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INS official takes stand in espionage case against him

May 24, 2000
Web posted at: 2:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT)

From Correspondent Susan Candiotti

MIAMI (CNN) -- A 34-year veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service told a court Tuesday he did not cooperate with FBI agents who questioned him about classified information he allegedly passed on to a friend because he did not believe his friend was a spy.

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Mariano Faget, an INS supervisor, is charged with violating the Federal Espionage Act by giving his friend and business associate, Pedro Font, classified information concerning the supposed defection of an employee of the Cuban Interests Section.

He is also charged with failing to accurately report meetings with Cuban diplomat Luis Molina, who the FBI says is a spy.

FBI agents believe Font, who has not been charged in the case and has since returned to Cuba, is an intelligence agent for Havana. They also suspect Jose Imperatori, a former Cuban diplomat with ties to Font, was a Cuban spy.

Federal agents said they came upon the Faget link when they were conducting an extensive surveillance operation on Imperatori. They set up a sting operation and deliberately gave the INS supervisor false information about a defection.

Agents said Faget called Font with the information 12 minutes later.

Faget said he did it because he worried that his friend, who regularly met with Cuban officials, would inadvertently get into trouble if one of those officials was going to defect.

"That information was for him, in case he was invited to take a plane ride somewhere and there could be a problem. I was concerned Mr. Font could be set up or harmed in a certain way," Faget told the jury.

When he was brought in for questioning by the FBI about the matter, Faget said agents grilled him for six hours and tried to get him to cooperate with them. He said they offered to be lenient with him if he would cooperate, but when he
he wouldn't, Faget said agents told him his pension could be in danger and he would face public disgrace.

"They had this fixation I wasn't truthful with them," Faget told the jury.

Faget has consistently admitted he met a few times with Imperatori and Cuban diplomat Luis Molina, who the FBI also claims is a spy.

Faget said his meetings with the Cuban officials centered on "doing business in the future in Cuba and getting a sense of what doing business in Cuba would be like."

Faget and Font are partners in a project known as America Cuba, Inc. which aims to conduct affairs in Cuba after President Fidel Castro is gone. Asked by his lawyer, Edward O'Donnell, if he had ever done anything in his 34 years of service to compromise any of the INS files that had come into his office, Faget said, "Absolutely not."

Closing arguments in the case are likely Thursday. Faget could get 10 years in prison if convicted.

Cuban-American espionage trial of veteran INS official begins
May 18, 2000
INS official accused of espionage set to go on trial
May 16, 2000
INS official pleads not guilty in Cuba spy case
March 6, 2000

U.S. State Department
U.S. Department of Justice
Cubaweb
Cuban American National Foundation
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

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