USD Magazine Spring 2010

“I’ve wanted to work for the FBI ever since I was a kid,” Leithead says. “My Little League baseball coach was an FBI agent. I remember thinking that there must be nothing better than going to work every day and putting bad guys away.” His first opportunity came as a USD undergraduate when he was accepted into the prestigious FBI Honors internship program after his junior year and was assigned to the organized crime section at FBI headquarters. Among the projects he worked on was helping to write a “white paper” on Britain returning control of Hong Kong to China and the effects the transfer could have on organized crime. “That was a terrific summer,” Leithead says. “It was very exciting and just a great all-around experience. The supervisors I worked with were great role models for me.” Among them, John Iannarelli ’93 (J.D.), who had become the first USD student to earn a spot in the FBI internship program two years prior with encouragement from Larry Campbell ’63 (J.D.), a special agent who oversaw FBI recruiting in San Diego. “I was very interested in the FBI going into the internship,” Iannarelli says. “Coming out of it, I never had a doubt. I never looked back.” Eric Schramm ’96 (J.D.) and Ramyar Tabatabaian ’96 (J.D.) took slightly more circuitous routes. Schramm first studied political science at UCLA, then economics, before eventually graduating with a degree in physiol- ogy. Rather than enter medical school, he opted to study law at USD. Even then his career arc was far from certain. “I had this sinking suspicion that I might have a hard time being a litigator for 25 to 30 years,” Schramm says. There are some people who want to be FBI agents from an early age, but for me it never really crossed my mind until law school.” Tabatabaian started his post-undergrad life in the corporate world working for a broker, Charles Schwab & Company, after majoring in economics at Cal. But something was missing. “I found out pretty quick that you have to find a job that you love,” he says. “I decided that I wanted something more than just a job where I’d make a few bucks.” Tabatabaian enrolled in law school at Northern Illinois University before transferring to USD where, with Campbell’s encouragement, he set his sights on the FBI. “Larry Campbell told me that this was the best job in America,”

Tabatabaian says. “That just kind of helped solidify in my own mind that I was making the right choice.” Within a span of five years, all had graduated from USD and joined the FBI, with Tabatabaian stationed in Los Angeles, Leithead in New York, Schramm in Washington, D.C., and Iannarelli in Flint, Mich. Tabatabaian helped recover underwater evidence as a member of the FBI’s dive team in Los Angeles when he wasn’t investigating bank fraud and public corruption cases, including working undercover to catch prison guards accepting bribes to smuggle everything from cigarettes to cell phones into a California penitentiary. Schramm worked in the Washington, D.C., Field Office for two years before transferring to Los Angeles, where his wife was also an agent. His primary focus was on counterintelligence and counterterrorism, a realm where the well-worn trope, “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you” holds slightly more resonance. “I’ve worked national security matters my entire career, so discussing cases is a challenge,” he says. “Most of the work I’ve done has never really seen the light of day.” Early in his career, Iannarelli worked several kidnapping cases in and around Detroit, although one of his very first assignments was helping chase Michigan leads in the months after the Oklahoma City bombing. “I was just a small cog in the wheel,” Iannarelli says, “but I was excited to be a part of something much bigger than myself.” Leithead was assigned to the New York City Field Office and worked counterintelligence, counterterrorism, violent crime and several high- profile bank robbery cases (including the so-called “Sleepover Bandit” case, which netted him a “Federal Investigator of the Year” award). Like Schramm, his public résumé is scant. “I’ve been privileged to be a part of a lot of great investigations,” Leithead says, adding with a chuckle, “I just can’t talk about most of them.” The most painful unfolded suddenly, vividly for the world to see on a Tuesday morning in September 2001. Leithead had just broken off a surveil- lance assignment in Staten Island and was waiting at the ferry landing when he saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center and both towers fall. “I think everybody in the FBI remembers exactly where they were when they heard the news,” says Iannarelli, who was the FBI’s air- port liaison in San Diego that day. “But, because of who we are and what we do, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to think about how we

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USD MAGAZINE