Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Ames is thought to be the most infamous U.S. traitors, employed by the United States in the CIA but eventually spying on the United States for the USSR and being paid a total of $4.6 billion for his treason. Ames‘ father had worked for the CIA during Aldrichs‘ childhood in Burma, where Aldrich spent most of his teenage years. In 1959 Aldrich Ames enrolled for a History major at George Washington University in Virginia from which he eventually graduated in 1967. During the time of his studies his father managed to give him the opportunity to work a part time job in the CIA.
After his graduation he continues working for the CIA, now as a full time careerist. After CIA training he was assinged to Ankara, Turkey with his main task being to recruit new HUMINT Agents, which he was rather unsucessful at accomplishing. After continuous failure at his assigned task, he was re-deployed in 1972 to Langley, Virginia at the CIA Headquarters where he was re-tasked to recruit new Soviet HUMINT Agents.
Yet again, being unsucessful of recruiting new sources, he was once again re-assigned to the CIA office in New York City in 1976, ironically tasked to recruit new Soviet informants of the U.N. delegation and Soviet consulate. Although he was still unsucessful in recruiting new Agents, he was exceptionally sucessful at managing those which had offered their service as Double Agents to the United States CIA, to which he became the official liasion as his new duty.

In 1981 he was re-assigned to Mexico City, Mexico to which his, as a lobbyist in the U.S. sucessful, wife Nancy refused to accompany him. Ames decided to move to Mexico City alone leaving his wife in New York City, which has eventually led to their divorce. After multiple extra marital affairs while in Mexico, his last would be with his soon to become second wife, María del Rosario Casas Dupuy, a CIA informant and primarily a diplomat to the Colombian Consulate.
Ms. Dupuy, was used to being in the finer social circles of life due to her parents being influential people in both Colombian Universities and Government. Ames attempted to please his affair by spending money he didn’t have, and accumulating massive debt. In 1983 he was re-assigned to Washington, with Ms. Dupuy accompanying him. He divorced his wife Nancy, and as part of the divorce settlement through the court, agreed to take full responsibility for the ex-couples incurred debt as well as pay Nancy three and a half years of alimony.
Ames re-married to María del Rosario Casas Dupuy, which had an excessive spending habit, which neither could afford. At this time Ames was approximatley 60,000 dollars in debt, but with his then current salary only earning 45,000 dollars, he was therefore forced to consider other avenues of additional income to prevent bankrupcy. Ames had heard that a colleague has once been offered 50,000 dollars to act as a double agent and spy on the CIA for the KGB, which he at this time started considering a possibility.
Ames at this time was the Head of the Soviet branch of the CIA’s counter-intelligence unit, with insight into top secret documents which would be considered priceless for the Soviet Intelligence. The majority of these documents were lists of names of Soviet double agents working for the CIA.
In April 1985 Ames finally decided spying for the Soviets would be his way out of debt, quickly. He called Sergey Dmitriyevich Chuvakhin, a Soviet diplomat at the Soviet embassy and set up a meeting for lunch at the Mayflower Hotel to talk about offering his services as a spy, yet Chuvakhin never showed up. Chuvakhins' failure to show as planned led Ames to march into the Soviet embassy to demand a meeting with Chuvakhin, carrying the names of two KGB Agents spying for the U.S. whom he intended to sell out, both of which were working at the exact same embassy at that time, Lt. Col. Valery Martynov and Maj. Sergei Motorin, which would soon amongst others be executed.
Ames then offered more names and information of value to the KGB, for a future meeting a week later in Chadwicks Pub in Georgetown, in exchange for $50,000.00, to which Chuvakin agreed. After this meeting it was clear to Aldrich Ames he has tapped into a goldmine and since he had already compromised two Agents, there was no turning back. On the 13th of June 1985 the second meeting took place between Chuvakin and Ames, this time Ames selling a total of 5 lbs of classified documents to the KGB.
