Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Rachel Rojas ’89, is currently the supervisor for a criminal squad in the white collar division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York. This squad concentrates its resources on the issues of mortgage fraud, financial institution fraud, identity theft, and credit card fraud for the F.B.I.
Her current responsibilities include the direct supervision of 15 special agents, the financial and intelligence analysts of the program, and the support activities of several federal, state and local task force members who conduct financial investigations regarding mortgage fraud and financial institution fraud.
Rachel joined the F.B.I. in 1996 in the special surveillance group, which specialized in surveillance of foreign agents involved in espionage and terrorism. In May 2000, she was assigned as a special agent of the F.B.I. in the New York office. This assignment to the violent crime division, drug squad, primarily
involved enforcement responsibilities of the Colombian and Caribbean drug trafficking networks. In 2001, after the World Trade Center tragedy Rachel was assigned to the counterterrorism division to address 9/11, communication/telephone exploitation and later terrorism financing.
A leading investigation which Rachel and two other case agents participated in was the three-year inquiry of Khalid Q. Awan and his support of Al Qaeda ideology and financing. This investigation resulted in Awan being charged and convicted on two counts of material support to terrorism and one count of money laundering. Awan was sentenced to 14 years.
Rachel in 2005 was promoted to supervisor at F.B.I. headquarters in the terrorism financing operation section and worked high profile Al Qaeda radical fundamentalism finance cases. In 2007, Rachel was promoted to Supervisor in F.B.I. New York and worked in the administrative division addressing special agent hiring and recruitment processes including background investigations for the new agent program.
In late 2008, as a result of a shift in agency priorities and finance knowledge, Rachel was transferred to the white collar division to work mortgage fraud. Rachel is currently the mortgage fraud coordinator for the New York office. The successes of the mortgage fraud program and its agency partners: Housing
and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General, United States Secret Service, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, New York State Banking; were demonstrated in several cases, including Tommy Kontogiannis, et. al. a $92 million mortgage fraud scheme and Operation Bad Deeds in October 2009 for more than $64 million in fraud.
Rachel has a bachelor of arts in communications and journalism from Boston University and a master’s in international relations from Manhattanville College. She is happily married to a F.B.I. employee and has a stepson.
