Leandro Aragoncillo y Aparente (born September 22, 1958) is a former FBI intelligence analyst and a retired

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Gunnery Sergeant who was convicted of spying against the United States Government in 2007. A naturalized

Filipino-American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...

, he was charged with espionage and with leaking classified information to the regime of a former Filipino president. The FBI labeled Aragoncillo the first known case of espionage within the history of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

. For over thirty-one months, from 1999 to 2001, Aragoncillo was assigned under

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...

and then later under Vice President Dick Cheney. Hired to work for the FBI at the Army's Ft. Monmouth base in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

in July 2004, Aragoncillo began sending classified documents in January 2005, according to a federal complaint. On October 5, 2005, Aragoncillo was indicted and arrested in New Jersey for

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

. Federal agents accused him of stealing

classified information Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...

, including details about

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the House Deputy Speakers since 2022, and previously from 2016 to 2017. She previously ...

and then passing that information onto opposition leaders in the Philippines. According to reports compiled by Filipino intelligence professionals, there were indications of a link between Aragoncillo and the French intelligence service, Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure. Frequent visits by Aragoncillo to Manila allegedly were interspersed with clandestine meetings between identified, French operatives and several "illegals" (i.e. unregistered agents) around 2002 to 2004. Statutes used against Aragoncillo: *Count 1: & c -

Espionage Act of 1917 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...

*Count 2: -

McCarran Internal Security Act The Internal Security Act of 1950, (Public Law 81-831), also known as the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, the McCarran Act after its principal sponsor Sen. Pat McCarran (D-Nevada), or the Concentration Camp Law, is a United States fede ...

1950 *Count 3: & 2 -

Comprehensive Crime Control Act Comprehensive may refer to: *Comprehensive layout, the page layout of a proposed design as initially presented by the designer to a client. * Comprehensive school, a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement ...

1984 /

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The law pro ...

1986 / The

National Information Infrastructure Protection Act The National Information Infrastructure Protection Act (; ) was Title II of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, as an amendment to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The Act The Act was enacted in 1996 as an amendment to the Computer Fraud and Ab ...

1996 /

USA Patriot Act The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...

2001 / etc. Michael Ray Aquino, a former deputy director of the Philippines National Police who lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, was arrested also and was charged. He was accused of receiving documents. He pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of secret, U.S. government documents. He faced a jail sentence of between 70 and 87 months plus a fine of $250,000. On July 17, 2007, he was sentenced to six years and four months. Leandro Aragoncillo, on the other hand, was sentenced on July 18, 2007, in New Jersey by U.S. District Judge William H. Walls to ten years in prison. Under a proposed plea agreement, Aragoncillo had faced up to twenty years in prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aragoncillo, Leandro 1958 births American military personnel of Filipino descent Double agents Federal Bureau of Investigation agents convicted of espionage Filipino emigrants to the United States French spies Living people People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Post–Cold War spies United States Marines

See also

References