Corruption, whether in the form of crooked officials, financial fraudsters or even philandering sports stars, is tearing at the fabric of U.S. society and is the country's No. 1 criminal threat, a senior FBI agent said on Tuesday. Addressing businessmen in Florida, where financial fraud cases jumped by 42 percent in the last year, FBI Miami Division Special Agent in Charge John Gillies said failures in personal ethics and integrity sowed the initial poisonous seeds of corruption in a society. Gillies said transgressions by high-profile public servants and even perceived social role models, like top golfer Tiger Woods, currently embroiled in allegations that he had extramarital affairs, sent the signal to young Americans that cheating and stealing were acceptable. "Where do our children learn this? They see us, their elected officials, their sports stars, they see how they act and they figure, 'well it's OK,'" he said, citing the case of Woods, whose early morning car accident in Florida last month triggered a storm of media questioning of his clean-living reputation. "Money can't buy everything," Gillies said in a speech to the West Boca Chamber of Commerce in Boca Raton, Florida. The special agent, who manages high-profile cases in Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America, in no way suggested Woods had committed any criminal offenses. Florida police issued Woods a ticket for careless driving last week and said no criminal charges would be filed. He quickly paid the $164 fine, his lawyer said. Police also said no allegations of domestic violence were leveled. Gillies, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, called corruption in all its multiple forms, whether in law enforcement or in the judicial system, or involving tax cheats and fraudsters, "our number one criminal threat" in the United States. "It really gets at the soul and fabric of the United States when people are out there corrupting ... it all starts with simple ethics violations," Gillies said.
