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Navy engineer with secret access accused of concealing double life as Iranian citizen

Feb 26, 2016 9:41 am By Robert Spencer

“Baker’s alleged fraud appears to span his entire 30-year career as a Navy civilian and has raised questions about whether authorities missed red flags that should have disqualified him from access to secrets.” No doubt about that whatsoever. More Iranian chicanery inside the United States, with which they are at war:

navy-spy

“Navy engineer with secret access accused of concealing double life as Iranian citizen,” by David Larter, Navy Times, February 25, 2016 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A 30-year Navy engineer with access to government secrets has been indicted on charges of lying about his dual Iranian citizenship and creating false identities to conceal his ongoing ties and money he received from overseas.

U.S. federal prosecutors are accusing Naval Sea Systems Command employee James Robert Baker, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Iran, of lying about his holding an active Iranian passport and using four separate social security numbers to open bank accounts, move money and shield his income from taxes — including an unexplained overseas wire transfer of $133,902 in 2009.

Baker, who changed his name from Majid Karimi when he became a U.S. citizen in 1985, faces 14 counts on charges including lying on his SF-86 security clearance questionnaire, identification documents fraud and social security fraud, which could bring a maximum sentence of nearly 70 years in prison. However, experts say Baker, if convicted on all charges, would likely only spend about five years behind bars because of sentencing guidelines.

Baker’s attorney, Tom Walsh of Petrovich & Walsh P.L.C., did not return calls and emails seeking comment by Wednesday. A number D.C. number listed for Baker was disconnected. Baker, whose is believed to be in his 60s, is currently out on $75,000 bond and is awaiting an April jury trail, according to court documents.

Baker’s alleged fraud appears to span his entire 30-year career as a Navy civilian and has raised questions about whether authorities missed red flags that should have disqualified him from access to secrets.

“He shouldn’t have a security clearance, no questions about it,” said Bill Cowden, a former U.S. attorney who independently reviewed the indictment for Navy Times. “This is just another example of what’s causing a lot of people to question whose dropping the ball on security clearances. You have leaks of government information, you have people accessing personnel records and you have this. It just doesn’t give you a lot of confidence that the government is doing a good job of vetting people.”

A spokesman for NAVSEA, where Baker has worked as an electrical engineer since 2006, said “it would be inappropriate to comment given the ongoing case.”

U.S. Marshalls arrested Baker on or about Feb. 4, when the federal indictment was filed. Baker has been suspended from his NAVSEA job, pending the outcome of his case.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which filed the indictment, declined to comment on the charges.

In July, authorities searched Baker’s home in Springfield, Va., and discovered a Maryland driver’s license under the name Majid Karimi and seized the key to a safe-deposit box located at a bank in Vienna, a few minutes’ drive from his home. Not long after agents arrived at the bank, an incensed Baker walked in demanding the bank give him immediate access to his safe deposit box. The agents told Baker to have a seat while they executed the warrant.

When they opened the box they found three Iranian passports — two expired and one active, the last issued in 2012 — under the name Majid Karimi with Baker’s photograph on them.

Authorities also found four different social security cards dating back to July 6, 1979 — two under the name James Robert Baker and two under Majid Karimi with addresses in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Furthermore, Karimi had driver’s licenses and ID cards from Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Delaware and New Jersey.

Financial intrigue

In 2009, Baker mysteriously transferred a large sum of money acquired overseas and spread it across his various identities, prosecutors allege. Baker moved $133,902 from a bank account in New York to his BB&T account opened under his former name, Majid Karimi. The lump sum originated from a bank in Slovenia and was wired to his New York account through an intermediary servicer in the United Arab Emirates, Al Samaa LTD. Attempts to contact Al Samaa, which appears to be a financial institution, have been unsuccessful.

Baker then moved $40,000 from the BB&T account under his Karimi identity to a PNC account under his Baker identity.

He is also accused of — but not charged with — lying to NAVSEA about tax withholdings from his paycheck. Baker, the indictment alleges, opened a bank account with Navy Federal Credit Union and gave his sister in Tehran control over it as a way of avoiding tax reporting under his name.

