CIA technical expert arrested for pilfering equipment

An analyzer

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A CIA communications technology specialist has been charged with selling CIA communications equipment to a private broker. FBI counterintelligence agents arrested Todd Brandon Fehrmann on February 26, several weeks after he sold $60,000-worth of equipment to Massachusetts-based Bizi International, Inc. Fehrmann’s CIA connection is concealed in the FBI affidavit, but The Washington Times says US government officials and even Fehrmann himself have now confirmed that he worked for the agency. The pilfered equipment appears to have included a dozen portable spectrum analyzers –handheld devices used to detect and gauge cell phone signals, among other things. The brand new devices, which were built by manufacturers such as Anritsu and Rhode & Schwartz, raised flags at Bizi International, Fehrmann’s buyer. The latter contacted the manufacturers and confirmed that the equipment in question had originally been sold to the CIA. Fehrmann confirmed that he has now been dismissed by the CIA, but denied further comment on the case, as did his lawyer and the CIA’s spokesperson Paul Gimigliano.