Ex-Lab scientist fears treason charge

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (KRQE) - A former Los Alamos scientist whose home was searched by the FBI earlier this week told KRQE News 13 Wednesday he's suspected of spying for Venezuela.

The FBI raided the home of P. Leonardo Mascheroni on Monday and removed computers, several cell phones and boxes of files.

Mascheroni told News 13 the FBI left him some documentation from their search.

"When you read all of the information in here, it is clear the case they are going to make, which is treason," Mascheroni said.

Mascheroni, a former nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said he has believed for 20 years the United States has been using the wrong designs to create nuclear weapons. But no one including members of Congress listened to him, he said.

So, Mascheroni finally found a country that would listen: Venezuela.

Mascheroni said he was promised $800,000 by a Venezuelan government representative but added he planned to take the money to Congress to get its attention about faulty weapons designs.

In exchange for information on nuclear weapons, he said he was only paid $20,000 delivered in a sealed envelope which he never opened. He was holding the money until he could get more payments to confirm the Venezuelan government representative was legitimate, he added.

"The full argument for the FBI is based on the information I gave, that these are secrets, real secrets that I was selling the United States national security by giving them to Venezuela," Mascheroni told News 13. "That's what they have to prove."

Mascheroni said all the information he gave could be found on the Internet.

"Nothing was secret," he said. "Everything there was unclassified."

Mascheroni has not been charged with any crime. The FBI declined comment beyond saying the search is part of an ongoing investigation.