Robert Hanssen
Robert Hanssen worked for the FBI for 27 years, during at least 22 of which he also worked for Soviet and later Russian intelligence services, motivated in his own words by the easy money available from selling information to America’s enemies. Hanssen worked for the Soviet GRU and later the KGB.
His activities in the FBI helped dictate the type and quantity of information he was able to make available to the Soviets. And much of the information he provided on Soviet agents working for American agencies, served to confirm information given them previously by Aldrich Ames. Hanssen was occasionally careless revealing classified information which drew minor administrative rebukes but little else, despite the expressed concerns of FBI personnel working for him.
In 1977 the Soviets began building a new embassy building and the FBI prepared a tunnel to be used to house equipment which would allow Americans to eavesdrop on Soviet decoding procedures. Hanssen informed the Soviets of the tunnel’s existence – which the FBI had never used – in 1989 in return for $50,000. Hanssen also provided the Soviets with lists of all Soviet agents working for the FBI and other agencies on more than one occasion, again in return for cash payments. The discovery, by a relative, of large amounts of cash hidden on his property led to the recommendation that he be investigated for espionage in 1990, but led nowhere.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hanssen attempted to hide evidence of his treason, concerned that review of Soviet files would lead to his exposure. In 2001 he resumed his double dealings, then sold classified information to the Russians, after determining that he was not under investigation by American agencies.
In February 2001, he was finally arrested by the FBI after an exhaustive investigation, and charged with fifteen counts of espionage for which he faced the death penalty. Hanssen negotiated a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to all fifteen counts and was sentenced to fifteen consecutive sentences of life imprisonment. He remains in federal prison.