Aldrich Ames, the Central Intelligence Agency officer who became one of the most devastating traitors in American history, has died at age 84, the BBC reported.
The former counterintelligence official, who was serving a life term without parole, passed away on Monday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, according to CBS News, a partner of the BBC.
Authorities jailed Ames on April 28, 1994, after he confessed to vending classified data to the Soviet Union and later Russia, the BBC noted.
He jeopardized more than 100 covert operations and disclosed the names of over 30 agents spying for the West – a betrayal that led to the deaths of at least 10 intelligence assets, the report stated.
Motivated by debt, Ames said he began supplying the KGB with names of US spies in April 1985, accepting an initial payment of $50,000, according to the BBC.
Known to Moscow by the code name Kolokol, or The Bell, Ames identified virtually all CIA sources in the Soviet Union, reaping significant financial rewards, the outlet reported.
"To my enduring surprise, the KGB replied that it had set aside for me $2 million in gratitude for the information," he stated in court documents cited by the BBC.
Over nine years, Ames admitted collecting roughly $2.5 million from the Soviets for his treachery against the US, the report added.
This wealth fueled an opulent lifestyle, including a new Jaguar, foreign trips, and a $540,000 home, despite his government salary never topping $70,000, the BBC noted.
Ames' 31-year tenure at the agency began in 1962 after his father, a CIA analyst, helped him secure a job following his college dropout, the report stated.
He married fellow agent Nancy Segebarth in 1969 before deploying to Turkey to recruit foreign assets, according to the BBC. Three years later, he returned to the US, where his drinking problems worsened and his marriage collapsed, the outlet noted.
Despite security lapses, including leaving classified documents on a subway, Ames transferred to Mexico City in 1981, the BBC reported. There, he met his second wife, Maria del Rosario Casas Dupuy, a Colombian cultural attaché and agency asset later charged as his accomplice, the report added.
Returning to the US in 1983, Ames became head of the Soviet counterintelligence branch despite ongoing concerns about his alcohol use, the BBC noted.
While his career advanced, his personal life unraveled as he supported his ex-wife and funded Rosario's spending habits, the report stated. Escalating debts ultimately pushed him to sell the secrets he controlled, according to the BBC.
"It was about the money, and I don't think he ever really tried to lead anybody to believe it was anything more than that," FBI agent Leslie G. Wiser told BBC's Witness History in 2015.
His espionage began in 1985 when he sold the names of KGB officers working for the FBI for $50,000, the report noted. The spying continued until his arrest on February 21, 1994, following a year-long mole hunt, according to the BBC.
Ames cooperated to secure a lenient sentence for Rosario, who admitted knowledge of the scheme and served five years, the outlet reported.
R. James Woolsey, the director at the time, described Ames as "a malignant betrayer of his country", the BBC noted. Woolsey added that the agents died because a "murdering traitor wanted a bigger house and a Jaguar".
