ATLANTA -- A former federal prosecutor was indicted Tuesday on charges he attempted to sell sensitive information from an international drug and illegal banking investigation to subjects of the probe.
Frank Robin, 30, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston, was indicted on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice by a federal grand jury in Atlanta.
The grand jury alleged that Robin sought $200,000 to disclose the confidential information.
'He (Robin) will submit himself to a federal court in Atlanta on an arraignment date not yet set,' said Robin's attorney, Mike Hinton. 'We will enter a sincere, flat and genuine plea of not guilty.'
Robin, who was fired from his post last Oct. 15, had been assigned to the probe, code-named Operation Lone Star and based in Atlanta and Houston.
The investigation centers on the laundering of illegal profits from narcotics or oil reselling schemes through foreign banks, primarily in the Grand Cayman and Bahama Islands.
The investigation began almost two years ago during an investigation of a Houston-based oil firm, but since has blossomed into a massive narcotics and money laundering probe investigating dozens of suspects in several states including Texas, Florida and Georgia.
Federal authorities reportedly have a tape recording on which a man - purported to be Robin, but who called himself 'Charlie India' (which the government says means Confidential Informant) -- offers to sell information for $200,000.
Several people identified Robin as the man on the tape, but Robin has denied it was he, reports said. Hinton has refused comment on the tape.
U.S. Attorney General William French Smith reportedly played the tape for President Reagan during a Sept. 30 meeting of the Cabinet Council on Legal Policy, shortly before he announced the formation of12 drug task forces centered along the Gulf Coast.
If convicted, Robin would face up to 15 years in jail and a $20,000 fine for bribery and five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for obstruction of justice.
Federal investigators have said the probe was slowed because of Robin's alleged actions, but also because of a reported assassination plot against another prosecutor in the case and because of the murder of a witness in Florida.
Sibley Riggs, 40, a Fort Lauderdale yacht broker, was found in the trunk of her car parked at a Fort Lauderdale airport in December 1981. She had been beaten and apparently held under water until she drowned, Florida officials said.
Broward County sheriff's detective John McMahon last year said Miss Riggs had sold luxury yachts to some Florida-based suspects of investigation.
At the time of her death, Miss Riggs was scheduled to testify before grand juries in Houston and Atlanta, McMahon said.
Robin worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston on temporary assignment from the the U.S. Justice Department. He now works for an oil and gas firm in the Houston area, Hinton said.
