FBI Asked Overstock CEO to Pursue Relationship with Maria Butina

Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said that the FBI asked him to pursue a “romantic relationship with Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of trying to gain power in political circles in the direction of her state’s government.

Byrne resigned from his firm. He resigned days after announcing a press statement invoking allegations of a “deep state,” which implied an abrupt stock market fall.

Byrne’s account also covers accusations that top officials in the Obama presidency, including James Comey, the former FBI director, supported the bureau’s requests of him.

According to a US official, Byrne met earlier this year with Justice Department executives and shared with them a similar report about a romantic relationship with Butina supported by the FBI.

FBI Asked Overstock CEO to Pursue Relationship

Byrne said he met Butina at an event in Las Vegas in 2015 for the first time. Butina, a firearms enthusiast, had talked to him about guns and later invited him to Russia, where she had declared to have high-value links.

Officials claimed Butina of working to make encroachments with prominent executive groups, including the National Rifle Association, to support Russian concerns.

“I told what I’d discovered about Butina’s purpose in the US to the FBI, but that “they kept on dismissing it,” Byrne said. He later declared the FBI advised him to break up with Butina.

A former FBI executive and commentator on CNN Asha Rangappa said details of Byrne’s calls about how the FBI supported his initial attempts to build a relationship with Butina line up with how the agency would typically run a counterintelligence inquiry.