that claims
to have developed a new technology, to

remove sulfur from fuel.

It sends out hyped -up press releases.

Its share price soars from 25 cents to
nearly $12.

Al -Gindi tours the research and
development lab and captures a less

-sophisticated demonstration on tape.

Just making fun of this device that had
all these, like, foil and wires and all

that sort of stuff.

And I thought that was really sort of,
in a way, funny, you know, or brave.

Life couldn't be better.

He's a success.

People respect him.

And he's raking in more than $1 million
from subscribers' fees and claims to be

making $75 ,000 a month on trades.

He lives in an upscale neighborhood
north of San Diego and splurges on a

of high -end luxury cars decked out in
personal flair, a zero -bid license

plate. When a company goes to zero, when
the bid's zero, it means that the stock

is worthless. So that's how he was paid
for the car, was by selling stock that

were going to go to zero.

Tony had a Ferrari.

He had several cars, all fire engine
red. He loved red cars.

Lived the life of a pretty well -to -do
guy.

And he was only in his, what, early 30s?
He needed to feed an image that he was

this powerful guy making all this money.

The cars and the houses and the money
and the limo drivers, you know, he was

living a pretty fast -paced life.

The huge house and fast cars are nice.

But what he craves is building the
perfect image.

El -Gindi claims to be a philanthropist.

Welcome back to our coverage of the
crisis in Kosovo. In 1999, he goes on

to talk about his humanitarian efforts
to help refugees from Kosovo.

Mr. El -Gindi, let me start with you.

And in true El -Gindi fashion, he braves
the war -torn areas of Kosovo.

aiding refugees and helping some to the
U .S.

I was on vacation in Hawaii at the time,
and I made a decision that I would fly

out there and postpone my own business
concerns for a temporary period of time

to see what it is that I could do to
help.

He was always trying to help the little
guy and do the right thing and be a good

person. It was kind of within his
character that it wouldn't be enough for

to just write a check to the Red Cross,
which is what an ordinary person would

have done. He wanted to have the cash in
his pocket and go to the refugee camp

and hand the money to the needy people.

Though he raises $48 ,000, questions
arise about just how much goes to

and just how much goes into El Gindi's
pockets.

This is a message that Tony wrote about
Kosovo.

El Gindi attempts to justify his actions
in a lengthy online post.

He rambles on about how his small cash
donations make a huge difference to the

refugees.

And in an effort to prove his goodwill,
he includes dozens of letters from those

he helped.

But he grows tired of dodging
accusations.

He turns his attention to the website,
entitypacific .com, where he's

appreciated.

And puts all of his energy into making
it even bigger and better.

Business thrives.

In two years, he rakes in nearly $3
million in subscribers fees.

Online, El -Gindi gloats about the
rapport he's building with law

agencies and boasts about initiating new
federal investigations.

In Tony's own mind, he was sort of a
quasi -law enforcement official himself

doing what he did.

So he liked talking to those kind of
people and giving them information that,

you know, he thought they could use that
would be helpful.

In 2000, El Gendy meets a 37 -year -old
FBI agent named Jeff Royer.

Before long, El Gendy and Royer forge an
unusual relationship.

It's a relationship that changes the
mission of Anthony Pacific from being

board to breaking the law.

On the clock, Royer investigates crimes
on an Indian reservation in Gallup, New

Mexico.

But after hours, he works El Guindy's
investigations.

And what he's doing is highly
unorthodox, if not illegal.

El Guindy gives Royer the names of
companies that he thinks might be

perpetrating fraud.

Royer runs the information through
restricted, highly confidential FBI

to see what the feds have on the
company.

Royer speaks to American Greed in a
telephone interview.

I would go on the computers in the FBI,
and I would search for that company. I

would search for the president, vice
president, CEO, CFO, whatever. I would

complete search and see if there was any
SEC or FBI activity on this case.

As an FBI agent, he had the sort of keys
to the whole law enforcement library of

what federal law enforcement was doing.

It was everything from the write -ups of
interviews with the witnesses,

descriptions of how investigations were
being conducted, descriptions of

sources, people that were providing
information to the government.

If he discovers inside information, he
funnels the news to Al -Gindi.

The truth was that he was stealing
information from the FBI, and they were

that information to target specific
companies for short -selling.

stock price manipulation and extortion.

