SFO Arrest: Exec Allegedly Groped Women While Posing As TSA Screener

July 21, 2014
Drunken exec allegedly posed as a TSA agent and pulled at least two women aside for further screening

July 18--SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco private-equity executive was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of drunkenly posing as a TSA agent at San Francisco International Airport and groping at least two women he pulled aside for further searching.

Eric Slighton, 53, was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at the International Terminal's A-side security checkpoint after he reportedly led at least two women into a private booth to pat them down, San Mateo County sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Rosenblatt said.

Authorities said the financier, who lists himself on his LinkedIn profile as managing director of Aktis Capital Singapore, was caught by other screeners when they spotted him taking women into the booth without a female screener -- a practice prohibited by TSA regulations.

Slighton was arrested by San Francisco police only on suspicion of public intoxication, since the women he came into contact with could not be located in the airport, officials said. TSA authorities are investigating whether he should be booked on false imprisonment charges.

TSA officials declined to discuss the case Thursday, noting only that the incident did not involve any employees with TSA or Covenant, an airport security firm. The agency also declined to comment on the investigation into the airport security breach.

"TSA is aware of the alleged incident and is cooperating with law enforcement," the agency said in a one-sentence statement Thursday.

According to Slighton's bio on the Aktis Capital Group website, he was previously the director of Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. He was also co-founder and CEO of ComMira e-Solutions, a San Francisco firm specializing in business-process automation software.

Officials at Slighton's firm did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Slighton was released from San Mateo County Jail on Wednesday evening and will be arraigned Aug. 18, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. The list of counts on which he will be arraigned has not yet been determined by Wagstaffe's office.

Follow Erin Ivie at Twitter.com/erin_ivie.

Copyright 2014 - San Mateo County Times, Calif.