The former New York City Times reporter who worked as a freelancer on the bureau’s investigative unit has been charged with violating a federal law banning unauthorized copying of documents.
In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in New York, the journalist, William Booth, alleged that he was caught plagiarizing his article from the bureau on a 2012 story about a Muslim group in Michigan that organized a protest.
According to the complaint, Booth copied a section of a New York State statute that prohibits unauthorized copying.
The section of the statute reads, “It shall be unlawful for any person to publish, transmit, distribute, or display in any manner in this State, or elsewhere, any copy or reproduction of any article published by a foreign government, public authority, or private entity without the authorization of the Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.”
The bureau’s law enforcement unit, which was headed by former New Jersey Gov.
John Wisniewski, took action after the complaint was filed, according to the federal complaint.
It sent a letter to Booth demanding that he cease copying, according with the complaint.
“This is not about money.
It’s about a violation of a federal statute, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that prohibits willful misrepresentations of information,” said attorney Jeffrey Rosenbaum, who is representing Booth.
He said the bureau was considering whether to seek a permanent injunction against Booth.
The bureau’s inspector general has also been investigating the matter.
According the complaint:In March 2012, the bureau began investigating allegations that Booth had copied the information from an article in The Washington Post, a publication Booth had worked for, and that he had published on his personal blog, called The New York Report.
Booth’s employer, the New York Post, agreed to pay $1,000 for any unauthorized copying and promised that he would be disciplined if he did not stop, according the complaint filed in federal district court in Manhattan.
After the investigation, the agency received an anonymous tip that Booth was allegedly copying the Times article.
That led the bureau to the New Jersey State Department of Labor, which said it would investigate the complaint to determine whether the bureau could impose liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the complaint states.
After being notified of the allegation, Booth was notified of a complaint by the New Orleans bureau of the Fair Consumer Credit Reporting Association, according a spokesperson for the bureau.
Booth is the fourth Times reporter to be accused of using a stolen article to steal ideas, the newspaper said in a statement on Tuesday.
“These cases demonstrate that Times reporters are doing everything in their power to avoid using stolen material in the work they produce,” the statement said.
Bureau officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