In 2000, El -Gindi believes there's
fraud taking place at Seaview, a company

pitching underwater cameras.

Royer taps into FBI databases and
discovers an ongoing probe into the

-based business for issuing deceptive
press releases.

He passes the tip to El -Gindi.

Now, armed with information only
investigators would know,

El -Gindi shorts the stock and tells his
Anthony Pacific subscribers to do the

same.

It was integral to the scheme that the
site subscribers trade on the stock

because this was a short -selling
scheme. And the idea is that the short

-selling combined with the eventual
publication to the general public of

negative information can push down the
price of the stock.

After El Guindy's attack, Seaview's
stock plummets more than 70 % of its

in 90 days.

Eventually, the SEC files suit against
the company.

But not before El Guindy boasts about
making out with $750 ,000 in a single

trade.

It's not pretty, it's not nice, and it's
not legal.

Next on American Greed, does El Gindi
have the ultimate inside tip and profit

a national tragedy?

There are disturbing new developments
that a notorious traitor.

This person may actually have known of
the attack.

By 2001, Anthony L. Gendy, a trader, is
living the American dream.

He's living a life of luxury and basking
in Internet fame.

But it's all about to end.

On September 11th, the world is shocked
by the devastating attacks that left

nearly 3 ,000 people dead.

The markets go dark for more than a
week.

Its crews sift through the ashes of
Ground Zero, hoping to identify the

of victims.

The government follows every conceivable
lead.

The Department of Justice turns to Wall
Street, looking for potential profiteers

of this merciless act.

There was a task force that was put
together after 9 -11 to investigate

or not anybody had traded in advance of
9 -11 with potential knowledge of the 9

-11 events.

The FBI fields a number of tips,
including one from a San Diego broker

says his client, Anthony Elgendi, wanted
to liquidate his accounts the day

before the 9 -11 attacks.

This broker contacted the FBI and had
explained that this Egyptian stock

had requested to liquidate these
accounts and that the market was done.

That's what triggered these events that
brought us into the investigation.

Dave Chaves is a supervisory special
agent with the FBI and launches an

investigation into El Gindi.

We began by taking an aggressive look at
his trading records, telephone records,

wire transfers, monitoring internet
traffic.

Agents go undercover, posing as
subscribers on anthonypacific .com.

But instead of finding ties to
terrorism, agents notice something else.

El Guindy's reporting sensitive
information on his website.

that only FBI agents would know.

We could start to see postings that a
government official had reported that

XYZ company or an individual, a
principal or CEO of a company was in

with the federal government.

He would use that information knowing
the direction of the case that the FBI

involved in it.

Jobs and his team follow a trail of
phone records, e -mails, and wire

And it leads them back to the FBI, to
Jeff Royer,

an agent in Gallup, New Mexico.

It was extremely unusual for someone
that works in Gallup, New Mexico, who

crimes on American Indian reservations,
to have...

queried nearly 3 ,000 companies when he
has no business doing so.

That immediately gave us pause and
concern for what Mr. Royer was doing.

Not knowing the full scope of Royer's
relationship with the Internet trader,

FBI interviews the New Mexico -based
agent.

Royer speaks with American Greed by
phone.

They wanted to know what files I had
looked at. They wanted to know what my

relationship with Tony Algindi was, how
exactly the information was flowing, the

computer checks, telephone calls.

They ask it all.

Royer maintains he's done nothing wrong.

He says he's sharing information because
he's working a source.

But the government sees it differently.

It's a one -way street.

You provide information to the
government. The government doesn't

information to you.

And that was clearly completely outside
the mission of Mr. Royer, completely

outside the mission of the FBI. And it
was clear from that that this wasn't a

crusade for good. It was a crusade for
evil.

To Royer, the writing is on the wall.

His FBI days are over.

One week after the interview with the
feds, He turns in his badge and packs

bags for the sandy shores of San Diego
where he goes to work for El Gendy full

time.

But as the FBI learned, the job offer
was part of the plan all along.

El Gendy has promised Royer a job and a
portion of his trading profits in

exchange for access to his FBI files.

I think El -Gindi always used Royer for
the information flow from the FBI.

