Michael Ray Aquino, who skipped the country at the height of the Kuratong Baleleng rubout scandal, was arrested in the US for espionage along with Leandro Aragoncillo, a Federal Bureau of Intelligence analyst and a naturalized US citizen.
According to the FBI, Aragoncillo downloaded 101 files at the Fort Monmouth Army base in New Jersey and sent them to Aquino who, in turn, transmitted the information back to Manila to the three national-level public officials.
Senator Ping Lacson has admitted receiving information from Aquino but insists that they were not classified material but common information that can be read in newspapers.
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Leandro Aragoncillo
Occupation:
FBI Intelligence Analyst. Hired July 2004, suspended 12 Sept 2005
Retired US Marine with 21 years service, 1983-2004. Gunnery Sergeant. Stationed in Japan, Guantanamo Bay, Quantico, VA, Assignment to the White House between 1999 and 2002 as "administration chief" of the security detail assigned to Vice President Cheney.
Six Good Conduct Medals and a Humanitarian Service Medal
Age:
46 years old
Home:
Woodbury, NJ
Birthplace: Philippines, came to US in 1984
Citizenship: United States in 1991
Family: Wife, two children
Arrested: Saturday, 10 September 2005
Charges:
--Knowingly communicating classified information by a government employee to an agent or representative of a foreign country (i.e. receiving classified information).
--Acting as an agent of a foreign official without notification of the Attorney General in violation of Title 18 of the US Code, Section 951
--Unauthorized use of a government computer to obtain and transmit classified information
--Conspiracy to commit all of the above offenses in violation of Title 18 of the US Code Section 371.
Dates of Spying: January 2005 to August 2005
Possible Motivations: $500,000 in debts, mostly mortgages on rental properties
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Michael Ray Aquino
Former Deputy Directory of the Philippines National Police Intelligence Group under the government of former president Joseph Estrada
Former senior superintendent of the now-disbanded Philippines Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force
39 years old
Queens, NY
March 2005: arrested by immigration authorities for overstaying his visa
Family: Wife, one son
Arrested: Saturday, 10 September 2005
--Knowingly communicating classified information by a government employee to an agent or representative of a foreign country (i.e. receiving classified information).
--Acting as an agent of a foreign official without notification of the Attorney General in violation of Title 18 of the US Code, Section 951
--Conspiracy to commit all of the above offenses in violation of Title 18 of the US Code Section 371.
Dates of Spying: January 2005 to August 2005
Possible Motivations: Had been investigated in the Philippines in connection with a conspiracy to murder two people
Am I missing something here? Where was Aragoncillo between the time he left the White House in 2002 to when he began working with the FBI in July '04?