1 DIGITALLY RECORDED SWORN STATEMENT OIG CASE #: 2019-010614 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 RESOLUTE DOCUMENTATION SERVICES 28632 Roadside Drive, Suite 285 Agoura Hills, CA 91301 Phone: EFTA00063136 2 APPEARANCES: OTHER APPEARANCES: NONE EFTA00063137 3 My name is , and I am a Senior Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, New York Field Office, and these are my credentials. Okay. I see them. This interview with Federal Bureau of Prisons employee, Hughwon is being conducted as part of an official U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, or DOJ/OIG investigation. Today’s date is September 29th, 2021. And the time is 8:16 a.m. This interview is being conducted at the OIG New York Field Office, located at 1 Battery Park Plaza, New York, New York. Also present is DOJ/OIG ASAC, or Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge, He is in person. And Special Agent is joining us by telephone. He is also with the DOJ/OIG. This interview will be recorded by me, Senior Special Agent Could everyone please identify themselves for the record, and spell their last name? To start, EFTA00063138 4 EFTA00063139 5 All right. So, it says, United States Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Warnings and Assurances to Employees Requested to Provide Information on a Voluntary Basis. "You are being asked to provide information as part of an investigation being conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. This investigation is being conducted pursuant to the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended. This investigation pertains to job performance failure and security failure. This is a voluntary interview. Accordingly, you do not have to answer questions. No disciplinary action will be taken against you if you choose not to answer questions. Any statement you furnish may be used as evidence in any future criminal proceedings, or agency disciplinary proceedings, or both.” And there is a waiver section. And it says, "I understand the Warnings and Assurances stated above and I am willing to make a statement and answer questions. No promises or threats have been made to me, and no pressure or coercion of any EFTA00063140 6 EFTA00063141 7 EFTA00063142 8 EFTA00063143 9 EFTA00063144 10 EFTA00063145 11 EFTA00063146 12 EFTA00063147 13 EFTA00063148 14 EFTA00063149 15 EFTA00063150 16 EFTA00063151 17 1 10th. What conversations did you have with each of those individuals? 2 3 : Right. I was just busy working. On the 10th, the day it happened, or -? 4 5 : No. Prior to the 10th. 6 So, the 8th, the 9th, or anywhere back to the July 29th, really. 7 8 : Oh. That we were working on the problem, trying to figure out what was causing it, and that's when I ordered new hard drives to replace all the drives. That was my next step. That's what I was going to do that day. But I couldn’t. 9 10 : And what made you do that, though? Who told you to replace the hard drives? 11 12 : Talking through SigNet, and the former com tech, ___, he’s the computer services manager and we talked about buying hard drives. I actually got a purchase order, too. Yeah. 13 14 : So, who was the computer service manager? 15 16 : ___. EFTA00063152 18 EFTA00063153 19 EFTA00063154 20 EFTA00063155 21 EFTA00063156 22 EFTA00063157 23 EFTA00063158 24 EFTA00063159 25 EFTA00063160 26 EFTA00063161 27 just talking about the recording and how Mr. would not go in and review a recording without someone requesting him to do so. He doesn't recall specifically who made that request for him to review the recording, but he believes that he reviewed the recording on the 9th, and that's when he determined that it wasn't recording properly. Is that correct? : Yes. : All right. And you - and again - you don't remember why you were reviewing that recording? : No. Because we're in the middle of a -. Well, no, this -. Before Epstein happened, we were in the middle of a camera project, we had people TDY. So, I was, like, the lead in the building, trying to tell everybody what needs to get done. And I think the day before, I was on 10 South, I was putting in a rack or something, so I was busy that day, and I had a TDY guy on me. : And when you - on the 8th? : Yeah. : You got a TDY guy with EFTA00063162 28 EFTA00063163 29 EFTA00063164 30 EFTA00063165 31 EFTA00063166 32 EFTA00063167 33 EFTA00063168 34 1 on the list until, of course, Epstein happened. 