Presentation Description:
“The Aldrich Ames Espionage Investigation” recently recounted in Bryan Denson’s book Catching a Russian Spy
Catching a Russian Spy is the story of the FBI's investigation of Aldrich Ames, CIA agent who turned Russian spy, and the agent who helped bring him to justice.
Aldrich H. "Rick" Ames was a 31-year veteran of the CIA. He was also a Russian spy. By the time Ames was arrested in 1994, he had betrayed the identities of dozens and caused the deaths of ten agents. The notorious KGB (and later the Russian intelligence service, SVR) paid him millions of dollars.
Agenda
5:00 pm: Registration & Reception
6:00 pm: Program starts
6:30 pm: Dinner served
8:00 pm: Program ends
Speaker Bio:
LESLIE G. WISER, JR.
Leslie G. Wiser, Jr. is South Carolina’s Deputy State Inspector General. He is a Certified Inspector General and a Certified Fraud Examiner. Prior to joining the Office of the State Inspector General, Mr. Wiser was a Senior Instructor on the faculty of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, where he lectured in various courses, including “Homeland Security & Terrorism”, “Violence in America”, “Policing”, and “Organized Crime.” Before joining the faculty, Mr. Wiser served as the Assistant Chief of Police and Chief of Staff for the City of Columbia Police Department, where he was second in command.
Mr. Wiser retired from the FBI in 2007 after a 23-year career, rising through the ranks as a Special Agent, serving in a variety of field and headquarters positions, including the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, where he was the liaison to the intelligence and judiciary committees of the House and Senate. In 2004, he was appointed as Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Columbia Division, responsible for all FBI investigations, operations, and administration in South Carolina. In 2005, Director Mueller appointed him to lead the Newark Division, one of the Bureau’s largest divisions, as Special Agent-in-Charge, where he directed FBI activities in New Jersey.
His work in the FBI has been recounted in the non-fiction books FBI Files: Catching a Russian Spy, Nightmover, Betrayal: The Story Of Aldrich Ames, An American Spy, Killer Spy, Tiger Trap, and more. Among his many honors, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency awarded him the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement in 1994, and Mr. Wiser received the prestigious FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterintelligence Investigation in 2006. In 2007, the President of the United States awarded Mr. Wiser the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Senior Executive.
Following his FBI retirement, he worked for the New Jersey Devils as Director of Security for the Prudential Center, a sports and entertainment venue serving the New York metropolitan area, producing high-profile concerts, NHL hockey games, NCAA basketball, and other entertainment events.
He started his career as a naval officer in the US Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, prosecuting cases before courts-martial, later serving as the Legal Officer for the USS Fulton and Submarine Squadron Ten.
Mr. Wiser holds a Bachelor of the Arts degree from Allegheny College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1979. He is married to Debra Wiser, his wife of 44 years. He has two children and three grandchildren.
