Former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) confidential informant Miguel Rodriguez-Sierra was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison for attempting to sell false cooperation to a federal inmate in exchange for secret cash payments. The scheme, designed to secure an unwarranted sentencing reduction for the inmate, violated Title 18, United States Code, Section 1503, and was swiftly dismantled by federal investigators.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles handed down the sentence, which includes one year of supervised release, a $100 special assessment, and an order of forfeiture. Rodriguez-Sierra, once trusted to assist in federal investigations, instead exploited his status as a confidential informant to traffic in fabricated intelligence, directly undermining the integrity of the justice system.
According to court documents and statements made during the change of plea hearing, Rodriguez-Sierra offered to falsely credit the inmate with providing valuable information and cooperation—none of which existed. The inmate, already serving a lengthy federal sentence, had explicitly told Rodriguez-Sierra he had no information and would need to be fed details to pass off to law enforcement agents.
Unbeknownst to Rodriguez-Sierra, the inmate reported the offer to authorities and agreed to assist in a sting operation. An undercover agent was introduced to negotiate the deal. Rodriguez-Sierra accepted an initial $5,000 payment before federal agents shut down the first phase of the scheme, informing him the cooperation would not be accepted.
Months later, undeterred, Rodriguez-Sierra reinitiated contact and proposed a new scam—this time claiming the inmate had helped disrupt a drug trafficking operation he had no connection to. Another $5,000 down payment changed hands before investigators terminated the second phase of the operation.
Benjamin G. Greenberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, emphasized that the office has a strict policy against accepting cooperation that is purchased or funded by inmates seeking sentence reductions. As an HSI informant, Rodriguez-Sierra was well aware of this policy. His deliberate attempts to circumvent it constituted a calculated betrayal of public trust. The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Edward Stamm and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rilwan Adeduntan, with investigative support from DHS-OIG, ICE-OPR, and the FBI.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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