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The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Robert Barnes.md

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Law Enforcement & Legal
Person
Barnes was involved in a 'reverse sting' operation where methamphetamine precursors were reportedly supplied to Ben Kalka. 2026-10-15

Robert Barnes was an Federal Bureau of Investigation agent at the San Francisco Bureau. He worked with Philip Arthur Thompson (PAT), who served as an undercover informant for him. Barnes admitted to Detective Sue Todd in June 2000 that PAT had worked for him.1

Barnes was involved in a "reverse sting" operation where methamphetamine precursors were reportedly supplied to Ben Kalka. He was also the agent who cleared the laundering of millions of dollars through a principality in Liechtenstein.1

A letter dated April 13, 1982, signed by Phyllis Riconosciuto and Jimmy Hughes, describes a plan for Michael Riconosciuto to meet Barnes and, after Barnes assumed protection of him, to enter protective custody with the FBI at the Oakland, California office.2 In a transcribed interview with Ted Gunderson, Riconosciuto said Barnes and a second agent interviewed him, that Barnes was interested in Kalka and not in Thompson or Paul Morasca, and that Barnes dismissed Al Holbert as "just a nut."3 Seymour wrote that a 2000 interview of Barnes by Sue Todd confirmed that he had been the "handler" for both Riconosciuto and Thompson in a large drug sting in San Francisco, a sting she says is mentioned in the John Di Giorgio file.4

Michael Riconosciuto claimed that a chemical company was cooperating with the FBI and reporting all the chemicals Riconosciuto ordered for his chemical companies in Washington State, which Riconosciuto then provided to Ben Kalka. Riconosciuto also stated that he was working for the FBI when he connected with Ben Kalka and that the agency told him to find the monomethylamine for Kalka as part of the sting operation.1

Barnes received three of Michael Riconosciuto's computer coded cards from PAT, which he sent to Quantico. PAT, however, withheld one of the cards for himself. These cards were allegedly connected to the deaths of Paul Morasca and Mary Quick.1

Footnotes

  1. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. ↩︎

  2. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010, pp. 404-405. ↩︎

  3. Transcript of a recorded interview of Michael Riconosciuto by Ted Gunderson, Casolaro papers, Folder 7 (Acc. 5516). https://archive.org/details/ddosecrets_casolaro_files ↩︎

  4. Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010, p. 405. ↩︎