Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne is making some serious claims about his involvement with the FBI leading up to the 2016 election, which he describes as “political espionage” on behalf of the “deep state” that ultimately cost him his job.

The CEO told Fox News on Thursday he’d previously worked with the FBI on the murder of a friend and in investigation on Wall Street when FBI officials contacted him to build a relationship with Russian national Maria Butina, who was later convicted of failing to register as a foreign agent.

“I was given some fishy orders and I carried them out in 2015-16, thinking I was conducting law enforcement,” Byrne said.

Byrne developed a relationship with Butina and learned she worked with Kremlin-linked banker Alexander Torshin to influence American political groups, he said in an interview with CNN. Byrne contends he relayed the information about Butina’s mission to the FBI, but “they kept dismissing it.”

“It was so strange that I was thinking, it’s almost like they’re letting this can-o-scandal develop and someday they’re going to shake it up and crack it and spray it all over the Republican Party,” he said.

Byrne told the news site Butina eventually arranged to bring him to Russia for a speech on block chain and a private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but his handlers nixed the idea and refocused his efforts on a different case. His relationship with Butina fizzled, Byrne said, but the FBI asked him to “rekindle” the romance in July of 2016 amid an investigation into Russian interference in the election.

“They came back to me and said, ‘Boy, what a mistake we made. Russia, you’re right … highest national priority,’” Byrne said.

Byrne didn’t go into details about his mission, but said the orders came from top officials in the FBI and Obama administration, including former FBI director James Comey, and Peter Strzok, who was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation over anti-Trump text messages shared with his mistress. Strzok was fired from the FBI last year.

Byrne told Fox News the orders from Strzok amounted to “political espionage.”

Byrne also predicted in an interview with Fox Business: “We are about to see the biggest scandal in American history.”

“I didn’t know who sent the orders, but I did them. Last summer, watching television and some congressional hearings, I figured out where those orders came from,” he told Fox News, adding that he later confirmed the source with government officials. “They came from a guy named Peter Strzok. … It’s been confirmed to me my instructions came from Peter Strzok.”

He told CNN Strzok’s requests ultimately came from Comey and another unnamed top official in the Obama administration.

“I was specifically told this request was coming from Jim Comey at the request of somebody, who I’m not going to name,” Byrne said. “Do not assume … it’s president Obama.”

Comey told CNN the allegations are “ridiculous.”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo pressed Byrne for proof and suggested the FBI would deny his allegations without it. Byrne assured Cuomo “it’s all documented.”

“I promise you, they’re going to no comment,” he said. “They will not come out and deny this, they know there’s too much …”

CNN reports “spokespeople for the Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.”

The interviews came the same day Byrne announced his resignation from Overstock, a company he helped build into a $100 million online enterprise. He previously exposed his relationship with Butina – now serving 18 months in prison stemming from the Russia investigation – in a press release earlier this month when he alleged to have helped the FBI with “political espionage.”

“In July I came forward to a small set of journalists regarding my involvement in certain government matters,” Byrne wrote in a resignation letter to shareholders Thursday. “While I believe that I did what was necessary for the good of the country, for the good of the firm, I am in the sad position of having to sever ties with Overstock, both as CEO and board member, effective Thursday, August 22.”

CNN confirmed with “a US official” that Byrne met with the Justice Department earlier this year and shared information about the romantic relationship with Butina encouraged by the FBI. The unnamed source said the Justice Department officials who met with Byrne found his story credible because it contained operational details that aren’t publicly known.

Byrne told Fox News that information was forwarded to Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, whom Attorney General William Barr has tasked with investigating the Russia probe. Robert Driscoll, Butina’s attorney, applauded Byrne for speaking up about his involvement in the FBI’s shady Russia investigation.

“I wish him well,” Driscoll told CNN. “I think he raised issues worthy of investigation, at risk to his career, as has become apparent.”