F.B.I. Agents in Southeast Asia Paid for Sex While Police Stood By, Watchdog Says

F.B.I. agents stationed overseas had sex with prostitutes in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, even as some bureau employees attended training meant to combat human trafficking, a practice that often exploits vulnerable women, according to an investigation by the Justice Department’s watchdog.

The document, made public on Thursday in response to a lawsuit by The New York Times, covers activity from 2009 to 2018, and describes F.B.I. employees paying for or accepting sex while socializing with each other and with the police in several countries, portraying a lascivious culture where women were freely used for sex.

The previously unreleased information gives the fullest picture to date of damning conduct by F.B.I. agents abroad, resolving some of the unanswered questions from a scandal that began under the first Trump administration and was largely kept quiet for years as government lawyers argued against disclosing details. They come as the new F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, has promised to remake the bureau.

Prostitution is prevalent in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand but illegal in all three countries. The F.B.I., which has made combating sex trafficking a priority, prohibits employees from paying for sex.

The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Some of the activity happened when officials were in other countries for conferences or events. In 2017, F.B.I. officials visiting Bangkok for an event twice went to bars where they negotiated for sex in the company of the police, the report says.

That same year, the Royal Thai Police co-hosted a training course with the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations, a law enforcement agency within the Homeland Security Department, on combating human trafficking.