Man posed as FBI agent at jail to to free accused murderer
Luigi Mangione appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court for a suppression of evidence hearing in the December 2, 2025, murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Meaning of Curtis | via Reuters
A Minnesota man was arrested after allegedly showing up at a New York federal prison Wednesday night claiming to be an FBI agent and saying he had a court order from a judge to release Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murder. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a new criminal complaint filed Thursday.
Asked for his identification by Bureau of Prisons personnel at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the man, 36-year-old Mark Anderson of Mankato, produced a Minnesota driver’s license, prosecutors said. Mangione is being held at that jail without bail.
Anderson also allegedly said he had a gun in the bag he was carrying.
In the criminal complaint filed by the prosecutor’s office, it was stated that there was a barbecue fork and a circular steel knife resembling a pizza cutter in the bag. U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.
“Anderson also displayed and threw numerous documents to BOP officers,” wrote an FBI agent who signed the complaint.
“I have reviewed these documents and they appear to be related to litigation against the United States Department of Justice,” the agent wrote.
When Mark Anderson of Mankato, Minn., was taken into custody at the MDC prison in Brooklyn, New York, for allegedly posing as an FBI agent, a barbecue fork, driver’s license and circular steel knife were found.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Anderson is accused of impersonating an FBI agent and will appear in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon to arraign the complaint.
The complaint does not name the inmate Anderson allegedly hoped to release. However, a law enforcement official confirmed it was 27-year-old Mangione.
According to the person in question, Anderson had gone to New York for a failed job opportunity and was working at a pizzeria.
His arrest came hours after state prosecutors in Manhattan Supreme Court urged a judge there to set Mangione’s murder trial for July.
This comes two months before jury selection begins in Manhattan federal court, where the University of Pennsylvania graduate is charged with multiple felonies related to the murder of Thompson, a Minnesota resident whose company was the largest private health insurer in the United States.
Prosecutors alleged that Mangione followed and then fatally shot Thompson on the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, as the CEO walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for an investors event hosted by UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group.
Mangione was arrested five days after the murder at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
He pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Mangione is convicted. The judge in that case could decide this week whether Mangione faces a possible death penalty.