In tax forms, Baker reported his sister’s U.S. address as his own, though U.S. officials have no record she has traveled to the U.S. and that the only person who used that account regularly was Baker.

‘Provable crimes’

Baker became a naturalized citizen in 1985 and legally changed his name from Karimi to Baker, according to the indictment. It was also the year he started working for the Naval Surface Warfare Center. In 2001, just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials informed Baker that he could not have a secret clearance and a foreign passport, adding that he would need to furnish proof he had given up his Iranian passport.

Six days later, he used his Iranian passport to fly to Iran. In October, the Navy learned about his trip and suspended his clearance. But Baker challenged the suspension, stating that he’d returned his passport to Iran, and his clearance was reinstated in 2002, according to the indictment.

The passport he claimed was given up was later discovered in his Vienna safe-deposit box.

The alleged lies about his passport and the elaborate fraud to conceal his multiple identities and the complicated and opaque transfer of more than $100,000 from overseas has raised concerns ranging from a complicated tax evasion scheme to espionage, and it remains unclear whether investigators intend to file more charges against Baker.If prosecutors had an espionage case, they would likely keep records sealed and the indictment hush-hush, experts say.

“It’s probably frustrating for the prosecutor,” said Cowden, the former prosecutor who’s now a defense attorney with the Federal Practice Group in Washington, D.C. “They probably think there’s something more going on here, he’s got money coming in from overseas and probably don’t know what the source of it is and haven’t been able to get as far into it as they’d like. Or they’ve run it to ground and they think he’s a social security and tax fraud.”…

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Filed Under: Iran, Useful idiots Tagged With: James Robert Baker, Majid Karimi


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Comments

  1. John Galt III says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 10:34 am

    He was thoroughly vetted

    • Sandra Lee Smith says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 5:16 pm

      I was better “vetted” (I’m a 10th generation natural born citizen of this nation), to serve in our Navy as a NURSE than that!

  2. John Galt III says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 10:37 am

    He is out on bond of only $75,000 ?????

    No flight risk there at all – , No, no , no, no

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 7:12 am

      He is a flight risk all right, like maybe his plane will crash into a tower-type flight risk!

      This guy should be tried as a spy; This is treason, pure and simple. Even if they don’t have the nasty details, THEY SHOULD ASSUME there is something going on here and HOLD HIM IN PRISON.

      Of course, if you don’t have a country and borders, I guess you can’t have spying and treason anymore. We’ll have to have the islamophobia word-maker crowd come up with some NEW WORDS FOR THIS crime. Maybe he’ll get off by his lawyer claiming he’s a victim of spy-a-phobia and he’ll get a promotion, with back pay and an apology from Obama at the whitehouse.

  3. underbed cat says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 12:05 pm

    Diversity hiring or mole incorporated, free access secure computers, free social security numbers, free cell phones, free passports and dinner at the WH to celebrate the wickedly cool clever, and 30 years of service.

  4. Angemon says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    “He shouldn’t have a security clearance, no questions about it,” said Bill Cowden, a former U.S. attorney who independently reviewed the indictment for Navy Times. “This is just another example of what’s causing a lot of people to question whose dropping the ball on security clearances. You have leaks of government information, you have people accessing personnel records and you have this. It just doesn’t give you a lot of confidence that the government is doing a good job of vetting people.”

    Ding-ding-ding-ding-sing! We have a winner!

    • Jerry says

      Feb 26, 2016 at 5:27 pm

      Neither should HBO

    • Sandra Lee Smith says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 5:17 pm

      Yep, and America loses again!

  5. mortimer says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    A five-year sentence is not enough time for 30 years of crime.

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 7:22 am

      Exactly, an entire career of treason and who knows what.

      And nobody in that building ever saw anything odd?; Nobody had any information that they should have shared?; No audits are ever done to check on security issues like this?

      Makes one wonder what actually happened that he finally got caught after so long?

      Maybe an increase in activity like he was ready to strike with his collaborators, which are probably many! And are THEY being checked out too?

