Mark Rossini is a former agent with theFederal Bureau of Investigation who played a major role in trying to trackal-Qaeda before its attacks on the United States onSeptember 11, 2001.[1]
"The Spy Factory", an episode of thePBS seriesNova, included segments of interviews with Rossini, who described his experience serving as one of the two FBI liaisons to theCIA'sBin Laden Issue Station, an inter-agency team assigned to trackOsama bin Laden and his associates. Rossini described being aware in January 2000 that twoal-Qaeda members,Nawaf al-Hazmi andKhalid al-Mihdhar, had valid US visas. However, a CIA employee, Michael Anne Casey, reportedly stopped him from passing the information to FBI headquarters.[2][3] Rossini knew that if he reported this information to his FBI colleagues he would be breaking the law. The two men turned out to behijackers ofAmerican Airlines flight 77 on 9/11.[1]
Rossini also claimsAlfreda Frances Bikowsky, a manager at the Bin Laden Issue Station, covered for Casey by telling congressional investigators that she walked from her office to FBI Headquarters to deliver the information about al-Mihdhar having a US visa. FBI log books reportedly proved Bikowsky's claim false.[4]
In late 2008 Rossini pled guilty to five felony counts for criminally accessing records in an FBI database more than 40 times in 2007. Many of the records were related to a federal investigation ofAnthony Pellicano, a former high-profile private investigator. At least one of the records was provided by Rossini to associates of Pellicano and was subsequently used in a court filing by Pellicano's attorneys, leading to the discovery of Rossini's involvement. Rossini resigned from the FBI and was sentenced to probation, community service, and a fine by U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola on May 14, 2009.[5]
In September 2022, Rossini was charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery, andhonest serviceswire fraud for allegedly having promised Puerto Rico's then-governor,Wanda Vázquez Garced, $300,000 for her re-election campaign in 2020 on the condition that the head of thePuerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions be removed and replaced with someone chosen by international bankerJulio Herrera Velutini.[6][7]
On August 9, 2022, Rossini turned himself into U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico and declared himself not guilty.[8]
On August 27, 2025, Rossini pleaded guilty to a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which calls for up to a year in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 10, 2025.[9]