In not quite two years as Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in St. Louis, John V. Gillies made headlines with successful investigations of corruption in politics, among other areas that also include corporate crime and child pornography. In fact, FBI St. Louis led all 56 FBI field offices in arresting 106 child predators so far this year and last year combined.
An expert in investigating corruption, Gillies also struck a new, bold figure in heaping scorn on those who have committed crimes while in elected office – and calling for the public to come forth with new evidence of political crime and corruption.
Now Gillies is off to serve in the same post in Miami, which is a bigger office. “The title is the same, the pay is the same, I just get more responsibilities,” Gillies said with a laugh.
His successor in St. Louis will be the same as his predecessor – Roland J. Corvington, who will return to duty in St. Louis on Oct. 13 after a sojourn at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The American will speak to Corvington for next week’s paper.
First, however, we wanted to sit with Gillies and pick the brain of the man who brought public corruption so forcefully to the forefront of public consciousness in St. Louis. (His remarks have been edited slightly for concision.)
The American: Many of us are afraid your leaving means we will see less investigation into public corruption.
Gillies: I’ve got the dedicated squad investigating public corruption. Certainly what we’ve got ongoing, none of that will come to an end. The agents and their supervisor are dedicated to continuing on the progress that we’ve made in uncovering the corruption that’s ongoing here in the Eastern District of Missouri.
To those out there who think business as usual is going to continue when I leave, I am here to tell them that it’s not. That way of doing business is over. If they want to dabble in it, we’re going to catch them in it.
I’m very appreciative of the public that has come forward with information. I think from our actions they are seeing that we are responding to their concerns out there. To the politicians feeling some self-imposed paranoia, I say to them, “If you’re not doing anything wrong, there shouldn’t be any paranoia. And if you are paranoid, I’m coming after you.”
The American: So, we have seen convictions for conspiracy to obstruct justice relating to campaign fraud, and bribery. But the other thing we hear about off the record but that we can’t substantiate is threats. In St. Louis politics, they say it’s bribes on the North Side – you caught one of those – and threats on the South Side. [Gillies takes a note at this point.] Have you guys gotten any promising leads on investigating the threat culture in St. Louis city politics?
Gillies: I’d like to hear how you would define the “threat” aspect of it.
The American: I can give you an example. We were told that an elected official called a committeeperson who is married to someone with a job in the same political jurisdiction as the elected official …
Gillies: I’m not going to comment on this.
The American: So you’re aware of what I was going to tell you?
Gillies: I’m not going to comment on that one way or the other.
The American: My problem as a journalist is we are told things off the record, and if they are the kind of people who would speak on the record, they wouldn’t be the kind of people who would cave under a threat.
Gillies: Correct.
The American: So are there ongoing investigations into the threat culture in St. Louis politics?
Gillies: All I can tell you is we have a number of investigations that continue in the public corruption arena.
The American: We have some people waiting for their federal sentencing, and we have some people who think their number may be coming up. We are aware, and you are probably aware, that there are conversations being had about “getting on the same page, let’s not be a hero, we’re all a team, you’re not going to go away for that long, and if you cut a deal, you’re not going to go away for that much less long, and these fines are not that much money, and when you get out of prison you are going to have friends.”
Gillies: These individuals are standing up and saying that they are doing the right thing. They are doing partially the right thing, in that they are admitting their own wrongdoing, but they know that others are involved in wrongdoing. They have witnessed it, they have been a part of it.
And if you are going to quote God and religion and everything else, I think part of doing the right thing would be doing the entire right thing. And the entire right thing would be to share with law enforcement all the corruption that is out there.
However, I will tell you that, with or without people’s cooperation, we will continue to pursue these matters, so those who think that by some people pleading guilty and not cooperating, that if they don’t cooperate they will be taken care of – that’s not going to stop us. We’re going to continue to pursue, if the public continues to come forward, and I’m hoping to convince the public that we do take these charges seriously, that we have a responsibility.
And through our milestones in weeding out the corruption here, it makes our job tougher. People go more underground, but that’s all right. The good thing is, they don’t know who is or who isn’t cooperating with us. When they see the FBI, they see me. They don’t know we are a very diverse group. We look like anybody out there. So that’s good.
The people who are paranoid are a little more paranoid today. And I’m okay with that.
The American: Speaking of paranoid, I’m reporting on a city with a Democratic mayor, Democratic state auditor, Democratic attorney general, Democratic governor, and now a Democratic president, and this firebrand director of the FBI is going off to Miami. And so people say, “That just goes to show they got the call, they pulled this guy off the job.”
Gillies: That’s bull. This is a great opportunity for me to go to Miami. I go from the 41st sized office to the 5th largest office. And offices 1, 2 and 3 are led by assistant directors, with 4 being Chicago and 5 being Miami. So that puts me in the elite leadership of the FBI in running a huge field office. I could already retire. So I’m looking for my next challenge. This is my next challenge.
One of the negative things about leaving is I don’t get to continue to watch these cases come to fruition that I know are out there. But like I said, I got a dedicated team led by a dedicated supervisor. Obviously, I have a boatload of experience in corruption I’ve mentored and passed that on. If you look for corruption, you will find it.
And there are more people who know more about more things. When I speak to groups, I ask people to come forward with that information. There are cops who know about dirty cops. While they are in the minority, if I’m an FBI agent and I’ve got dirty FBI agents, I’m going to tell you I want them out. They make my job more difficult, just like all the dirty cops make all the honest cops’ jobs much more difficult.
I do take anonymous complaints. However, with anonymity we have to do a few more checks to see whether that stuff is legitimate or not. Though we can keep you anonymous, if you come forward and give us your name and give us some of that background stuff, it certainly goes a long way toward credibility.
People feel comfortable coming to you; we need them to feel comfortable coming to us.
Contact the FBI in St. Louis at (314) 589-2500 or stlouis@ic.fbi.gov.
