West Palm Beach, Florida – Lorenzo Gatti, 52, of Delray Beach pleaded guilty to one count of making materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements in official FBI reports. Gatti faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
According to the plea agreement, on July 27, 2013, Gatti, who at the time was a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy, assigned to the FBI as a task force officer, was involved in an automobile accident at an intersection in Boynton Beach, Florida. A few days later, in two separate FBI reports, Gatti stated that he was on official business at the time of the accident. Specifically, he claimed that the accident occurred after he had conducted a 24-mile surveillance on a target of a federal investigation.
At the time Gatti made these statements, he knew that his claims about conducting surveillance were false. In particular, records indicate that the target of the federal investigation did not, on the date of the accident, drive anywhere near the surveillance route that Gatti said he had followed.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
