Former Homeland Security agent gets 10 years for bribery

A Riverside County man who worked as a federal agent was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to more than 10 years behind bars for using his access to closely controlled government databases in exchange for cash.

Felix Cisneros Jr., 48, of Murrieta, was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay a fine of $30,000. Klausner also entered a forfeiture order of $133,000 against Cisneros, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Cisneros was convicted in May of 30 federal counts of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering and tax evasion.

Evidence presented at his five-day trial in downtown Los Angeles showed that over an 18-month period that started in September 2015, Cisneros accepted cash, checks, private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, meals and other items from Armenian organized crime figures in exchange for information and protection.

He accepted the cash and other bribes while working as a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In exchange for the bribes, Cisneros altered information within a DHS database, obtained an official DHS letter to allow the parole of an organized crime figure’s brother-in-law in the United States from Mexico, and collected information on a criminal associate and provided information about a law enforcement investigation.

Cisneros also underreported his income on his federal income tax returns by at least $20,000 for the year 2015 and at least $73,404 for the year 2016, the Los Angeles federal jury found.

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