Marc Ruskin

Marc Ruskin dedicated two decades to serving as an FBI Special Agent, with a significant portion of his career focused on undercover operations. His multilingual abilities, speaking English, Spanish, and French fluently, along with a working knowledge of Mandarin, made him a versatile operative for various assignments. Prior to his FBI tenure, Ruskin gained experience as a staffer for New York Senator Pat Moynihan and served as an assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, which provided a strong foundational understanding of legal and public service frameworks before joining the Bureau in 1985. Throughout his career, he developed and managed numerous aliases, often juggling three concurrent undercover identities to infiltrate various criminal enterprises, including financial fraud, public corruption, corporate espionage, and international narcotics rings.

Ruskin’s work involved complex and high-stakes investigations, ranging from long-term Group I initiatives requiring extensive budgets and Washington D.C. approvals, to numerous short-term assignments. He was recognized for his exceptional contributions, receiving five Commendations from the FBI Director for his undercover work. Beyond active fieldwork, Ruskin also spent four years managing the undercover bureaucracy from covert headquarters and served three years in legal attaché roles in Buenos Aires, Paris, and Madrid, leveraging his language skills and operational experience on an international scale. This comprehensive experience provided him with a unique perspective on the operational and administrative aspects of federal law enforcement.

Following his distinguished career with the FBI, Marc Ruskin transitioned to author, sharing his experiences and insights into the world of undercover operations. In June 2017, he published “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI” through Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. This book details selected cases, explains the meticulous process of crafting and maintaining undercover identities, and offers an in-depth look at the evolution and importance of undercover work in modern law enforcement. His narrative emphasizes the critical role of human intelligence in an increasingly digital world, reinforcing the enduring value of skilled undercover agents.