February 4, 2019

Joseph R. Bonavolonta Named Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office

FBI Director Christopher Wray has named Joseph R. Bonavolonta as special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office. Mr. Bonavolonta has served as deputy assistant director for the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division since March 2018. He previously helped lead the Boston Field Office as assistant special agent in charge from 2013 to 2017 and is honored to be returning to the office.

Mr. Bonavolonta has held a variety of leadership, operational, and investigative positions throughout his FBI career.

He entered on duty in May 1996 as an investigative specialist in the FBI’s New York Field Office.

In August 2000, he received his first assignment as a special agent in the New York Field Office, where he spent many years investigating the Bonanno La Cosa Nostra (LCN) Family within the office’s organized crime branch. His work led to the convictions and/or guilty pleas of dozens of high-ranking members and associates of the Bonanno LCN Family. For his contributions to these investigations, Mr. Bonavolonta received the Attorney General’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance in 2005.

From 2006-2007, Mr. Bonavolonta served as the program manager in the Organized Crime Section at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for the coordination of organized crime cases throughout the country. He also directed an international organized crime initiative in coordination with the Italian National Police aimed at combating joint criminal operations between the American-based LCN Families and the Sicilian Mafia.

Mr. Bonavolonta was promoted to supervisory special agent of the corporate/securities fraud squad at the Newark Field Office in 2008. Mr. Bonavolonta directed the investigations of major economic crimes, to include corporate/securities fraud, intellectual property rights, Internet fraud, wire and mail fraud, and money laundering. Under Mr. Bonavolonta’s supervision, his team generated some of the most significant economic crimes investigations in New Jersey.

In 2013, Mr. Bonavolonta received a promotion to assistant special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office, where he oversaw the cyber and counterintelligence programs as well as the resident agencies in Bedford/Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Mr. Bonavolonta then served as the section chief for the FBI’s employee development and selection program from March 2017 to March 2018. In this role, he managed the national oversight responsibilities for the supervisor development, transfer, senior leader selection, and senior executive service programs.

Mr. Bonavolonta was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science/communications from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

Mr. Bonavolonta reported to the Boston Field Office on January 22, 2019.