Working for the national security community means living to a higher standard – not counting on your position to prevent you from prosecution. One former government employee is facing the repercussions of his predatory behavior, and the reality that his position and affiliation with the U.S. government may have created opportunity, but it doesn’t create immunity.
On Friday, Brian Jeffery Raymond, a former U.S. government employee, entered a guilty plea in Federal Court, wherein he admitted to the sexual abuse and non-consensual photographing of dozens of women in the U.S., Mexico and at least four other unidentified countries. He faces life in prison and will be ordered to pay restitution of $10,000 to each of his identified victims.
Court documents obfuscate the U.S. government affiliation of Raymond, noting only that he is now a former U.S. government employee of some 23 years, who speaks fluent Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin) and has served in six countries and traveled for both official purposes and pleasure to at least 60 countries. His attorneys also noted that Raymond, throughout his career, had been subjected to numerous polygraph examinations. The government has requested a protective order on aspects of the case involving confidential or classified information involving national security, invoking the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA).
Numerous media outlets have opined he was employed by a department or agency other than the State Department, which does not require polygraphs as a condition of employment. The FBI and Department of State Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Office of Special Investigations noted that Raymond traveled extensively abroad which included Mexico and Peru.
Court documents and Mexican media coverage of Raymond tell us that he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy Mexico City, Mexico, on August 21, 2018 until his sudden departure on June 1, 2020. His diplomatic rank (not his U.S. Government pay grade) represented to Mexico’s Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE – Secretariat of Foreign Relations) was that of “First Secretary” within the embassy. As such, the SRE issued to him a “red card” which identified him as a diplomat accredited to the U.S. Embassy.
Raymond’s heinous acts
Raymond’s heinous acts came to light on the evening of May 31, 2020, when a woman appeared on his flat’s balcony screaming for help. The apartment, a U.S. Government leased apartment, located in the swanky Mexico City of Polanco, had been assigned to Raymond as his quarters during his Mexico City assignment. Local law enforcement “responded to reports of a naked, hysterical woman screaming for help on Raymond’s balcony” and temporarily took Raymond into custody. He claimed the sexual encounter was consensual. He also produced the “Red Card”, which indicated he enjoyed “diplomatic immunity” and was released to the custody of Embassy security personnel. On June 1 he departed Mexico and traveled to La Mesa, CA, where his parents reside. He also abruptly resigned from government service.
Subsequently, the SRE Director General for North America, Roberto Velasco noted that the U.S. and Mexico were fully cooperating in the prosecution of Raymond and Mexico would not be requesting his extradition to Mexico given that the nine women identified as victims in Mexico were included in the prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The FBI special agent who filed the affidavit in support of an arrest warrant in December 2020, noted that both DSS and FBI agents obtained via lawful search warrants for his Mexico City residence, his parents La Mesa, CA residence, the dating apps he frequented and social media accounts, and his iCloud account.
The results of the inspection were beyond chilling. They found numerous online searches for “passed out” “ambien and alcohol, “Zolpidem tartrate tablets,” and “deep sleep.” They also found approximately 479 videos and images of unconscious women in various states of undress on multiple devices and in his iCloud account dating back to at least 2006 until May 30, 2021, the night before he was apprehended in Mexico City. The court documents tell us, “The photos and videos taken by Raymond commonly focused on the victim’s breasts and genitals. Raymond posed their bodies and manipulated their eyelids, mouths and limbs.” The identified victims include those within the United States, and Mexico and four other countries known to Raymond’s attorneys and the prosecutors, but not identified in the public record. “Raymond admitted that over the course of 14 years he recorded and/or photographed at least 24 unconscious and nude or partially nude women and touched the breasts, buttocks, groin area and/or genitalia of numerous women while they were incapable of consent.” He also admitted to having engaged in sexual intercourse with victims who were incapable of “appraising the nature of the conduct or consenting to it.”
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division commented, “Brian Raymond betrayed the trust granted to him as a U.S. government employee representing the United States abroad by engaging in years of predatory conduct sexually abusing, exploiting, and recording vulnerable women he targeted in the U.S. and around the world, as demonstrated by Raymond’s prosecution and plea, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners will use all of the tools at our disposal to hold accountable those who victimize women.”
Know Raymond? Contact the FBI
Raymond looks forward to the potential of life in prison and his plea calls for him to make restitution of $10,000 to each identified victim.
The Department of Justice noted in their July 23 announcement of Raymond’s plea, that the FBI continues to solicit information about Raymond from as yet unidentified victims or from individuals who may have information about Raymond via a secure, online questionnaire, email to ReportingBJR@fbi.gov or calling the 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
