


Ames was sentenced to life without parole. Ultimately, Ames received $4.6m from the Soviets. In a note, the KGB said they’d paid him $1.88m in the first four years.
Are secret agents real full#
During at least one lunch meeting, Ames collected $50,000 in cash in exchange for two plastic bags full of paper - known as the ‘Big Dump’. The CIA double agent was responsible for the deaths of at least 10 foreign assets. Aldrich Ames spied for the Russians for nearly a decade before his arrest in 1994. “And he knew that it was going to make him immortal. “It was the thing that made him feel that he was the best at something in the world. He didn’t explain why he carried on spying for Moscow when he no longer needed the money but Eric O’Neill, the FBI agent who brought Hanssen down, thinks he knows the answer. He admitted guilt on 15 counts of espionage and agreed to help the FBI to avoid the death penalty. US-KGB double agent Robert Hanssen collected about $1.4m in cash, diamonds, and Russian bank deposits for 15 years of spying before he was jailed for life in 2001. He died of a heart attack in 1998 after receiving a life sentence. The former sergeant is reported to have received more than $1m. Conrad operated from 1974 until his arrest in 1988 and was convicted of espionage and high treason in a German court in 1990. Conrad also sold the wartime general defense plans of many units with the precise description of where every unit would go in the case of war, and how they would defend. Ohio-born Clyde Lee Conrad was a non-commissioned US Army officer who sold top-secret NATO war plans to Hungary. The Millionaire Club of Traitors & Turncoatsġ.
Are secret agents real movie#
The Falcon and the Snowman - immortalized in the Senn Penn/Timothy Hutton movie - only netted the former altar boys about $77,000. Andrew Dalton Lee, aka the ‘Snowman’, just wanted the cash. Christopher Boyce, the so-called ‘Falcon’, spied for the Soviets to seek revenge against an America he believed had lied and damage the world in the Vietnam era. Pollard served 30 years in prison because he wanted to serve Israel. Anna Montes, also known as The Queen of Cuba for spying for Havana, believed in Fidel Castro's social justice as did Kendall Myers and his wife. Peter Debbins, the former Green Beret sentenced to 15-plus years for spying for Moscow, told the court he was motivated by ideology and accepted only a bottle of cognac, $1,000, and a Russian military uniform. Then again, not everyone spies for money. There are traitors who haven’t been caught, however, so the risks and the financial rewards could be higher. (See below for The Millionaire Club of Traitors & Turncoats.) Only four other American double agents are believed to have earned more than $1m for their crimes. Notorious FBI-KGB spy Robert Hanssen was paid in cash and diamonds As it transpired, the Toebbes ended up in prison and no money exchanged hands. Turncoat Jonathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were hoping for a $5 million payout after they leaked US nuclear secrets in a peanut butter sandwich dead drop, but experts say $5 million would be paying well over the odds. Jackpot paydays are few and far between, however. Similarly, critical-intentions intelligence could result in a huge paycheck,” Broman said. “The sky's the limit for technical information that can save us many millions of dollars. Hard-target ‘penetrations’, usually involving Russian or Chinese spies, may earn top dollar for premium intel.
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A defector might also get a one-time payment and an ongoing stipend plus relocation expenses. Generally, American case officers have a long relationship with foreign spies who are paid a fixed monthly salary plus bonuses. “Every case is different,” Broman told SPYSCAPE, but in his experience “millionaire spies are very much in the minority”. The person was later called back and earned even more. Ex-CIA officer Barry Broman, photographer, and author of Risk Taker, Spy Maker Show me the moneyīarry Broman, an ex-CIA clandestine officer, once paid a retiring foreign asset several hundred thousand dollars - which goes a long way in some countries.