      I mean, if the navy can’t do its job, I’ll gladly go do it for them, but see I gotta do this blog.

      Ridiculous it is!

      • Oppressaphobe says

        Feb 27, 2016 at 7:28 am

        And they better do some house cleaning ASAP because where there is one of these *f*r’s, there are many more that got away under the same tired, discombobulated, compromised security.

        but they won’t…

        • Sandra Lee Smith says

          Feb 27, 2016 at 5:20 pm

          More like cocroaches: for every 1 you spot, there are hundreds you don’t see!

  6. Polk1970 says

    Feb 26, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    He was “robustly
    vetted.
    Baker?
    As in Al-Bakr

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 7:55 am

      That would make sense–the kind of sense that doesn’t seem to reside in Washington though.

  7. SSI01 says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 6:07 am

    The NCIS operated what was called DONCAF (Department Of the Navy Central Adjudication Facility), which at that time adjudicated all security clearances within the Department of the Navy – which NAVSEA certainly falls within – during this time. Suggest any review start with appropriate NCIS personnel who worked there at that time about how this incredible slipup occurred. It is amazing the investigators who looked into his alleged return of his passport to Iran fell for the BS, brass and bull he undoubtedly unleashed on them when they checked into his trip there. Why didn’t he go to his unit security manager, to the US state department, or to the NCIS to find out how to return his passport to the Iranian govt? Why couldn’t he have just destroyed it, and gotten an affidavit from someone witnessing the destruction? He couldn’t have just registered-mailed it to them? This is a perfect example of someone from a protected class, with a big mouth, getting a pass because he pitched a bitch loud and long enough. We are sooooo worried about offending some people and apparently he’s one. He should hang. BTW for most of the time this BS occurred NCISHQ was just off the picture accompanying this article, to the right

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 7:45 am

      “He should hang”

      What is the state of our laws for such behavior? I sense they are not even being investigated or prosecuted, maybe since the end of WWll, who knows? McCarthy’s been dead a long time-replaced by Cair.

      I’m afraid that as our borders have been weaker, minorities and victims louder, congress weaker, pen and phone politics stronger, that we are not adequately defending our country from infiltration and treason.

      The result might be that by the time a fighting war breaks out, we are so compromised from within that we will be unable to defend our own nation. This is what a lack of nationalism will do–history is replete with such examples.

      • Sandra Lee Smith says

        Feb 27, 2016 at 5:23 pm

        Right on the mark!

  8. Oppressaphobe says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 7:53 am

    Yeah, good old Jim Baker! He’s my red-neck buddy al right. A person up to no good would create such a name because the deceit factor is so evident.

    The audacity of the middle easterners. Their culture promotes such audacity. That’s what Obama meant when he wrote “The Audacity of Hope.”

    Will the Americans ever get a chance to have a word with the lad? That’s the problem with authority is too big and out of reach.

  9. Oppressaphobe says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 8:04 am

    Well thank God we won’t have to shell out 300,000K every year for Al Baker’s retirement.

    Phew! I was afraid for a second that the taxpayers would be working for treasonous spies. Phew!

    I’m so glad our government has the taxpayers’ backs! Of course we have to pay for a little prison time, naturally.( And nobody in the defense department will be accountable because it’s not their fault that they don’t do their job–it’s islamophobia)

    Phew! That was a close one!!

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 8:18 am

      “it’s islamophobia”

      Crazy as it sounds, somehow they’ll blame this investigation on islamophobia, that very useful little idiot word.