These 5 lbs. contained every HUMINT agent the U.S. had within Moscow, estimated to have been approximatley 24 HUMINT agents, of whom 10 agents were to be executed withing the following months, and those not executed to find their fate in Siberian Gulags for Treason, most notably the case of Vladimir Potashov a Soviet Military analyst & Missile expert who had shared vital Intelligence with the CIA which ended up as crucial Intelligence to support disarmament talks, for side of the U.S.
In May of 1986, Ames was due for a polygraph examination then required every 5 years, which Ames had passed unscathed, mostly due to Chuvakin advising Ames to establish a rapport with the examiner to pass undetected. He passed the next polygraph exam as well in 1991.
Ames transfered the majority of Intelligence via meetings, by drawing a white chalk mark over the top of the USPS Logo on predetermined U.S. Mailboxes signaling he needed to make a meeting that day with an KGB agent.
Ames managed to pass along this information to the Soviets for a total of 9 years, before getting caught. Which is surprising, becuase even though Aldrich Ames spent his Soviet salary quite spendably, on luxury which he wouldn’t have been able to afford through his CIA salary, no one became suspicious, and even if questions were asked, the standard response was that the Father of his new wife, Rosario Ames whom he met while being deployed in Mexico, was rich thereby explaining the newly found luxurious lifestyle.
It wasn’t until after several Soviet contacts for the CIA had been arrested, imprisoned in Siberian Gulag’s or even executed, that the CIA’s Deputy Chief of CounterIntelligence, Paul Redmond started an investigation, because he believed the unfortunate situation was caused by a Mole within the CIA.
Paul Redmonds investigative team had about 200 possible candidates listed, all of whom had knowledge of the captured Soviet spies. Ames made it on the list, because of the unbelievable amount of money he suddenly possesed. It was CIA Agent, Sandy Grimes who made the critical discovery of a clue which led directly to Ames, that clue having been comparing Ames’s bank deposits to the dates where he had met and handed over information to the Soviet contact.
After it was clear, that Aldrich Ames was responsible, the covert investigation began, to gather incriminating evidence which should lead to his arrest. The FBI was tasked with this Investigation. In May of 1993, Ames and his family went to Miami on Vacation, during one night, a small FBI team infiltrated his home, under cover of night as to not raise suspicion by his neighbors, and search his house for documents, searched his computer, emplaced bugs throughout his home and wiretapped his phone line to intercept communications he made. Through the bugs and wiretapping, the FBI later also gained the evidence that his wife Rosario was aware of his spying activities, which resulted in her own prison sentence of five years.
After Ame’s returned back to Duty, he was tasked to drive his CIA chief to an FBI counter-narcotics meeting, which gave the FBI the necessary time to place a GPS Beacon underneath Ames‘ vehicle. Following that, Ames was being tracked and followed 24/7. Before an arranged drop of new Information, the beacon failed and Ames was unable to be traced, this day was to become known as Black Thursday.
The FBI surveillance team adopted a new method of searching for incriminating evidence against Ames, by searching his trashcan. They did this by arriving in the dead of night at his house, replacing his actual trashcan with a priorly prepared can, and later replacing the two cans again, therefore Ames would find his actual thrash in the morning. It was through this method that the Investigation Team managed to find, a note written by Ames indicating a meeting in Bogota, Columbia.

An FBI team followed Ames to columbia, surveillanceing him at the meeting point with cameras and agents at the location. Since Ames, made a mistake as to when the meeting should take place, he missed his Soviet contact by one hour, and the FBI team missed their opportunity to collect evidence. Which ultimatley wasn’t necessary, as the searched computer files, already presented enough evidence, afterall.
Ames had a scheduled meeting in Moscow in the near future, but because the FBI was afraid of Ames possibly defecting, the FBI decided to act on the situation. Ames was called into the office to be briefed prior to his departure, and on his way to the office was intercepted by FBI agents, which arrested him on charges of Espionage. Ames was then sentenced to Life imprisonment without the possibility of Parole.

References

http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-ames-aldrich.html

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/aldrich-hazen-ames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKRxdav1gw&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=V_9WuqQV-VQ&NR=1