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Memorandum for the Record

Event: Interview of SSA Brian' FilbertType of Event: Formal InterviewDate of Interview: 1/28/04Date memo prepared: 1128/04Special Access Issues: NonePrepared by: Doug GreenburgTeam Number: 4Location: Office of Pat O'Brien, FBIHQClassification: Unclassified; LESPresent, non-Commission: Filbert, Pat O'Brien, Esq.Participants-Commission: Doug Greenburg and John RothOn January 28, we interviewed SSA Brian Filbert via telephone forapproximately 40 minutes. This memorandum provides a summary of the mostimportant points covered in the interview, but is not a verbatim account. Thememorandum is organized by subject and does not necessarily follow the order of theinterview. The witness provided all of the information in this memorandum during theinterview, except where explicitly stated or noted by square brackets.

BackgroundFilbert has a B.A. in journalism (1984) and a J.D. (1987) from the University ofMissouri. He joined the FBI in 1989, and worked primarily white collar crime and publiccorruption cases in Oklahoma City and St. Louis until 2000. He came to FBIHQ as anSSA in Financial Crimes in 2000, reporting to Dennis Lormel. Immediately after 9/11,

he joined the Financial Review Group, which later became TFOS. Filbert served chief ofthe RF FlU from August 2002 until May 2003, when he left for the Phoenix F.O., TucsonR.A., where he supervises the CT/JTTF squad.9/11 Investigation

Filbert said that the FRG initially worked on the 9/11 financial investigation,before expanding its scope to include terrorist financing generally. While working the9111 case, the FRG worked "hand-in-hand" with the Penttbom team. Eventually, theFRG/TFOS moved away from the 9111plot and left the plot financing work to thePenttbom team, led by Adam Drucker on the finance side.Filbert said the FRG devoted considerable effort to developing a financial profileof the hijackers, including where they received their money and how they spent it.Filbert recalled the FBI had traced approximately $300,000 to the hijackers. The 19 used

a lot of cash, and Filbert recalls there not being evidence of routine payments, such asrent, insurance, and gas (which, apparently, were often paid for with cash).

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Filbert said he recalled discussion about how much the hijackers spent andwhether the known funding sources were sufficient to cover what they must have spent.He recalled discussing with FBI financial analysts the possibility of doing a net-worthtype analysis to ascertain how much the hijackers must have spent. He decided not to doso, however, because the hijackers' pervasive use of cash transactions and their frequenttrips in and out of the country made it impossible to conduct any such analysis that wouldbe meaningful. Any effort they could attempt would be so inaccurate it would becounterproductive. As a result, the FRG never undertook any type of net-worth analysisor effort to determine what the hijackers must have spent. He is not aware of anydocuments whatsoever reflecting any such analysis. Filbert said he is unaware of anyonein the FBI doing such analysis, and he is "almost positive" no such analysis was done.

Filbert said he personally did not form a view on whether the roughly $300,000 inknown funds was sufficient. He said he thought the funding seemed sufficient for someof the hijackers, especially the late arrivals who brought in funds. He said he was notsure about some of the other hijackers. He said he could not say with any certainty thatthere were additional funds the FBI has not identified.Filbert recalls discussing the net worth issue with Lormel and with various otheragents and analysts assigned TDY to the.FRG. He could not remember the specificfinancial analysts with whom he discussed the possibility of doing a net worth analysis.Filbert said he does not recall ever discussing with Adam Drucker the issue ofdoing a net worth analysis. He knows Drucker believes all the funds have beenaccounted for, and he never expressed a contrary view to Drucker. Filbert recalls Lormelexpressing the view that several hundred thousand dollars have not been accounted for,which he characterized as "more opinion.than anything else."

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Filbert was not familiar with Pistole's congressional testimony about severalhundred thousand dollars outside formal banking channels, and had no idea where Pistolegot that information. He is familiar with the oft-cited $500,000 estimate of the plot cost,but has no idea of the origin of that number. He speculated that some people may beincluding in their estimates funds spent outside the U.S., such as the money the Hamburgplotters spent in Germany.