He actually postponed his hire date on
several occasions so that he could

continue to get that information.

It was only when we started to speak to
Royer that he decided he was going to

resign now instead of face the inquiry
that was about to take place.

To the FBI, it appears that Agent Royer
is leaking confidential FBI information

on white -collar crime to El Guindi.

Royer would identify companies that were
under investigation in the FBI, convey

that to Mr. El Guindi.

Mr. El Guindi would take a position.

His site members would take a position.

And then that information would be
broadcast throughout the Internet.

collectively to create this negative
sentiment towards these stocks.

And even though Royers left the FBI, he
keeps the scam running.

He has a mole on the inside, his
girlfriend, FBI agent Lynn Wingate.

The petite blonde takes over where Royer
left off and keeps the information

flowing and the scam running.

Chaves is stunned to learn of a second
agent on the take.

We were a little blown away with that
because now the case is kind of

creating a larger circle.

We didn't know how extensive this was.
It was bad enough one of our own was

involved, but now we have a second agent
that could be involved.

The FBI estimates that with the
information Royer and Wingate have

El Guindy has pocketed more than $3
million.

He's cashing in and boosting his
Internet status.

Making himself look good was very
important to him because it enabled him

manipulate his site members into trading
at his instruction and gave him

increased visibility and increased
seeming importance with respect to the

markets.

And, never one to let any opportunity
slip by, he's found another way to use

insider knowledge.

Blackmail.

In one instance, Royer feeds Al -Gindi
information that the CEO of Nuclear

Solutions, Paul Brown, has a criminal
record.

It's like a pot of gold.

By law, CEOs of publicly traded
companies must disclose their criminal

Al -Gindi broadcasts the information,
shorts the Nuclear Solutions stock, and

tells his website subscribers to do the
same.

And then through a series of threatening
telephone calls and contacts,

essentially Mr.

Brown was given the proposition that
either he, you know, makes Mr. El -Gindi

away by providing him free stock or very
low -cost stock, or

he will see his company destroyed.

Desperate to get El -Gindi off his back,
the CEO agrees to give him 350 ,000

shares in exchange.

for dropping the virtual attack.

The CEO essentially gave in to the
extortion demands, gave a block of stock

El Gindi, and El Gindi then shared the
block of stock with the other

who had also short -sold.

As the FBI uncovers the El Gindi scheme
and the scope of the conspiracy grows,

so does the urgency to stop El Gindi.

During the course of its investigation,
The FBI learns El -Gindi has wired $350

,000 to a bank in Lebanon.

He had transferred money to Lebanon.
He'd bought an apartment in Lebanon.

opened a securities account where his
address was listed as being in Lebanon.

The pressure mounts for investigators.

They fear El -Gindi may be preparing to
run.

And the bureau has a leak.

FBI agent Lynn Wingate.

She apparently had gone on the computer
like in May and saw that I was actually

being a target of investigation.

That's when she called me, told me that
I should distance myself from Tony.

That's all she told me. And she would
prefer if I came home and just got away

from him.

Up next on American Greed, Al Guindy
takes on a new identity and makes a

for it.

He was stopped by TSA, questioned him,
and he proceeded to tell a string of

lies.

For more than six months, the FBI has
been watching short -seller Anthony L.

Gindy and former FBI agent Jeff Royer.

The two are working together to steal
confidential information from FBI files.

They are using that information to cash
in with an insider trading scam.

El Gendy, once a car salesman, now has
his own Hummers, Ferraris, and a

But his run is about to come to an end.

The FBI knows he's stealing information
and trading on it.

Agents make their move to bring him
down.

On May 22, 2002, Elgindi is arrested at
his office near San Diego.

Jeff Royer is arrested at a friend's
office.

I was down talking on the phone, looking
out, saw my friends, the SWAT team,

enter like a side of another building or
run up the alleyway. I said, it's kind

of cool.

Our SWAT team's here doing something.

at a place next door, and next thing you
know, they're right in front of us, and

I'm in cuffs.

Investigators raid the homes and offices
and find more evidence to support their

suspicions.

We found hundreds of documents from our
database, sensitive, top secret, secret

classifications, information that in the
wrong hands could be damaging to the

FBI.

We found a number of criminal checks on
various presidents of companies, CEOs,

and other executives.

