Amway Profile: Richard W. Miller

I was reading Anson Shupe's book The Darker Side of Virtue: Corruption, Scandal, and the Mormon Empire and came across an interesting story. Longtime viewers of 60 Minutes might be familiar with the sad tale of Richard W. Miller, the first FBI agent indicted for espionage. Shupe's book addressed Miller because Miller, a complete incompetent, was protected by an informal network of fellow Mormons in the agency. Miller was the exact opposite of the hard-nosed FBI agent:

Miller occasionally took three-hour "lunches" at the 7-Elevens near his Los Angeles office, gorging himself on stolen candy bars while reading comic books. He was alleged to have cheated his own uncle by selling a muscle-relaxant device he'd patented, and skimmed cash from bureau coffers meant for one of his informants. Miller also ran auto-registration checks and searched FBI criminal indexes for a local private investigator at $500 per search.

Shupe notes that one of the reprimands that Miller received was for selling Amway products out of his FBI vehicle.