I hadn't thought about this guy for years, until today. For those who aren't aware, Richard Miller was the first FBI agent in history to be convicted of espionage. My wife and I were super-TBMs when this happened in 1984, and we were flabbergasted that a fellow Latter-Day Saint would do what he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Miller_(agent)

"Miller was alleged to have provided classified documents, including an FBI Counterintelligence manual, to the Ogorodnikovs after demanding $50,000 in gold and $15,000 cash in return."

"In early 1984, the LDS Church excommunicated Miller for adultery."

I thought this part was kinda funny:

"Colleagues who knew former FBI Special Agent Richard W. Miller described him as "bumbling", "inept", and "lunchy". The last description referred to his unkempt appearance, and the fact that he often was observed with food crumbs and stains on his clothing. Former FBI Special Agent and author Gary Aldrich described Miller in this manner:

"Most agents assigned to Los Angeles during that time who knew Miller would probably agree that he should never have been hired in the first place. How he even got through the FBI Academy was a big mystery. But how Miller avoided losing his job for being one of the dumbest, most unkept, most unpopular misfits the agency had ever hired was not a mystery. The management should have watched Miller more carefully."

Did he specify that the $50000 be in the form of plates, or would any gold do?

"Did he specify that the $50000 be in the form of plates, or would any gold do?"

It was the '80s, so he probably demanded Kruggerands. :-)

That's bishop material, right there.

"Miller was arrested with Svetlana and Nikolai Ogorodnikov, Russian immigrants who had moved to Los Angeles in 1973 to seek refuge, but who were actually access agents of the Soviet KGB. ... Miller, who had eight children and was faced with financial difficulties, was having an affair with the married Svetlana Ogorodnikov"

Classic KGB honey trap. Old tricks are the best tricks.

Guys like that get promoted away. Nobody wants to take the heat for calling him a loser, particularly since other departments have given him a clean bill of health. Also, when you fire a spook, he just might get angry and start talking to another intelligence agency. The easiest thing is therefore to promote him out of your group and into someone else's.

That is the story with several of the major spy scandals.

Also...

"Mediocre managers promote mediocre employees so they can't make them look bad."
--Judic West, trainee for life

The bureaucratic imperative is even stronger in an intelligence agency. That is an "industry" in which suspicion is regarded as sufficient reason to demote or fire someone: you don't even need credible evidence.

So if a boss calls BS on a dubious agent, the service will look at that boss as a possible spy too. The stakes are so high that agencies tend to fire or demote everybody even remotely involved with a spy rather than risk missing other collaborators. When a corrupted agent is uncovered, he is not the only person whose career is ruined.

The upshot? Lousy performers and turned spies often rise really fast through the ranks. They don't make it into the top level--political appointees--or the second level, those whom the political appointees trust completely, but they do sometimes get to the third level. There, they have access to really sensitive information. I can't remember the name for sure, but I think Robert Hanson was one of those. He, or the man whom I'm trying to remember, delivered a lot of spies into the hands of Russian counter-intelligence, whence they generally disappeared.

He was also sloppy, unkempt, and otherwise not the sort of man you would expect to find at a responsible level in an important government agency.

Hanson is who you are thinking of.

Whiskeytango Wrote:
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> Hanson is who you are thinking of.

Are you sure it is not Aldrich Ames, who was the CIA's worst spy? Hanssen was FBI. He also turned over the names of the CIA's agents in the Soviet Union, and those agents disappeared and/or were executed. It was the investigation into Ames that ultimately led to Hanssen as there were some cases that Ames could not know about, confirming there was another spy who was most likely in the FBI not the CIA. The reason I think it might be Ames as I have seen an interview with Ames and he seemed a bit unkept and even somewhat flighty. Hanssen was a bit arrogant if memory serves me correctly.

Anyone know where he is now?

Unkempt ?

is that a legit reason for firing him.

"And the unkempt shall inherit the meek."

Sub Reich Furher Otto Dietrich Von Unkempt was personally responsible for issuing finger and toenail clippers to all the Mexicans and Fiji Islanders rounded up by the Gestapo when Norway was invaded.

"You unkempt my heart" --Judic and the Original Originals.

"You can kempt me or unkempt me, the choice is yours" --Sadie Hawkins, just before she asked 'big Abner to her first dance.

Dietrich Unkemptdorf

No, but in certain worlds it can draw attention to you and your "unkempt" attitude and work habits that can be grounds to fire you.

Unkempt was Dole's running mate in '96.

The FBI field manger and boss was Richard Bretzing who was a Mormon and did not fire Miller when other non mormon FBI agents requested he be dismissed.

More on Richard Bretzing, mormons in the FBI, etc:

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-24/news/mn-347_1_los-angeles-office