FBI News Quiz - Recent Investigations II
FBI News Quiz
Snapshot of Recent Investigations
07/03/06
On any given day, we work cases from across our spectrum of investigative priorities. Every step of the way—from investigation…to arrest…to the courts—we work hand-in-hand with our law enforcement, intelligence, and criminal justice partners. Take our quiz to find out how closely you’ve been following our recent cases:
1. What did a Massachusetts man recently plead guilty to stealing from a Yale University library?
A: Dictionaries
B: Computers
C: Rare maps
D: A glass window decorated with a scene from Moby Dick
ANSWER
2. Five members of a family living in Southern California have been charged with acting as unregistered foreign agents of the Chinese government. What secrets and sensitive information were they after?
A: Nanoscience research at nearby universities
B: Aerospace technologies
C: Naval research on U.S. nuclear defense subs
D. The TV networks’ fall line-ups
ANSWER
3. The nation’s second largest hospital chain recently agreed to pay the government for illegal billings to Medicare and other federal health care programs over the past decade. How much will the corporation pay over four years?
A: $9 million
B: $90 million
C: $900 million
ANSWER
4. A Florida man who ran one of the nation’s largest pirated software rings pled guilty on June 16 to causing more than $20 million worth of losses to the software industry. What items that he purchased with his ill-gotten gains did he agree to forfeit?
A: A 1992 Lamborghini
B: A 28-foot boat
C: A helicopter and several airplanes
D: All of the above
ANSWER
5. During a two-year undercover investigation in New Orleans, the FBI used hidden cameras, audio equipment, and cooperating witnesses to uncover what?
A: Bank fraud
B: Corruption in the city’s traffic court
C: A local drug operation
D. The secrets of Cajun cooking
ANSWER
6. A Saudi national being trained as a language translator at Fort Benning in Georgia was recently arrested. Why?
A: He threatened to blow up a U.S. airplane
B: He was suspected of being a spy
C: He stole paratrooper gear
D: He was planning to attack the base
ANSWER
7. On June 8, the Wayne County Airport Authority in Michigan pled guilty to discharging 25 million gallons of foul water laced with chemicals into a waterway that leads to the Detroit River. What tipped off authorities?
A: The smell
B: A call from an airport employee
C: Environmental tests on the river
D: Dead fish at the mouth of the waterway
ANSWER
8. If you’re offered the opportunity to make a lot of money working at home stuffing envelopes or stapling booklets for advertising mailers, you should:
A: Sign up right away
B: Be skeptical
C: Refuse to pay any upfront fees
D: Both B and C
ANSWER
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Question 1: If you’ve ever been to Yale, you might think the answer is D, since Room 219 of the Sterling Memorial Library on campus has a window bearing the image of Moby Dick. But the answer is actually C, Rare Maps. On June 22, a map dealer named Edward Forbes Smiley III pled guilty to stealing seven maps from Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which is located in New Haven, Connecticut, by cutting them out of books using a knife blade. In his plea agreement, Smiley also admitted stealing 96 other rare maps from several more libraries and other institutions in the U.S. and U.K., then selling them to private dealers or collectors.
Question 2: C, Naval research on U.S. nuclear defense subs. For these spies, it was all in the family-the father, mother, their two sons, and the older brother’s wife have all been indicted for failing to register as agents of China. The older brother-and engineer with a defense contractor-allegedly gathered information on the U.S. Navy’s warship technologies and, along with his wife, copied it onto computer disks that he gave to his father. After the younger brother encrypted the data, the older brother and his mother tried to board a plane bound for China with the disks in their luggage, but were arrested at the airport.
Question 3: C, $900 million. The settlement, which resolves several “whistleblower” lawsuits, is the single largest in the 150-year history of the False Claims Act. The FBI helped investigate claims against Tenet Healthcare Corporation, which operates dozens of hospitals around the country.
Question 4: D, all of the above, not to mention three Corvettes, a Lincoln, and a Hummer! Starting in late 2002, Danny Ferrer used a website to sell more than $2.5 million in pirated software at substantially discounted prices. The software, which he copied onto CDs and delivered through the mail, included serial numbers that enable buyers to activate and use the products. The FBI shut down Ferrer’s website in October 2005 following complaints from software copyright holders and our undercover investigation.
Question 5: B, corruption in the city’s traffic court. On June 15, Anthony Thomas, former Chief Clerk for Section B in Orleans Parish Traffic Court, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for accepting cash bribes to dismiss traffic tickets. Thomas is the 10th public official convicted and sentenced as a result of the two-year investigation. Read more about our ongoing efforts to battle public corruption, our top criminal investigative priority.
Question 6: A, He threatened to blow up a U.S. airplane. He made the threat to a staff member at Ft. Benning, saying he’d blow up a plane he was planning to fly on the next evening. We investigated and took him into custody with the help of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Department and the Columbus Metro Narcotics Task Force.
Question 7: The water did smell, but it was D, the dead fish at the mouth of the waterway that got the attention of authorities. Investigating environmental crimes is one of our least known-but still important-responsibilities. In this case, a pond near the airport was contaminated with de-icing chemicals from planes, turning the water turbid. Airport workers later opened a valve that allowed the pond water into other nearby ponds, which then flowed into a waterway leading to the Detroit River. On June 8, the Wayne County Airport Authority pled guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act, agreed to pay a fine of $75,000, and agreed to complete a construction project that will connect the pond to a sanitary sewer line.
Question 8: D, both B and C. Remember the old adage: if it sounds too good to be true.? It was in the case of Daniel Josic of Michigan, who pled guilty last month for his involvement in a scheme to collect fees for a supposed work-at-home program. Josic and two other defendants are believed to have defrauded more than 20,000 individuals across the country out of at least $2 million. Learn how to avoid similar scams on our Be Crime Smart webpage.