FBI agents are mourning the death of one of the Bureau’s top financial crimes supervisors who reportedly shot and killed himself on a crowded nite-club dance floor, according to top FBI insiders.
Salvatore “Sal” Cincinelli, a former Wall Street broker who joined the FBI in 2010, died last week during a night out after an FBI training session, sources said.
Cincinelli was one of a unique supervisory agents who led many of the high-profile and complicated FBI inquiries into Wall Street, including investigating the Clinton Foundation’s finances. Cincinelli was first appointed to the New York field office (SDNY) after leaving his Wall Street career and subsequently promoted to headquarters in Washington, DC. He was also a native New Yorker.
“Very very bright guy,” one FBI insider said. “Such a young guy, it really gets you in the gut. He put in the hours too, was always working hard.”
Cincinelli was 41.
What happened to the FBI Agent?
Cincinelli was supposedly partying at the Container Bar, a trendy watering hole in Austin, TX, with his peers. According to sources, the band had been drinking and dancing. Cincinelli allegedly switched the weapon on himself on a crowded dance floor later in the evening.
Bar owner Bridget Dunlap did not respond to phone calls seeking details on the incident.
A previous news story in the Wall Street Journal highlighted Cincinelli soon after he joined the FBI:
Cincinelli walked away from a career as a credit trader with an MBA in quantitative finance to join the FBI. He said that for an investigation he’s working on, he recently interviewed a person on Wall Street who specializes in collateralized debt obligations, bonds that are created from collections of corporate debt and sold to investors in slices.
He said the conversation lasted an hour and at the end of it the other agent who had accompanied him turned to Cincinelli and said, “I don’t even know how I would ask those questions.”
But making the switch from Wall Street, where seven-figure salaries are common, to much lower-paying government work isn’t always easy.
Some of my friends said, ‘Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?’” said Cincinelli, whose profile on LinkedIn shows he has held positions at Bank of America and Global FX.
Cincinelli declined to discuss his prior work and said his wife initially was furious with his decision to join the FBI. She was worried about her husband’s safety and unhappy about the lengthy FBI training programs.
The Clintons are known for mysterious deaths and missing of individuals who investigate them or challenges them. This won’t be the first time.
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