FORMER SLED AGENT PLEADS GUILTY TO EXTORTION

        Columbia, South Carolina---- Acting United States Attorney Kevin F. McDonald stated that former SLED Agent William Renard “Ray” Gourdine, age 44, of Columbia, pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit extortion. United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie accepted his plea and will sentence Gourdine at a later date.
        Gourdine was a Special Agent with SLED from approximately June 2005 until January 2008.   He became the focus of a joint investigation by the FBI and SLED last September after agents learned that Gourdine had received cash payments to provide protection for an illegal video poker business.   A sting was set up by investigators to determine if Gourdine would accept illegal payments in exchange for revealing information from ongoing SLED cases concerning video poker.  On two separate occasions a cooperating witness met with Gourdine and paid him cash, with instructions that Gourdine report back on the status of video poker cases.   Gourdine accepted the cash, and made attempts to learn details of the investigations.  Investigators were able to capture incriminating information from the monitored meetings and in recorded phone calls to Gourdine, who received approximately $3,200.00 in the illegal payments.
The maximum penalty Gourdine faces is twenty years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.00. 
        The case was investigated by the FBI and SLED. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Deborah B. Barbier and Mark C. Moore of the Columbia office prosecuted the case.