Michael Douglas, aka Gordon Gekko, helps FBI fight fraud

WASHINGTON -- Twenty-five years after corrupt Wall Street highflier Gordon Gekko declared "greed is good" on the big screen, the actor who played him is revising the role to assist the FBI.

Michael Douglas is being featured in a public service announcement for the bureau, asking the public to report information about securities fraud and other white collar offenses to the FBI.

The one-minute spot opens with a young Douglas — as Gekko — famously addressing a fictional shareholders meeting in the 1987 movie, before the clip cuts to the gray, visibly older actor now working for federal law enforcement.

"I played a greedy corporate executive who cheated to profit while innocent investors lost their savings," Douglas says in the ad, referring to the popular film, which spawned a sequel in 2010. Douglas' performance in the 1987 film won him the Academy Award for best actor.

"The movie was fiction, but the problem is real," he says. "If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is."

The announcement is part of an FBI campaign against securities and commodities fraud — including insider trading, embezzlements by stockbrokers and Ponzi schemes — which have been surging since the financial collapse of 2008.

Since then, securities and commodities fraud investigations have increased 52%, from 1,210 inquiries to 1,846 last year, according to the FBI.

The public service announcement, which premiered Monday, was being broadcast on some national cable television channels devoted to financial news.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter said it also would be distributed to 15 cities — Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington and New Haven, Conn. — where there has been a proliferation of fraud cases or evidence of potential trouble.

Carter said Douglas agreed to assist "right away" after being approached late last year. The spot was shot in November in New York.

The announcement is expected to air for about four months and hopefully prompt a new stream of leads for ongoing and future investigations.

"With a high-profile person like this, we hope this will be an effective way to get the word out," Carter said.