An analyst and writer, who has appeared on Fox News as an unpaid guest analyst since 2004, has been arrested in part for fraudulently claiming that he worked for the CIA.
On Thursday, Reuters wire service reported that Wayne Simmons, 62, of Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested on a series of charges not the least of which was defrauding a man out of $125,000 in a bogus real estate deal.
But authorities also charge that Simmons defrauded employers and clients by claiming that he worked for the CIA. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Virginia’s Eastern District said that Simmons falsely claimed to have been an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1973 to 2000.
The government charged Simmons with major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.
The indictment also charged that Simmons made such claims on National Security forms that his previous arrests and convictions were incurred when he was working for the CIA. Simmons filled out the forms in 2004 when he was part of a Pentagon program for military and intelligence analysts.
Along with appearing as an unpaid guest on Fox, Simmons had written several articles for Human Events magazine and co-authored a spy-thriller novel titled “The Natanz Directive.”
Simmons’s Amazon.com bio says that he “spent twenty-seven years as part of an Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Group for the CIA.” The bio continues, saying, “He worked throughout Central and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Central Asia combating terrorism, narco-terrorism and narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling, counterfeiting, cyber-terrorists, and industrial and economic espionage.”
The CIA reported that it is working closely with the U.S. Department of Justice on the arrest.
According to the the Justice Dept., if convicted, Simmons could face 20 years for wire fraud, 10 years for major fraud against the U.S, and 5 years for false statements.
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