A restraining order prohibiting an Irvine man – who claims to have pretended to be Muslim while working as a paid informant for the FBI – from entering an Irvine mosque was lifted by a judge Wednesday. However, the purported informant signed a voluntary agreement to stay away.
As part of a deal to lift the restraining order, Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old fitness consultant, agreed to stay away from the Islamic Center of Irvine until 2015.
Though the agreement and restraining order have same basic result, Monteilh said in a phone interview that he wanted to have the restraining order removed, since it could have resulted in his arrest if it were violated. According to the agreement he signed Wednesday, Monteilh would be cited if he appeared near the center.
In 2007, the center filed for a restraining order against Monteilh, claiming that he was advocating violence to members of the mosque. In February, Monteilh said that during that time he was working as an informant to the FBI and was tasked with infiltrating several mosques in the county. Monteilh said conversations about blowing up empty buildings he had with members of the mosque, including Ahmadullah Sais Niazi who was arrested by the FBI in February, were not initiated by himself.
The FBI has not commented on whether Monteilh worked as a paid informant, or on his assertion that he was tasked with identifying Middle Eastern-looking men at local gyms for FBI agents.
After Niazi was arrested on several immigration-fraud charges, which included allegations that he lied about alleged links to terrorist organizations, an FBI agent testified in court that Niazi was recorded by an informant talking about jihad. The agent, Thomas J. Ropel III, did not identify the informant by name, but said it was the same man who was discussed by Niazi and members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as having espoused violent views.
That man was identified as Craig Monteilh.
Monteilh said he was paid between $6,000 to $11,200 a month by the FBI to work as an informant, as well as a lump sum. The FBI reneged on its deal to pay the lump sum at the end of his service, he said.
His attorney, Adam Krowlikowsky, said he and his client planned to file a lawsuit against the agency for having backed away from their agreement. Krowlikowsky said his client could be entitled to up to $10 million.