Reuters, 8 Dec 09: Corruption, whether in the form of crooked officials, financial fraudsters or even philandering sports stars, is tearing at the fabric of U.S. society and is the country’s No. 1 criminal threat, a senior FBI agent said on Tuesday.

Addressing businessmen in Florida, where financial fraud cases jumped by 42 percent in the last year, FBI Miami Division Special Agent in Charge John Gillies said failures in personal ethics and integrity sowed the initial poisonous seeds of corruption in a society. . . .

. . . . Gillies, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, called corruption in all its multiple forms, whether in law enforcement or in the judicial system, or involving tax cheats and fraudsters, “our number one criminal threat” in the United States. “It really gets at the soul and fabric of the United States when people are out there corrupting … it all starts with simple ethics violations,” Gillies said.

He said public corruption investigations by the FBI were “huge” and had increased by more than 20 percent in the last five years, while financial scams — from securities and hedge fund frauds to Ponzi schemes — had jumped by more than 25 percent nationwide in the last year alone. These cases involved hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. . . .

. . . . For those frustrated by diminished earnings eroded by the crisis the FBI veteran offered the following caveat against temptation: “The worst day at work is still better than the best day in jail.”