A former FBI agent accused of trying to derail an investigation into alleged corruption by a U.S. defense contractor in Afghanistan has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors say the now-retired agent from New York, Robert Lustyik Jr., created a dossier of fabricated interviews in exchange for promised payments in order to make it look like the defense contractor’s chief had played a key role in an antiterrorism operation.
Lustyik was convicted of trying to derail a Utah investigation into the company, which was started by former U.S. soldiers and was suspected of paying bribes to win $54 million in bloated government contracts in Afghanistan.
The court ruled that Lustyik tried to block the investigation by telling a Utah-based FBI agent that the defense contractor’s chief, former U.S. special forces soldier Michael Taylor, had helped capture an important terrorist suspect.
Taylor was sentenced to two years in the case.