2 That’s when SigNet came the next day, and put 3 the new recorders in. 4 [ ]: Okay. So, prior to 5 August 10th, 2019, your main point of contact 6 was SigNet, with [ ]? 7 [ ]: 8 [ ]: I mean, 9 [ ]: [ ] . Yes. 10 [ ]: And what was his role and 11 responsibility with SigNet? 12 [ ]: He is just, like, the guy 13 we will call if there is a problem, or if 14 training, or if I don't know the system. 15 Because, like, this system, I never had 16 training on it. So, like, when I saw it, 17 because the last institution I was, was, like, 18 maybe two versions ahead of this one. So, when 19 I saw this recording, I was, like, this stuff 20 is old, like, I don't know anything about it. 21 Like, what should I do? So, I called [ ], 22 and [ ] , like, pretty much would walk me through trouble shooting, if there is a problem. 23 [ ]: And what was the system EFTA00063169 35 EFTA00063170 36 EFTA00063171 37 EFTA00063172 38 EFTA00063173 39 You can. I have access to look at it, but I didn't get trained on it, so 1. I don't really look at Supervision. I would 2. just go in the regular Nice Vision, and look at 3. it that way. 24: Yeah. We were told that, 25 in order to determine if there were problems EFTA00063174 40 EFTA00063175 41 EFTA00063176 42 EFTA00063177 43 EFTA00063178 4 4 EFTA00063179 45 EFTA00063180 46 EFTA00063181 47 EFTA00063182 48 EFTA00063183 49 EFTA00063184 50 EFTA00063185 51 EFTA00063186 52 EFTA00063187 53 EFTA00063188 54 EFTA00063189 55 EFTA00063190 56 EFTA00063191 57 advised that the cameras at MCC were out of date. The recorders frequently went bad, and the cameras were all analog, and not maintained properly." : Yes. : "The camera system was over 20 years old. Sometimes, the screen would be active, indicating that the camera was working. However, the video would not be recording." : Yes. : "advised that only one hard drive of the camera system was working, at the time of the incident, on August 10th, 2019. When a DVR went bad, none of the cameras recorded. There was a system failure of DVR-2 on July 29th, 2019, and the motherboard failed on DVR-2 on August 8th, 2019. The hard drive failure occurred on August 10th, 2019." Is that something that you provided to them? : Yeah. I probably did. Yes. : So, can you just explain to me what we’re talking about here, because it EFTA00063192 58 EFTA00063193 59 EFTA00063194 60 EFTA00063195 61 EFTA00063196 62 EFTA00063197 63 EFTA00063198 64 EFTA00063199 65 EFTA00063200 66 EFTA00063201 67 EFTA00063202 68 EFTA00063203 69 EFTA00063204 70 EFTA00063205 71 EFTA00063206 72 EFTA00063207 73 EFTA00063208 74 EFTA00063209 75 EFTA00063210 76 EFTA00063211 77 EFTA00063212 78 EFTA00063213 79 EFTA00063214 80 EFTA00063215 81 EFTA00063216 82 EFTA00063217 83 EFTA00063218 84 EFTA00063219 85 EFTA00063220 86 EFTA00063221 87 EFTA00063222 88 EFTA00063223 89 EFTA00063224 90 EFTA00063225 91 EFTA00063226 92 EFTA00063227 93 EFTA00063228 94 EFTA00063229 95 EFTA00063230 96 EFTA00063231 97 EFTA00063232 98 EFTA00063233 99 EFTA00063234 100 Yeah. Yeah. Because I was -. See, what happened was, I was going to start rebuilding the drives, so I labeled everything. It was, it was a mess. So, they wanted me to -. Let me if I can think about it. So, everything stopped working. I go in the room, you’ve got to get the recorder working. Well, I got to pull the drives out to get the recorder working. So, the two drives that I pulled out. And so, the two old drives, and the two new drives, I labeled them, because I knew that it was going to be a big thing. So, I got to pay attention to what I'm doing. And then, in the midst of all that, that’s when they took the drives, and said, hey, we need to stop doing everything. So, who is it that actually pulled the bad drives out? You or the EFTA00063235 101 EFTA00063236 102 EFTA00063237 103 So EFTA00063238 104 EFTA00063239 105 EFTA00063240 106 EFTA00063241 107 EFTA00063242 108 25 EFTA00063243 109 EFTA00063244 110 EFTA00063245 111 EFTA00063246 112 EFTA00063247 113 EFTA00063248 114 EFTA00063249 115 1: Mm-hmm. 2: -- when did you obtain the new drives? 3: It had to be some time during that day or the next day. I probably was looking for drives, because if I -- 4: Because you said -- 5: -- if I knew -- 6: -- you got them, and you got them from the CSM? 7: Yeah. 8: Okay. And you just don’t know if that, you got them from CSM on the 8th or the 9th? 9: The 9th. Yeah. I know I got some drives from him before because we’ve gotten, I’ve gotten old drives from him before. And I know we’ve ordered drives. I'm not too sure if I ordered a whole bunch of drives to just replace all 16, or whatever, how many are in the raid. But we were, that was going to be the next step, to just rebuild everything. 