      We need Edyie Gorme (RIP) to sing:

      Blame it on Is Lam A Phobia, with its magic spell

      Blame it on Is Lam A Phobia, that he does so well

  10. SSI01 says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 8:08 am

    Oppressaphobe, you’d be astounded to learn how much of this kind of stuff happens because of PC, petty jealousies, attempts to make others in an organization look bad, misfeasance, malfeasance – very little of it happens out of genuine desire to cause damage to this country. Most of it happens to save one’s position in the organization, to gain a promotion, not rock a boat, not wanting to open what promises to be a long, complex, multi-organization investigation that will expose MAJOR weaknesses in a command’s or cabinet organization’s way of doing things, ineptitude by high-ranking DOD officials and military or naval officers, and having to confront the distinct possibility of major damage to the United States through one organization’s slipshod way of doing things, or wanting to use “best business practices” rather than following strict preexisting and carefully delineated protocols. “Doing it right” is all laid out right there in black and white – but then everything I’ve described above interferes and you wind up with BS like this. I’ll tell you how to have this never happen again – punish the perp, but you also use the Russian method of punishment and demote the head of NAVSEA to Seaman Recruit – publicly. This should have been caught by him. You also need to look hard at the person within NCIS who was running DONCAF at the time, whoever they were.

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 8:40 am

      “but you also use the Russian method of punishment and demote the head of NAVSEA to Seaman Recruit-publicly”

      So if somebody can name this guy or gal, we can publicly demote him right here right now.

      That’s what I mean when I say can we “have a word with this lad?” When does the taxpaying public ever get a say, with a government too big to fail!

      The internet has created a new world, until they shut it down. We have yet to fully comprehend the power of public opinion, and the evil of shutting down public opinion.

      Crackpot comments aren’t enough–we want people squirming in seats and afraid to do such things again. We’ve lost a sense of public shame and we have to get it back.

      • Oppressaphobe says

        Feb 27, 2016 at 8:46 am

        We don’t want to denounce our navy, for the sake of our security but we need to denounce those that undermine our security–just to be clear.

        Can you imagine how demoralized our armed forces are right now? The good need our moral support.

        • SSI01 says

          Feb 27, 2016 at 10:56 am

          Those within the Navy Department, who hide behind its propriety and anonymity and yet who engage in these practices or encourage them, or know of them and do nothing to stop or report them, should indeed be denounced. They are directly and indirectly jeopardizing lives right now. They are responsible for allowing this sort of stuff to continue, probably after others have voiced objections or pointed out discrepancies or causes for concern but have been snidely dealt with, verbally shoved out of the way at conferences or staff meetings. I thought we were at war with terror, and those who sponsor or encourage it. Iran certainly falls into that category. Anyone with the remotest ties to Iran should fall under the most intense scrutiny on a continuous basis. Yet, that doesn’t seem to have been done here. I’m definitely denouncing that, and I don’t care who gets some of that tar splashed on them from my brush.

    • Sandra Lee Smith says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 5:26 pm

      Alas, right you are! Pathetic as it is, it’s the state we’re in.

  11. Gerard says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 8:31 am

    the punishment should be to strip this guy of the U.S. Citizenship and collect exactly the same amount as he concealed from the U.S. Government. Being a naturalized U.S. Citizen myself I can imagine how big of a pain it would be to loose it. Before all that sentence him to 5 years in prison and ship him off to Iran afterwards.

    • Oppressaphobe says

      Feb 27, 2016 at 11:00 am

      That sounds exactly right, if it can be done. If he like Iran so much, it would be the compassionate thing to do.

  12. Shane says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 10:36 am

    this happened long before Obama. We have got to stop all immigration from Muslim countries to cut down on the number of jihadis and spies that we let into our country every year. Besides that, once Muslims start going to one of the many mosques that preach jihad, even a peaceful Muslim immigrant can become a jihadi!

  13. Daniel Triplett says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 11:30 am

    Huma Abadeen has full access to all of America’s SAP Secrets. So does her Iranian family and spy network now.

    Ms. Clinton deserves nothing less than public execution. Electric chair would be most suitable.

  14. Sandra Lee Smith says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 5:14 pm

    More than I want to contemplate, but it began long before O was in office! CAIR and other MB cover groups have been insinuating their agents into law enforcement and Federal agencies for at least a couple of decades, unchecked! The FBI, DHS and others areinfested with them even at high levels.

  15. Havoc says

    Feb 27, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    Probably many. Our national policy should be:
    .
    No Muslims. No Mosques.

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