Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Foreign bank accounts, a suburban home, a red Jaguar sedan and household goods were seized from the couple and sold or auctioned after they pleaded guilty last year to charges involving spying for Moscow.
The most damaging turncoat ever found inside the CIA, Ames never earned more than $70,000 a year as a counterintelligence expert at the U.S. spy agency. However, he was paid more than $2.5 million by the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor for nine years of espionage that began in 1985. He is blamed for the execution of at least 10 Western agents and the exposure of dozens of operations.
Today, U.S. Attorney Helen Fahey, whose office prosecuted the case in suburban Alexandria, Va., is to give a check for the proceeds from the confiscated property to the Justice Department's Crime Victims Fund.
The check will be ``in the range of $520,000 to $540,000,'' said one official, who requested anonymity. Another anonymous official put the amount at ``well in excess of $500,000.''
The fund for crime victims is supported entirely by criminal fines and forfeitures from federal offenders and is distributed to states to use for compensating and assisting victims of federal and state crimes.
The fund can pay for uninsured costs of medical care and equipment, mental health counseling, funeral costs and lost wages. It also is used for temporary housing, crisis intervention and emergency transportation to court. From 1985 through 1994, $1.2 billion has gone into the fund.
The forfeitures in the Ames case were small by comparison with what the couple earned from spying, most of which they spent.
As the government told the court when the couple pleaded guilty, ``The money Aldrich Ames received from the Russians was used to buy a $540,000 home in Virginia, property in South America, expensive automobiles, first class air travel, extensive wardrobes for both the defendant and her husband, and to pay for private schools and some $500,000 in credit card bills.''
Ames bought the house in 1989 at the height of the local real estate market and spent $99,000 improving the kitchen and adding a deck, hot tub and landscaping.
But in a depressed market, the house sold this past spring for only $401,000, and the government had to pay for a new sump pump in the basement to deal with a water problem.
A Justice official said about $100,000 was seized from bank accounts in Switzerland and other foreign countries. Auctions were held to sell off Ames' suits and the couple's jewelry, silver, crystal, artwork, stereo, coffee maker and a 19th century desk.
Ames, 54, is being held under maximum security at Allenwood Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. He has completed one year of a life sentence with no parole. His wife is serving five years and three months, but may earn time off for good behavior.
Ames, who was extensively debriefed after his guilty plea to espionage charges in April 1994, last fall refused to continue helping the CIA assess the damage caused by his spying. He hopes to be moved from solitary confinement to the prison's general population and to end CIA monitoring of his telephone calls and letters. No agreement has been reached.
``He doesn't want the CIA to listen to his phone calls, but he agreed to that in his plea. He just doesn't like prison. It's supposed to be punishment,'' Rob Chesnut, a prosecutor in the case, said Wednesday. ``I don't know anyone who likes prison, but this guy is the only one I've prosecuted whose whining the press listens to.''
by CNB