10: Now, if it was your project, and you are the camera guy, why did he have the drives and not you? EFTA00063250 116 EFTA00063251 117 EFTA00063252 118 EFTA00063253 119 EFTA00063254 120 EFTA00063255 121 EFTA00063256 122 EFTA00063257 123 EFTA00063258 124 EFTA00063259 125 EFTA00063260 126 EFTA00063261 127 EFTA00063262 128 EFTA00063263 129 EFTA00063264 130 EFTA00063265 131 EFTA00063266 132 EFTA00063267 133 1: -- now, when you’re seeing them, and did they go in and they look at this, does that seem like they would be right, and nothing recorded after 7/29? 2: Yes. They’re the experts. 3: So, they would know that nothing recorded. 4: All right. So, from 7/29 to 2019, nothing recorded, but this is the first time you are hearing of it? 5: Yes. That is the first time I’m hearing about that. 6: And during the FBI interview, that’s not something they discussed with you? 7: No. Nobody told me that was on the 29th. That that’s the first time. 8: That’s the first time I’ve heard that. 9: Okay. Sorry, . Do you want to go ahead? 10: Yeah. You mentioned that, earlier in the interview, I might have - based on my notes here - that you did a motherboard rebuild, and there was (Indiscernible) 11:*01:19:44) could have happened around July 12: 29th. And if this happened around July 29th, EFTA00063268 134 are you sure that you went in and you verified that the cameras were actually operating? It was actually recording? Now, if it was recording, how was it that, based on their analysis of this stuff, that there is no recordings in the system after 7/29/2019? The way I was taught to look at the system, was to look at the Nice Vision, and if I saw the red lights, like, the system is recording. But then, I found out later, the red lights on the system recording, the way I was looking at it, it doesn't mean that there was actual video recording. That’s something that SigNet told me later. All right. But then, that contradicts what you stated earlier. Earlier, you stated that you actually went back in, and you reviewed -- EFTA00063269 135 I'm saying, I did both. I would have looked to see if there was video, and then I would have looked to see that I got the red lights, that everything was recording. The initial thing to do is to look to see a red lights, that those are working. And then, the next thing was to do was to pull back to see if there was video. Now, SigNet told me later, after all of this happened, even on the new recorder that we have, the red lights that show, it don’t mean that anything is recording. The system is not recording. You would have to go pull video from, like, a week before, or two weeks before, to see if there was a failure. But you would not know, like, looking at it, that there was a problem. : Okay. But you had said based upon this comment by the FBI report -- EFTA00063270 136 EFTA00063271 137 EFTA00063272 138 EFTA00063273 139 EFTA00063274 140 EFTA00063275 141 EFTA00063276 142 EFTA00063277 143 EFTA00063278 144 EFTA00063279 145 EFTA00063280 146 EFTA00063281 147 EFTA00063282 148 EFTA00063283 149 EFTA00063284 150 EFTA00063285 151 EFTA00063286 152 EFTA00063287 153 EFTA00063288 154 EFTA00063289 155 EFTA00063290 156 EFTA00063291 157 EFTA00063292 158 EFTA00063293 159 EFTA00063294 160 EFTA00063295 161 EFTA00063296 162 EFTA00063297 163 EFTA00063298 164 EFTA00063299 165 EFTA00063300 166 EFTA00063301 167 So, here. Open, open discussion. Tell us exactly what was going on with these recordings, and when they weren’t working. Well, when I fist got to the institution, that’s why I started a project. I would look for video, and they would tell me there is a problem, and I'm, like, oh, you can't keep running the institution like this. If there is no video, you have to fix the system. You have to get an upgrade. I've called SigNet about the problem. And I informed everybody, hey, this is a problem. You can't have a jail where you can't find video whenever you need video. Or the recorder is always failing. I was in Terre for a year and a half. I don’t remember, maybe a couple times where something - as far as video, pulling back video, you would always find a video. There was never a time where you couldn’t find a video. Maybe some