Licence to Kill? Fox News contributor indicted for falsely claiming to have worked for CIA

Wayne Simmons claimed to be something of an American James Bond, and if you watched TV or ran his name through Google, you’d have no reason to doubt him. In his public speaking engagements and frequent appearances on Fox News, the purported former CIA operative spoke authoritatively about terrorism and clandestine intelligence operations, which he claimed he helped run for nearly three decades.

“Nobody knew who I was,” Simmons said at one event. “Nobody was allowed to know who I was.”

But Simmons, 62, was arrested on Thursday after a grand jury indicted him on charges of falsely claiming to have been a CIA agent for decades, US prosecutors said. Simmons bogusly portrayed himself as an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, the US Attorney's Office for Virginia's Eastern District said in a statement.

Simmons allegedly tried to use that claim to get government security clearances and work as a defence contractor. At one point he was deployed overseas as an intelligence adviser to senior military officers, the statement said. He faces charges of major fraud against the United States, wire fraud and making false statements to the government.

He has appeared on Fox News as a guest analyst on terrorism since 2002 and has a presence among conservative groups, a profile on Amazon.com said. Fox News spokeswoman Carly Shanahan said Simmons had been a guest on the network and had not been paid.

The indictment said that Simmons falsely claimed on national security forms that his previous arrests and convictions were related to his CIA work and that he had held a top secret security clearance. The indictment also alleged that Simmons defrauded a victim out of about US$125,000 through a bogus real estate investment.

Neighbours and others who knew him said they were shocked by the news – and still wondered whether their friend might have been telling the truth.