Stephen Belongia Named Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office
Director Christopher Wray has named Stephen Belongia as the special agent in charge of the Buffalo Field Office in New York. Mr. Belongia most recently served as the section chief of Cyber Readiness at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Belongia joined the FBI as a special agent in 1997 and started his career in the Phoenix Field Office, where he investigated criminal and counterterrorism matters. In 2010, he was promoted to supervisor of a Phoenix white-collar crime squad focusing on investment and complex security frauds, and later led a counterterrorism squad.
In 2011, he served a temporary assignment in Iraq, where he investigated international contract corruption. In 2013, Mr. Belongia was named an assistant legal attaché in Nairobi, Kenya, where he investigated various matters including piracy and the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall.
After returning from Nairobi, Mr. Belongia transferred to the Human Resources Division at FBI Headquarters, where his policy and administrative roles included conducting a special review of a sensitive national security matter. In 2017, Mr. Belongia was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Tampa Field Office in Florida. At different times, he led the cyber, counterintelligence, human intelligence, technical, surveillance, intelligence, and administrative programs and oversaw all matters in multiple resident agencies.
Mr. Belongia was promoted in 2019 to section chief of Cyber Readiness at Headquarters. He provided expertise and support in multiple areas, including cyber education and training, human capital, strategic management, security, logistics, financial management, and workforce development. He also conceived and led several transformational initiatives, including the FBI Cyber Academy, Cyber Pipeline, and the Cyber 2025 Strategic Review.
Mr. Belongia earned a bachelor’s degree in business from California State University, Sacramento and a master’s in public policy from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Belongia worked as a CPA for KPMG.