cameras weren't working, but as far as pulling back video for a jail, there is no time where you can't find video. And my experience, when I got there, was, like, oh, EFTA00063302 168 it's not a big deal, it's not a big deal. And I'm, like, well, this is a jail, with funding and whatever else problems they had. Nobody considered anything here a priority or an emergency. So, after Epstein, that's when it was, like, oh, well, now you've got to stay, now you have to do everything. And I've been screaming at the hilltop when I got there. Like, hey, you have a problem, you've got to fix it. That's why I did the money for a project, hey, you need to get new recorders in, you've got to put the -. You've got to upgrades. Like, you haven't done anything at all. Like, you have to spend money. Like, this stuff is old. But tell us specifically about times where there were weeks at a time that the recorders -- Well, not weeks -- -- were down. -- at a time, but I'm just saying, like, if this happened at this time, right, and I replaced the drives the other time, weren't they looking for video, and EFTA00063303 169 EFTA00063304 170 EFTA00063305 171 EFTA00063306 172 And then, especially when I had to do the time change, because we had to do a time change in October, on the year changes, and I'm, like, why is it taking a whole day and a half for them, for the recordings to start to rebuild and change the time on the recordings. It shouldn’t take a whole day to do that. EFTA00063307 173 EFTA00063308 174 EFTA00063309 175 EFTA00063310 176 EFTA00063311 177 EFTA00063312 178 EFTA00063313 179 EFTA00063314 180 EFTA00063315 181 EFTA00063316 182 EFTA00063317 183 EFTA00063318 184 EFTA00063319 185 stuff, like, like, this stuff is unacceptable. Like, when I came and, like, the way the building was laid out, and some of the wiring issues in the building, this was just not acceptable. : Trying to figure out how we were going to upgrade, like, because not only did the recorder was bad, it was also the housing units, there was only one camera in the housing unit. So, if anything was to happen on the housing unit, you would see no video. : Okay. It would just be a blanket camera footage of the common area. There would be no additional video. EFTA00063320 186 EFTA00063321 187 : Okay. : So, because -- : Can I ask a question? : -- yeah. Go ahead. Please. : , based on your understanding, how important is it that the cameras are recording on a day to day basis? : It’s very important. And it should be checked on a day to day basis. And the way, at my last institution, that I was aware that anything wasn’t working, was I would actually get a report from SIS, this camera is bad, that camera is out. This camera is not working. Now, after Epstein happened, they wanted to task me with that job. I refused because I can’t be the same person cooking the food, telling you that the cameras are bad, or the food is good. So then, it became up to somebody else to check the cameras. Daily. Now, they check it every day. There is a report that’s sent up. But before Epstein, there was never a daily report of the cameras are recording, or we have an issue. There was EFTA00063322 188 EFTA00063323 189 EFTA00063324 190 EFTA00063325 191 -. I also, I wrote a work order over $10,000, because the camera system as an asset is worth over $10,000. To get that fixed. Because I had that problem, I had also the fire alarm was, I had a problem with that. I had a problem with that. I had a problem with the voicemail system. Everything. When I got to the building, everything was just at a pretty bad state. That wasn’t the only thing that was looked over as, like, oh, we need to get this fixed. The whole building was, as far as communication wise, it was pretty bad. : Yeah. But the question I had was, did you write any reports or -- : I -. : -- any emails to upper management -- : Yes. : -- saying, hey, listen -? : Yes. : Okay. Do you recall who you sent it to? : I would have sent it to , and he was my first facility manager. EFTA00063326 192 EFTA00063327 193 EFTA00063328 194 EFTA00063329 195 EFTA00063330 196 EFTA00063331 197 EFTA00063332 198 EFTA00063333 199 EFTA00063334 200 EFTA00063335 201 EFTA00063336 202 EFTA00063337 203 EFTA00063338 204 EFTA00063339 205 possibility, then, because it says you -- : No. : -- no? : No. : You don’t think that -- : Hey, once you do the AMS, that’s just the communication thing, like, if - . And not