US watchdog probe shows FBI agents stationed in South-east Asia used prostitutes

WASHINGTON - Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents stationed overseas had sex with prostitutes in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, even as some bureau employees attended training meant to combat human trafficking, a practice that often exploits vulnerable women, according to an investigation by the US Justice Department’s watchdog.

The document, made public on March 27 in response to a lawsuit by The New York Times, covers activity from 2009 to 2018 and describes FBI employees paying for or accepting sex while socialising with one another and with the police in several countries, portraying a lascivious culture where women were freely used for sex.

The previously unreleased information gives the fullest picture to date of damning conduct by FBI agents abroad, resolving some of the unanswered questions from a scandal that began under the first Trump administration and was largely kept quiet for years as government lawyers argued against disclosing details.

They come as the new FBI director, Mr Kash Patel, has promised to remake the bureau.

Prostitution is prevalent in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand but illegal in all three countries. The FBI, which has made combating sex trafficking a priority, prohibits employees from paying for sex.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Some of the activity happened when the officials were in other countries for conferences or events. In 2017, FBI officials visiting Bangkok for an event went to bars twice, where they negotiated for sex in the company of the police, the report says.

That same year, the Royal Thai Police co-hosted a training course with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the Homeland Security Department, on combating human trafficking.

It is unclear whether the FBI employees solicited sex during the anti-trafficking training or during another event.

On the sidelines of another event in Manila in 2018, FBI employees accepted prostitutes paid for by a local law enforcement agency, the report says.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 that several FBI employees had been recalled from cities across Asia while the Inspector General investigated alleged contact with prostitutes and other accusations.

In 2021, the Inspector General’s Office posted a brief summary of its inquiry, noting that five employees had solicited sex while overseas and that one of them had also given a colleague “a package containing approximately 100 white pills to deliver to a foreign law enforcement officer”.

The report makes clear that several violations happened when multiple FBI employees were present. An outing to a karaoke bar turned seedy when the employees were given room keys or numbered papers corresponding to hotel rooms. At least one of the employees on that outing was a supervisor.

At one point, two employees engaged in sex acts with prostitutes while sharing a room, the report says.

After the Times sued for the internal report in 2023, the Justice Department under the Biden and Trump administrations fought to keep the information secret, arguing that publishing details could violate employees’ privacy.

In 2024, the Justice Department released a highly redacted version of the document. It released a more complete report on March 27 only after a federal judge in the Southern District of New York had ordered it to do so.

The five employees who solicited sex resigned, retired or were removed during the oversight agency’s investigation.

The FBI is not the first US law enforcement agency to come under scrutiny for the exploits of its staff while overseas.

In 2015, the Justice Department’s Inspector General disclosed that Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Colombia had participated in sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels over several years.

That report prompted a congressional investigation and was swiftly followed by the retirement of the Obama administration’s top drug official.

And in 2012, the Secret Service was roiled by a prostitution scandal involving a dozen agents, also in Colombia.

After the 2015 scandal, Attorney-General Eric Holder published a memorandum prohibiting employees from soliciting prostitution, even when legal or tolerated in a foreign country.

The practice, he said, “undermines the department’s efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking”. Several of the employees in Asia violated that order, the recent report notes.

The Justice Department Inspector General is tasked with investigating and auditing the department’s programs and documenting abuses by its personnel.

President Donald Trump has had a contentious relationship with such oversight agencies.

Days after taking office in January, he fired 12 inspectors general from other agencies, though the Justice Department’s Inspector General was spared. NYTIMES