The Karachi criminal who turned FBI spy

When condemning the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's valued secret agent Kamran Faridi, 57, to seven years in jail in December 2020, Judge Cathy Seibel of New York Southern District Court described it as "perhaps the most difficult sentencing I have ever done", Geo News reported.

The judge commented that the case carried facts, "unlike anything I think most of us have ever seen".

She had reached that conclusion after learning the startling facts of the Karachi-born spy's history, the report said.

Faridi's "career" had started with hustling on the rough streets of Karachi, segued into major crimes, and then swerved towards a life of dangerous undercover operations for American secret services.

He ultimately ran afoul of his handlers for issuing death threats to three former colleagues - his FBI supervisor, an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) officer, and his former FBI handler - in February 2020.

After his contract was suddenly revoked, Faridi emailed and texted multiple death threats on February 17 and 18, 2020, to his former FBI handlers.

The court heard that Faridi had "felt betrayed" by the FBI because his wife, Kelly, had just been diagnosed with cancer, and news of his termination worsened the blow.

The US government also informed the court that Faridi had helped "enemies of the US" when he asked his wife to alert at least four or five suspects that they were under surveillance, the report added.

The judge said that while she did agree that Faridi had obstructed the work of law enforcement, but: "the value of this defendant's incredible work for the US is immense" and that "the work that Faridi did for the US is at the very top to me of valuable source work".

The judge added: "Even if the (US) government gave it the back of the hand, I don't give it the back of the hand. Incredible work of immense value over many years, in the riskiest of circumstances, and, you know, I think it would be hard to understate (sic) the value of it.

"The benefit that the defendant gave this country is tremendous and the damage he did didn't wipe it out completely, but it did a tremendous amount of harm."

She sent him to jail for a seven-year term.

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