El -Gindi and Royer, along with Royer's
girlfriend, FBI agent Lynn Wingate, are

charged with insider trading,
racketeering, and obstruction of

For El -Gindi, an Arab -American, the
timing couldn't be worse.

The country is still reeling from the 9
-11 attacks.

One of the prosecutors raises the
information in which he alleges that

Aljindi had pre -knowledge of 9 -11. And
not only didn't he report it, he tried

to profit from it.

The news causes a media storm.

There are disturbing new developments
for the notorious trader.

This person may actually have known of
the attack.

It was hard to imagine in early 2002 to
say anything worse about somebody in the

United States than that they may have
known in advance about the 9 -11 attacks

and that their only reaction was to try
to profit from it in the stock market.

Eventually, the firestorm calms down.

Al -Gindi is not charged with profiting
from 9 -11.

And his attorney vehemently denies he
knew anything about the attacks.

It is racial profiling.

Anyone that's from the Middle East now
is, you know, the government suddenly is

looking at them.

It was just common knowledge that the
market was falling. The funds weren't

liquidated until September 18th.

El -Gindi posts bail of $2 .5 million.

He's free for now.

He's looking at up to 20 years in
prison.

Prosecutors are preparing to take their
case to trial when El Guindy makes a

break for it.

I got a call from the FBI telling me
that he'd been arrested by state

authorities or local authorities in Long
Island.

Airport authorities stop the embattled
short -seller as he attempts to pass

through security using a fake ID.

He was going through and his ticket had
this other name, Manny Velasco, and he

presented his ID, which I believe was a
Montana identification.

He might have made it as Manny, but he's
forgotten something.

He's just come from a visit with his
lawyer.

He has a visitor pass with his real
name, Tony Elgindi, on it.

The TSA agent notices the discrepancy.

Mr. Elgindi tried to deceive the officer
by telling her that, in fact, Elgindi

was the person he was visiting.

And he provided a false story saying
that he was a jeweler.

They search his belongings and come
across his real ID.

The officer pulled out his driver's
license from California that had Mr.

Aljindi's name on it and said to Mr.
Aljindi, you know, Manny, you want to

us who you are?

And at that point, Mr. Aljindi sort of
dropped his head and eventually admitted

that he was not Manny Velasco.

Authorities also discover El Guindy's
traveling with $30 ,000 in jewels, $25

,000 in cash, and dozens of blank
checks.

In a Brooklyn courtroom on November 1,
2004, opening arguments begin in the

insider trading trial of Anthony El
Guindy and Jeff Royer.

Prosecutors allege that El Guindy used
his Anthony Pacific site, or AP, to get

his followers to do his bidding, much
like a criminal gang leader.

The AP site was the engine of the
conspiracy.

It was the enterprise of the conspiracy.

And site members, wittingly or not, were
participants in the conspiracy.

Trading on FBI secrets was only the
first part of the scam.

Al -Gindi made his trades much more
lucrative by getting his legions of

followers to short a stock, too.

Through his website, he was driving down
prices, manipulating the market.

This particular conduct was coordinated
in a way that was meant both to take

advantage of the information to target
the companies, but also to take

of the way of releasing this information
and coordinated trading in a way that

it could put maximum pressure on thinly
traded stocks.

Dan Cohen, an El Guindy supporter, is
prepared to take the stand.

Until he gets cold feet.

An article in the Wall Street Journal
quoted the prosecutor saying that any

members of Tony's site that testified at
the trial from the U .S. government's

perspective would be self -incriminating
themselves.

The case turns to the defense. Former
FBI agent Jeff Royer takes the stand.

He says his motivation for sharing FBI
secrets with El Guindy was pure.

He was trying to help the FBI on its own
criminal case.

I thought my job as an FBI agent was to
get as much information as I could to

shut these companies down and to stop
the stock fraud. I don't know why that's

so hard for people to understand, and
the government just wasn't buying it. I

didn't make a single penny on it. I
never asked him for a penny. There

really any financial quid pro quo.

The defense team also points out that
the majority of companies that El Gendy

publicly attacked with highly
confidential information are in fact

fraud.

In other words, Anthony El Gendy was
simply doing what he claimed to do,

exposing shady companies and shorting
their stock.