everything is talking, that’s when everything would start working. : Okay. And you said you never would access Supervision. : Mm-hmm. : We talked about all of this. So, it says, this is the issues, “The motherboard failed on DVR-2. Per in the case of a motherboard failure, this would cause the operating system, such as Windows, to shut down or fail. When this happens, it would stop recording to the hard drive, because the recorder software requires Windows Operating System to be operational, to record data to the hard drives.” : Mm-hmm. : “Also, when the motherboard fails, the network connectivity is EFTA00063340 206 lost because the network card is dependent on the motherboard to be functioning. And Windows to be running, for the network card driver to be operational. If and when the motherboard failed, this would have caused the network card to shut off, thus triggering the above message of a system failure, of DVR-2. Because it can no longer communicate with the DVR.” Does this sound accurate? I just remember I did the electronics thing, I just did a smell test, and I knew something on the motherboard burned up. You could smell that. Because I, when I took the motherboard out, you could tell it was a problem. Something on the motherboard burned up. Or failure power. Or something. But it was the motherboard. Because I do remember doing that. EFTA00063341 207 EFTA00063342 208 EFTA00063343 209 EFTA00063344 210 And the July 29th issue is news to you? Yes. Okay. Well, we’ll look into that. It doesn't state clearly if they -. Was anything was retrieved, but prior to 29th, that’s something we have to clarify with the FBI. Okay. All right. Now, regarding the hard drive failure. It says, “Per , if there was a message that stated this is in the Supervision application of the video management system, this would indicate that the failed motherboard had been either recovered, repaired, or replaced, and now functioning because this would allow Windows Operating System to run, allowing the recording to be in operation, and communication to the application management server restored. If there is one hard drive failure, the system is recoverable by replacing the drive and letting it rebuild. If there were two drives simultaneously failed, then the recorded video data is lost, and unrecoverable due to EFTA00063345 211 EFTA00063346 212 EFTA00063347 213 EFTA00063348 214 EFTA00063349 215 EFTA00063350 216 EFTA00063351 217 : -- what do you think that suggests? Somebody is trying to say they did their job where they didn't do their job. So, you think that the memo was, in fact, created on the 10th, instead of the 8th? I don't know when it was created. I'm just saying, people are trying to cover their tracks. To say they were notified, and they told this person, and that person. When I got there, and I was trying to explain to everybody how important most of the systems were, everybody just looked at me like I'm spinning two heads. Like, I'm not telling you-. I'm, like, I came from a compound. There was a medium. There is a high. There is a low. There is a death row. If something doesn't work, it's a jail, you have to stay. Now, after Epstein happens, everybody wants to do their job. So, that's the long and short of it. Okay. EFTA00063352 218 EFTA00063353 219 EFTA00063354 220 EFTA00063355 221 But look -- I mean, we will have our, you know -- -- the thing about this whole thing, I'm just going to add my part, because I came from another institution. If there is a problem, and, like, especially the cameras, somebody should be notified. Okay. I'm the guy that fixes it. Okay. , what are you doing? Have you fixed it? Now, after Epstein happens, and we've had recorder issues now, and that was what I sent the email, okay, I fixed this, I did this, I did that. But before that, it was not happening. Right. That’s the only part I want to add. That’s -. Now, everybody covers their tracks. But before this, sad to say this had to cause the whole Bureau to wake up. But -. Right. Yeah. All right. So, if that’s it? That's it. EFTA00063356 222 EFTA00063357 223 ## CERTIFICATE I hereby certify that the foregoing pages represent an accurate transcript of the electronic sound recording of the proceedings before the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General in the matter of: EFTA00063358 EFTA00063359 EFTA00063360 EFTA00063361 EFTA00063362 EFTA00063363 EFTA00063364 EFTA00063365 EFTA00063366