About this item
Of all the tools available to law enforcement, the living, breathing undercover operative remains the gold standard. This is true in TV shows and in the real world. In the era of electronic surveillance, UC work enforces accountability; it prevents mistakes, and of all the boots on the ground, undercover agents are often the most valuable. The FBI generally has about 100 UC agents working full-time in the field. In the 1990s and 2000s, Marc Ruskin had the most diverse, and notorious, case list of all, and the broadest experience within the bureaucracy, including overseas. He worked ops targeting public corruption, corporate fraud, Wall Street scams, narcotics trafficking, La Cosa Nostra, counterfeiting -- and gritty street-level scams and schemes. Sometimes working three or four cases simultaneously, Ruskin switched identities by the day: Each morning he had to walk out the door with the correct ID, clothes, accessories and frame of mind for that day's mission.
About the Author
Marc Ruskin is the author of The Pretender, My Life Undercover for the FBI, released June 2017 by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. A memoir and exposé of the inner workings of the FBI, The Pretender has received extensive domestic and international media attention.
Marc is a retired FBI Special Agent with 20 years' experience in Undercover Operations. He successfully infiltrated a New York Mafia crime family, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian heroin organization, a Wall Street trading exchange, right-wing terrorist groups, and worked on espionage cases. Though these cases and many others received much media coverage, neither Marc's name nor any of his dozen aliases could ever be mentioned. He has been awarded five Commendations from the Director of the FBI for his work. A native French and Spanish speaker, Marc has worked at US Embassies in Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Asunción, where he was given a Letter of Recognition from the Minister of the Interior for the rescue of a kidnapped former Miss Paraguay, Mariangela Martinez. As an FBI certified police instructor, Marc has lectured at universities and law enforcement academies. Since his retirement from the FBI in 2012, he has divided his time between a law practice in New York and extended sojourns in Liaoning Province, China, where he writes and studies Mandarin.
Marc's path to the FBI included degrees from Vassar College and Cardozo Law School (cum laude) , clerking for Federal Judge H. Curtis Meanor, two years in Washington on the staff of U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and four years as an Assistant District Attorney with the Brooklyn D.A.'s Office.
