By Steve Neavling
FBI agents stationed in Southeast Asia repeatedly paid for or accepted sex from prostitutes, even while attending events focused on combating human trafficking, according to a newly released report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The inspector general’s findings, made public Thursday after a lawsuit by The New York Times, describe a “lascivious” culture among FBI personnel between 2009 and 2018 in countries where prostitution is illegal but widespread, including Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
The report says some agents were overseas for conferences and training when they frequented bars and brothels, sometimes in the company of foreign police. In 2017, FBI agents in Bangkok visited bars and negotiated for sex while attending an event co-hosted by the Royal Thai Police. That same year, the two agencies held an anti-trafficking training in the city. It’s unclear whether the misconduct happened during that event.
In 2018, agents in Manila accepted prostitutes paid for by a local law enforcement agency, the report says.
“The practice undermines the department’s efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking,” then–Attorney General Eric Holder wrote in a memo banning government employees from soliciting prostitution, even where it’s legal or tolerated.
The report details multiple violations involving supervisors and other agents. In one case, two employees engaged in sex acts with prostitutes while sharing a hotel room. In another, agents were given keys or numbers corresponding to hotel rooms during a night out at a karaoke bar.
The five agents involved resigned, retired, or were fired. The FBI, which prohibits employees from paying for sex, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The document offers the most complete look yet at a scandal kept mostly quiet for years. Government lawyers under both Trump and Biden resisted releasing the report, citing employee privacy. A federal judge ordered it disclosed.
This isn’t the first time U.S. law enforcement has faced similar allegations. In 2015, the Justice Department found that DEA agents in Colombia held sex parties funded by drug cartels. That led to a congressional investigation and the resignation of the Obama administration’s top drug official.
