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NEW YORK (BFMG) — A Minnesota man is accused of posing as an FBI agent and showing up at a New York City federal jail with bogus paperwork in a failed attempt to spring a high-profile inmate awaiting trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mark Anderson, 36, of Mankato, Minnesota, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with impersonating a federal officer after he allegedly arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn claiming he had a court order to release inmate Luigi Mangione.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court does not name the inmate Anderson allegedly tried to free, but a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation confirmed it was Mangione. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Authorities say Anderson walked into the jail’s intake area around 6:50 p.m., told uniformed officers he was an FBI agent and said he had paperwork “signed by a judge” authorizing the release of a specific person in custody. When officers asked for his federal credentials, Anderson instead produced a Minnesota driver’s license and tossed multiple documents at them, according to the complaint.
Anderson also claimed to be armed, the complaint said. A search of his bag turned up a barbecue fork and a circular steel blade resembling a small pizza cutter, but no firearm.
The law enforcement official said Anderson had recently traveled from Mankato — about 67 miles southwest of Minneapolis — to New York, where he was working at a pizzeria after another job opportunity fell through.
Mangione, 27, is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits both state and federal murder trials in Thompson’s killing. Prosecutors allege Thompson, 50, was shot from behind on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Investigators have said the ammunition used in the attack was inscribed with the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase critics use to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.
Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. After a series of court appearances there, he was transferred to New York and lodged at the Brooklyn lockup, a facility that has housed defendants ranging from former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried.
The attempted jailhouse ruse comes at a pivotal moment in Mangione’s legal odyssey. Just hours before Anderson’s arrest, the Manhattan district attorney’s office urged a state judge, Gregory Carro, to set a July 1 trial date in the state case. Mangione has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
On Friday, he is scheduled to appear in federal court for a conference before U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, who is expected to rule on whether prosecutors can seek the death penalty and whether certain evidence will be allowed at trial. Garnett has already scheduled jury selection in the federal case to begin Sept. 8, with the remainder of the trial to take place in October or January, depending on her death penalty ruling.
Mangione has become a cause célèbre among critics of the health insurance industry, drawing vocal supporters who attend his court hearings in green — a nod to the Luigi character from the Mario Bros. video games — and carry signs reading “Free Luigi” and “No Death For Luigi Mangione.”
Anderson is expected to make his initial appearance Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. Online court records did not list an attorney for him, and a message seeking comment was left with a spokesperson for Mangione’s legal team.
