John Good, FBI agent whose famous sting inspired ‘American Hustle’, dies at 80
It featured undercover FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks and their agents, a con man in the service of the bureau, and a bevy of public officials caught on video in the baldfaced act of influence-peddling.
The investigation, conducted in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, was known as Abscam. It led to the conviction of six members of the US House of Representatives and one US senator in events dramatised in the 2013 film “American Hustle.”
John Good, the FBI agent who led the two-year sting, and whose character was played by Bradley Cooper in the movie, died on September 28 at his home in Island Park, New York. He as 80. His son-in-law, Paul Farrell, confirmed the death this week and said the family did not know the cause. Good had undergone a heart operation two months ago.
By the 1970s, the younger Good was stationed at a field office on Long Island, where he was investigating public corruption in the construction of a sewer project. Eager to pursue bigger cases, he undertook a collaboration with Mel Weinberg, a convicted swindler who, by Weinberg’s account, “copped a plea” and signed on with the FBI as a paid informant.
With Weinberg’s assistance, FBI agents established a fictitious company, Abdul Enterprises, purportedly owned by an Arab sheik who was looking to make investments - licit or otherwise - in the United States.
Initially, the investigation exposed criminal dealings in stolen artwork and fraudulent financial transactions. Eventually, it drew in local and then national officials trading political favors for cash.