The government isn't buying it.

Whether the companies were fraudulent or
not, El -Gindi still tried to

manipulate the market.

He used that privilege access to take
advantage of his position to sell.

And, of course, for each sale, there's a
buyer on the other side who's now got a

stock that you know is a scam and you're
laughing all the way to the bank. So,

yeah, some of the information that was
right, much of it was right. Much of

these companies were scams, but Mr. El
-Gindi had no right to take advantage of

his personal FBI agent to get that
information and disadvantage the other

participants.

Next on American Greed, the Internet
stockbroker makes a final trade,

life of luxury for one behind bars.

After three long months of trial, the
fate of Anthony Elgindi, the notorious

short -seller, lies in the hands of a
jury.

We're just learning that Dow Jones
reports a verdict has been reached in

criminal trial of Anthony El -Gindi.

On January 24, 2005, the jury finds El
-Gindi guilty on charges of insider

trading, racketeering, and extortion.

His FBI sidekick, Jeff Royer, is also
convicted on securities fraud,

racketeering conspiracy, and obstruction
of justice charges.

American Greed speaks exclusively to
Royer from federal prison by telephone.

I think the story that they were trying
to tell and the reaction was getting

from the juries that they were buying
the government's side to it. It didn't

surprise me, the verdict, when they read
it.

Obviously crushing because I knew what
it was going to mean.

It means time behind bars for both Royer
and El Gendy.

In June 2006, El -Gindi makes his final
appearance in a Brooklyn federal

courtroom.

He makes a plea for leniency and seems
to do more harm than good.

To the very end, Mr. El -Gindi, who went
on for an hour talking about himself,

his ego got the better of him, as I
think it did throughout the time that he

involved in the securities industry, his
narcissism, his ego, his desire to be

front and center.

to inflate himself at the expense of
others, was communicated through the

and through sentencing to the judge, and
he gave him a sentence that indicated

that.

El -Gindi is sentenced to 11 years
behind bars.

The judge afterwards called Mr. El
-Gindi a master manipulator. He said

all of the years that he's been a judge
or a lawyer, Mr. El -Gindi was perhaps

the most manipulative person that
he'd... Run across.

After taking home $364 ,000 from insider
trades, El Guindi must pay back $1

.5 million for his role as leader of the
conspiracy.

He must forfeit his possessions,
including his glamorous home.

Prison officials denied a request from
American Greed to interview El Guindi.

El Guindi's co -conspirator, rogue FBI
agent Jeff Royer, is convicted of

stealing confidential FBI information,
and gets six years in prison.

It seems his only regret is not taking a
plea.

I had no idea that the sentencing would
be that rough.

I was thinking, you know, because I was
offered a three -year plea. If I would

have taken a plea early on, offered
three years, and I had no clue I was

to get six years.

In all, six others are charged in the
conspiracy and plead guilty, including

agent Lynn Wingate.

The federal agents and prosecutors who
worked the case are saddened that Royer,

one of their own, was corrupted.

The conduct of this one agent tarnishes
the badge of the FBI.

We don't find people like this. They
find us. And although this is very

hiring process here in the Bureau.

No matter where you are, in corporate
America or elsewhere, every once in a

while, you're going to have somebody
that comes in that doesn't have the

intentions.

But they say, ultimately, the case
reassures them that the system works.

This scam may have gone on for some
time. It was destined for failure,

ultimately, because at some point, when
you use FBI resources,

The FBI is going to catch on. He used
SEC resources. The SEC is going to catch

on. So to some extent it was doomed by
failure, but 9 -11 certainly accelerated

that process.

It just goes to show that the FBI is not
going to tolerate that kind of behavior

within its ranks.

It was an extraordinary investigation in
the amount of resources and the

personal and professional dedication of
all the agents involved.

It was really a shining example of how a
law enforcement agency addresses a

problem from within.

It's El Gindi's insatiable desire for
more that leads to his own undoing.

El Gindi used his intelligence in the
wrong way.

I think he could have been a very
productive person, a very accomplished

if he had his values where they should
be. If you're out there doing wrong,

there's going to be some event that's
triggered.

That's going to have the FBI looking
into you.

For whatever reason, the way this world
works, that seems to catch up with you

almost every time. That greed will catch
up with you.