HOPE Speaker Rombom Charged with Witness Tampering

An anonymous reader writes "Steven Rombom -- a.k.a. "Steven Rambam" -- the licensed private investigator who was arrested Saturday by FBI agents minutes before his talk on privacy at the Hope Number Six hacker convention in New York -- is being charged with witness tampering and obstruction of justice in a money laundering case the government is pursuing against Albert Santoro, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney, according to Washingtonpost.com's Security Fix blog. The government alleges that Santoro hired Rombom to locate a government confidential informant whom Santoro accuses of entrapment, and that Rombom visited the informant's in-laws under the guise of an FBI agent and tried to convince them tha their son-in-law was a danger to their daughter and grandkids."

Comments

Re:Oops

[Spinn12]

As stated in a comment on the above reply, don't let the fact that the details are out be your concrete evidence. It's the Government, and as such, you can expect people to be framed at any given chance if they're standing in the way of what is "best".

Re:Oops

[Spinn12]

Am I the only one who notices the similarities of government adgenda and Scientology? "What are YOUR sins, Rambam?"

lost in translation

[digitaldc]

"The government alleges that Santoro hired Rombom to locate a government confidential informant whom Santoro accuses of entrapment, and that Rombom visited the informant's in-laws under the guise of an FBI agent and tried to convince them tha their son-in-law was a danger to their daughter and grandkids."

It's an enigma wrapped up in a paradox made into a riddle.
If anyone can figure out exactly what he is being charged with, please call his lawyers immediately.

Re:So we don't have to hate the FBI for this?

[ethereal]

[quote]Openly approaching someone at a conference, where it can take quite some time to find someone and there are all those people around, would be completely irresponsible behavior.[/quote]
I don't understand the point you're making, since this is of course exactly what they did.

I think the timing is still not very realistic. If it's worthwhile to apprehend him quickly, grab him at home in the morning, or something like that. Particularly for something communication-related and time sensitive like witness tampering, wouldn't you want to grab a person sooner rather than later, in order to prohibit any further illegal communications.

I don't buy the "snag 'em in public" theory either - I'd be a lot more confident in my ability to disappear in a crowded location, rather than early in the morning at home or something like that.

Either the timing of the arrest really was related to what he was about to discuss (i.e. perhaps one of his slides related to finding the very witness in question?), or the timing was done in order to produce a show of government force in front of a group of citizens that the FBI distrusts. The first reason would be legitimate in my book, but the second is not.