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 Robert Levinson, a private detective and former FBI agent, was
investigating allegations of corruption by well-connected people in
Iran, lawyer David McGee told Reuters.
McGee, who has been looking into Levinson's disappearance for six
years, said the missing American's inquiry involved trying to trace
money laundered through Iranian exiles living in Toronto. He did not
provide further details of the investigation.
Reuters could not immediately verify McGee's assertions. It was not
clear whether Levinson was working for the CIA or a private client
at the time of his disappearance.
The Associated Press and The Washington Post reported on Thursday
that Levinson was not a private citizen on a business trip to Iran
in 2007 as the U.S. government often said but was in fact working
for a rogue CIA operation when he disappeared.
Current and former U.S. officials acknowledged to Reuters on Friday
that Levinson had a relationship with the CIA as a source at the
time he visited Kish Island, a resort in the Gulf, and disappeared.
His arrangement with the CIA's intelligence division, which is not
authorized to handle informants, went against the agency's protocol,
U.S. officials said.
McGee acknowledged details of Levinson's visit to Iran after the
publication of the Associated Press and Washington Post articles.
Iran has said it does not know where Levinson is. A video released
in 2011 showing him pleading for help. He did not say who was
holding him or where.
McGee said that disclosing further details of what Levinson was
doing in Iran when he went missing could increase the risk for him,
assuming he is still alive.
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"There are benefits and there are risks," he said. "The negative is
additional risk to Bob. The positive is that the family can step up
pressure on the United States government" to redouble efforts to
find Levinson, McGee said.
Levinson's family believe that the U.S. government has "not acted to
its full capacities" in trying to free him, McGee said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Levinson "was not a U.S.
government employee when he made that trip" to Iran.
People familiar with Levinson's activities said he went to Kish
Island to meet with Daoud Salahuddin, a fugitive American also known
as David Belfield, who had fled there in 1980. It was not clear
whether the attempt to meet Salahuddin related to Levinson's
money-laundering investigation.
Salahuddin was charged with murder in the shooting death of a former
spokesman for the Shah-era Iranian Embassy at his suburban
Washington home during the hostage-taking of American diplomats in
Tehran. Salahuddin spent the following decades pursuing activities
ranging from English teaching to fighting with militants in
Afghanistan.
(Editing by Alistair Bell, Ross Colvin and Grant McCool)
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