Ken McGuire

 

Life is never dull as an FBI agent. “I usually have a to-do list when I come to work,” muses McGuire. “But there are numerous days in which I have to throw away my plans and execute a search warrant or go out on surveillance.”

McGuire has investigated the theft of drugs and money by Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department detectives who were part of a narcotics squad,
as well as a major aerospace company that bilked the government for work on a satellite system. Cybercrime is where McGuire constantly finds himself tracking down the bad guys. He’s been on the trail of computer hackers who’ve tried to manipulate the stock market and who’ve sabotaged corporate computer systems.

“I used to tell company executives that the chance of getting hacked was the same as being hit by lightening, but now I tell them their days are numbered,” he says. “They have to know that they are going to get hacked by an insider or an outsider, and they have got to be prepared for a catastrophic situation.”

Although he carries a .40 caliber Glock pistol, McGuire seldom uses it other than for training. “Fortunately, I haven’t been in a shootout, but there have been a couple of ‘guns drawn’ situations, where a gun was pointed at me,” he says. “One time the pucker factor was high was when we were executing a search warrant. After we announced our presence and opened the door of his apartment, the crook pointed a gun 18 inches from my head. Fortunately, we talked him down.”

That he’s a CPA often startles the people he’s investigating, McGuire says. “They just see me as an FBI agent, like on television. Someone who chases crooks and arrests them. But when it comes to going over questionable business transactions, I often get told that the issues are probably too complex for me to understand. Once I’ve explained to them that I’m a certified public accountant and I can recognize smoke and mirrors when I see them, it quickly dawns on them that the jig is up.”