About Peter J. Lapp
Peter J. Lapp
Founder and President
PJ Lapp Consulting, LLC
As a retired special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Pete is highly experienced in the areas of counterintelligence, espionage, economic espionage, and trade secret theft.
Over the course of his 22-year career, Pete had notable success in the areas of espionage and economic espionage as an investigator, program manager, and later chief of the economic espionage and PRC espionage units at FBIHQ’s Counterintelligence Division. Notably, Pete was the FBI’s co-case agent of the espionage investigation of Ana Belen Montes, who was arrested ten days after 9/11 for espionage, and sentenced to 25 years for spying for the Cuban Intelligence Service while she worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Pete was also the case agent on the theft of trade secrets investigation of MIN Yonggang, who as a former DuPont employee was convicted of misappropriating over $1 billion of the company’s trade secrets.
Pete gained inter-agency experience while conducting a joint-duty assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence/Partner Engagement. For the final chapter of his career, Pete conducted hundreds of awareness briefings while at the Washington Field Office to a variety of academic, industry, and community groups on the topics of counterintelligence, insider threat, and active shooter.
In February 2020, Pete joined General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) as a senior director and Insider Threat Program Manager (ITPM). As the ITPM, Pete guided and managed the insider threat program through day-to-day management, conducted training and awareness events, and provided strategic vision while further maturing the company’s robust insider threat program.
In October 2021, Pete founded PJ Lapp Consulting, LLC where he now focuses his vast knowledge and experience in the areas of counterintelligence and insider risk (IR); He is a widely recognized expert and thought leader in the area of IR. Combining his experience as an investigator and program manager of both espionage and economic espionage investigations, along with his industry experience ITPM for a multi-billion dollar annual revenue defense industrial base company, Pete is well adept at advising your company on the maturation of its IR program. Pete provides seasoned advice on how to successfully build your IR program to mitigate reputational risk and protect your critical assets to help maintain your company’s competitive advantage. Finally, Pete is currently in the process of writing a book on the Ana Montes espionage investigation.
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER
Queen of Cuba: An FBI Agent’s Insider Account of the Spy Who Evaded Detection for 17 Years
As a spy prepared to give away America’s biggest secrets after the 9/11 attacks, an FBI agent raced to catch her.
As a spy prepared to give away America’s biggest secrets after the 9/11 attacks, an FBI agent raced to catch her.
U.S. government officials knew they had a spy. But it never occurred to them it was a woman—and certainly not a superstar Defense Intelligence Agency employee known as “the Queen of Cuba.”
Ana Montes had spent seventeen years spying for the Cubans. She had been raised in a patriotic Puerto Rican household: Her father, a psychiatrist, was a former colonel in the U.S. Army. Her sister worked as a translator for the FBI and helped break up a ring of Cuban spies in Miami. Her brother was also a loyal FBI agent.
Montes impressed her bosses, but in secret, spent her breaks memorizing top secret documents before sending them to the Cuban government. She received no payment, even as one of her missives could have brought her the death penalty.
She also listened to anxiety-relief tapes, took medication, and saw a psychiatrist. She dreamed of a normal life where she could work a job she enjoyed. She dreamed of getting married, and even had a man in mind: a defense analyst on the Cuba account for Southern Command. He had no idea that, three times a week, Montes pulled a short-wave radio from her closet and received encrypted messages from Cuba.
After the 9/11 attacks, Cuba wanted Montes to continue her work. They couldn’t know the FBI was already on to her. Retired FBI agent Peter J. Lapp explains the clues—including never-released information—that led their team to catch one of the United States’ most dangerous spies.
