FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON TERM

FBI Special Agent Pled Guilty to One Count of Falsifying Records in a Federal Investigation

COLUMBIA, SC - Clyde William Merryman, a retired Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who had been assigned to the FBI’s Myrtle Beach, South Carolina resident agency, was sentenced Tuesday in United States District Court for the District of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, to five months in federal prison with five months of home detention with electronic monitoring after release. Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. handed down Merryman’s sentence. Merryman entered a guilty plea in October 2006 to one count alleging that he knowingly falsified a prosecutive memorandum which described the Han Spa investigation in which he was involved as case agent.

Merryman also received a $5,000. fine, $100. special assessment and three years of supervised release.

“Criminal conduct by a federal law enforcement officer can never be tolerated. When he falsified a prosecution report, Clyde William Merryman broke the law. He also violated his solemn oath to uphold the law,” said U.S. Attorney Shappert. Praising the FBI and the Assistant U.S. Attorney who handled the prosecution, Shappert said, “We are grateful for the courageous and diligent efforts of the FBI and federal prosecutors who investigated this matter and brought the truth to light.”

Merryman entered a guilty plea to one count of a six-count federal bill of indictment in October 2006. That count charged that on March 31, 2003, Merryman knowingly falsified a prosecutive memorandum which described the Han Spa investigation in which he was involved as case agent.

According to official court documents, including the bill of indictment, and evidence developed at the motions hearings and today’s sentencing hearing, the government’s case against Clyde William Merryman included the following facts:
From December 17, 1970 through March 31, 2003, Clyde William Merryman was a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In January 1999, Merryman transferred to the FBI’s Myrtle Beach, South Carolina resident agency, an office which reports to the FBI’s Columbia, South Carolina, Division. On March 31, 2003, Clyde William Merryman retired from the FBI.

As employees of the United States Department of Justice, FBI Special Agents have a duty to follow Justice Department, as well as FBI, policies, regulations, and rules. Justice Department regulations require that any employee who has a business or personal interest in an investigation assigned to them, recuse him- or herself from that investigation. Justice Department employees are also required to disclose to their supervisor any business or personal relationship related to an investigation in which they are involved. Additionally, an Agent is never permitted to engage in an intimate and/or sexual or unduly familiar social relationship with a confidential witness. Clyde William Merryman was familiar with his duties under the Justice Department and FBI regulations regarding security clearances, recusals, and appropriate witness/informant relations because he received regular ethics and security training and especially because he had been disciplined previously by the FBI for an inappropriate sexual relationship with a confidential witness.

In or around January 2002, Merryman opened an FBI investigation related to Asian owned spas in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, which spas were allegedly using Korean women who were illegally in the United States to engage in acts of prostitution. This investigation became known as the Han Spa investigation.

Evidence obtained in the course of the Han Spa investigation established that the Han organization in Myrtle Beach was managed by Kang and Sarah, whose duties included finding women to work in the spas (mostly through Korean spas in New York City), collecting money from spa customers, determining if any spa customers were law enforcement officers or informants, keeping the spas stocked with food items and items necessary to the prostitution activities, paying the spa prostitutes and housekeeping help, paying rent on spa facilities, keeping the spas’ books and financial records, depositing money into bank accounts and safety deposit boxes, and maintaining cash and other necessary spa items at the Kang residence.

Beginning no later than September 2002 and continuing until after his retirement from the FBI on March 31, 2003, Merryman engaged in an improper intimate relationship with a subject of the Han Spa investigation, confidential witness Kang, in violation of FBI rules, and concealed that relationship from the FBI in order to preserve his position with the FBI and to continue as an agent in the case in which Kang was a subject and confidential witness. Merryman’s concealment of his improper relationship with Kang was material to the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office because, among other reasons, it created a significant risk and appearance that Merryman would not maintain the required impartiality as the case agent for the Han Spa investigation, that Merryman would not maintain the required impartiality as the agent responsible for monitoring Kang’s activities as a confidential witness, and, that Merryman would not disclose to the U.S. Attorney’s Office information material to its decisions on who should be prosecuted for violations of the criminal laws of the United States.

On or about March 31, 2003, the final date of Merryman’s FBI employment, he submitted an FBI report to the U.S. Attorney’s Office entitled “Prosecutive Report of Investigation” in the Han Spa investigation. In this report, Merryman notes Kang’s role as both an “inside manager” and confidential witness, but willfully did not reveal, and in fact concealed, his intimate relationship with Kang.

Even after his retirement from the FBI, Merryman attempted to use his status as a former FBI agent and his position at the time as Surfside Beach’s Director of Public Safety, to shield Kang from criminal prosecution and circumvent the immigration laws of the United States.

United States Attorney Shappert commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their professionalism in the 12-month investigation which preceded the filing of the charges in April 2006. The case was handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville, North Carolina. The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina recused itself from participating in the prosecution. Joining U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert for the Western District of North Carolina in making today’s announcement is Brian D. Lamkin, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Operations in South Carolina.

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