Two DEA agents lied on a background check about their ownership of a New Jersey strip club, federal prosecutors allege. (Facebook)
Two longtime DEA agents have been charged in federal court with lying about their ownership of a New Jersey strip club.
David Polos, 51, and Glen Glover, 45, were arrested Wednesday by the FBI, accused of making false statements on national security background check forms. Polos and Glover own the Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, New Jersey, but did not state that on the forms, according to federal prosecutors.
“David Polos and Glen Glover had important and sensitive law enforcement jobs with the DEA,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. “As alleged in the complaint, they also had other secret jobs, which they concealed from DEA in order to maintain their national security clearance, betraying the oaths they had taken and creating needless risk for the agency they worked for.”
Polos was Glover’s direct supervisor at the DEA at one point about 10 years ago, according to court documents.
They were charged with one count each of making false statements.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Prosecutors Say They Bought the Club in 2010 Using a Shell Company
The Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, New Jersey. (Google Maps)
Glover and Polos purchased the club in 2010 using a shell company, but did not disclose that when they submitted national security forms in August and September 2011, respectively, prosecutors say. The forms asked if they had any employment other than with the DEA in the previous seven years.
The shell company is called SA&G Corp.
Prosecutors says the club “featured scantily clad and sometimes topless women dancers and offered private stalls for what were supposed to be limited-contact dances between dancers and their patrons.” They said both Glover and Polos knew that many of the dancers sometimes engaged in sexual acts with club patrons and staff.
The partners worked regular shifts at the club in the months prior to submitting the forms, according to the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
“They also hired, fired, and paid bartenders, dancers, and bouncers; advertised the Club in local periodicals; manned a back office available only to employees; remotely monitored video camera feed from the Club when not present; and generally tended to various Club-related matters. Glover and Polos at times attended to Club matters during DEA work hours,” according to the release.
FBI Special Agent Hannah Buch, who wrote the criminal complaint, said New Jersey law requires dancers at clubs like Twins Plus to “cover all private areas, including nipples,” if they sell alcohol, which Twins Plus did. Buch wrote that Twins Plus has been cited by the state for lewdness. “I further know from witness interviews and from my review of surveillance footage, that New Jersey’s rules regarding the coverage of private areas have not always been observed.”
Prosecutors say that if the pair had disclosed their ownership and employment at the club, it would have been investigated as part of their background checks and their security clearances would likely have been denied, meaning they could no longer continue to work for the DEA or other federal law enforcement agencies.
“Federal law enforcement officers must be held to the highest standards of integrity,” said Ronald R. Gardella, the special agent-in-charge of the DOJ’s Officer of Inspector General, in a statement. “The alleged conduct is serious and we will do everything we can to ensure that justice is done in this case.”
Diego Rodriguez, the assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement, “We expect those in government—and particularly those charged with enforcing the law—to tell the truth. As alleged, the defendants’ lack of candor is what finds them before a judge today in Manhattan Federal Court.”
Read the full criminal complaint below:
According to the complaint, the club had a video surveillance system that Polos, Glover and others could access remotely via computer or a smartphone app.
“Glover and Polos frequently called Twins Plus, addressing and remarking on events that were happening there live during the day when they were not present and the club (and when, based on witness accounts of the timing and frequency of the calls, they were likely on duty with the DEA,” Buch wrote in the complaint.
A bouncer who started working at the club in 2012 told the FBI that he and another bouncer “understood that Glover and Polos worked at the DEA, although Polos would sometimes claim to others at the club that he worked for the FBI. Sometimes, Polos’s badge was visible. On at least one occasion, Glover wore a bulletproof vest to Twins Plus.”
During one exchange, Glover sent a text message to a club employee saying that he was bringing two state troopers to the lounge, and that they didn’t know he owned it. Another employee joked with Polos that he “didn’t think anyone at the DEA actually went to work.”
They also joked about bringing President Obama to the club so he could “check out” certain dancers.
2. Polos Resigned From His Post as a Supervisor on the DEA’s New York Organized Crime & Drug Strike Force
Polos, not pictured, was a supervisor with the DEA before resigning prior to his arrest. (Getty)
Polos, of West Nyack, New York, worked as a supervisor in the New York Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Strike Force. The task force is made up of several federal, state and local agencies and targets high-level drug dealers.
He joined the DEA in 1991 and worked there until April 18, 2015, according to court documents. He was an assistant special agent-in-charge when he resigned.
He worked at the club from around 2011 until 2013, when he had a falling out with Glover. He also arranged for the club’s advertising.
According to court documents, Polos wasn’t shy about his job in law enforcement. Other employees mention the DEA in exchanges included in the criminal complaint.
Polos’ attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
3. Glover Was a Telecommunications Specialist & Has Been Put on Leave
The DEA seal. (Getty)
Glover, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, has been placed on administrative leave by the DEA. He works as a telecommunications specialist and has also been with the agency for several years.
He joined the DEA in about 1998.
Glover also owns a dog grooming spa in New Jersey that is solely operated by his wife, according to court documents.
Glover’s lawyer, Cathy Fleming, told the New York Times he is “an incredibly well-respected, highly decorated DEA employee.” She added, “We’ll try this case in the courts, not in the press.”
According to court documents, it was Glover’s idea to buy the club. A man referred to as “co-manager 1” in court documents said he met Glover when they were frequent customers of a similar club in northern New Jersey. The co-manager didn’t buy a stake in his club, but his wife did. Polos loaned them $50,000 for an option to purchase an ownership stake in the club, because he didn’t want his name on any documents.
Public records show that the lounge is also owned by Ana Lindenfelser.
Court documents show that Glover would “regularly” supervise shifts and was the person in charge of day-to-day operations after it re-opened in 2011 after renovations were made.
4. Several Men Were Arrested After a Bloody Brawl at the Lounge in 2014
Benjamin Venegas, left, and Raphael Carrion were charged after a bloody brawl outside the lounge owned by two DEA agents. (Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office)
During a bloody brawl at the club in January 2014, one man was hit over the head with a hammer, two men were run over by a car and another was stabbed. A total of five people were injured, three critically.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office charged six men in connection with the fight.
Prosecutors said that at about 1:45 a.m. on January 27, 2014, South Hackensack Police and officers from surrounding towns were called to a bar fight at the lounge, which had spilled out into the street. Two groups of friends got into an argument inside the bar and it then moved outside.
According to police, three men, Ernest Brodie, Jesus Colon and Anthony Pate were one group of friends, and Raphael Carrion, Benjamin Venegas and Lukasz Dziewiatkowski, were the other.
During the fight, police said Carrion was “bludgeoned in the head with a hammer” and Pate was stabbed in the torso. Brodie is accused of getting into his vehicle, which was parked near the lounge, and intentionally driving into Dziewiatkowski. Police say Brodie then turned around, accelerated and ran into Venegas. Dzieiatkowski suffered broken bones and Venegas received severe head trauma.
All the men were eventually released from the hospital and arrested.
The owners and employees of Twins Plus were cited by the South Hackensack Police for 14 borough ordinance violations for various infractions and violations of Alcoholic Beverage Control laws, according to the prosecutor’s office.
5. The Lounge Employed Undocumented Immigrants From Brazil & Russia, the Feds Say
The FBI says in the complaint that “most of the dancers” at Twins Plus were undocumented immigrants from either Brazil or Russia.
“The dancers’ status as undocumented immigrants was widely known at the Club in part because the dancers spoke about it and in part because the dancers had to sign in using employee sign-in sheets that asked, among other things, whether the employees were United States citizens. The dancers frequently indicated they were not.”
Investigators also say they checked U.S. databases and determined the dancers were undocumented and were not lawfully in the United States.