George Trofimoff

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = George Trofimoff


image_size = 130 x 170
image_caption = Trofimoff's FBI mugshot
date_of_birth = 1928 Germany
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
charge = Espionage
penalty = Life Imprisonment
status = Incarcerated
occupation = US Army Intelligence Officer
spouse =
parents =
children =

George Trofimoff was the highest ranking US military officer ever accused of spying by the United States. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Background

Trofimoff was born in Germany around 1928 to Russian émigrés, and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1951. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1948 and received a commission in the United States Army Reserve in 1953. He was honorably discharged from active duty in the United States Army in 1956, and retired from the United States Army Reserve with the rank of Colonel in 1987. From 1959 through 1994, Trofimoff was employed by the United States Army as a civilian working in military intelligence, serving primarily in Germany.

Espionage

Throughout his career with the United States Army, Trofimoff held SECRET and TOP SECRET clearances, and received periodic briefings in handling classified information. In or about 1969, George Trofimoff became the Chief of the United States Army Element at the Nuremberg JICCENT. Therefore, as Chief of the United States Army Element at the Nuremberg JICCENT, Trofimoff had access to all classified information, including documents, received by and produced by the United States Army Element.

It is believed that sometime in the mid-1960s that Igor Vladimirovich Susemihl, a boyhood friend of Trofimoff's and also a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, had recruited Trofimoff into the KGB. The Russian Orthodox Church was an organized religious institution within the Soviet Union and had churches and officials, including clergy, both within the Soviet Union and abroad. It is thought that the KGB exploited the Russian Orthodox Church and its officials, in furtherance of the missions of the KGB.

Trofimoff was raised in Germany with Susemihl, who was also the son of Russian émigrés, and supposedly considered Susemihl to be his "brother." Beginning during the 1960s, Trofimoff and Susemihl met often and maintained a close personal relationship.

Trofimoff allegedly took documents from his work and photographed them, passing the film on to Susemihl and other KGB officers during meetings in Austria.

On 14 June 2000, Trofimoff, by this time a retired Army Reserve colonel, was charged with spying for the Soviet Union and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (or SVR) for 25 years. Trofimoff allegedly sold classified material to the Russians while serving as the civilian chief of the U.S. Army Element of the Nuremburg Joint Interrogation Center in Germany from 1969 to 1994. He retired from his Army civilian job in 1995.

The FBI and prosecutors alleged that Trofimoff was paid $250,000 over the course of his spy career, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, the Soviet award presented for "bravery and self-sacrifice in the defense of the socialist homeland."

Aftermath

In 1992, a Soviet KGB clerk named Vasili Mitrokhin defected and claimed that one of the U.S. interrogation centers was being compromised by a spy. He handed over KGB records that showed stolen American secrets that exceeded 80 volumes - 50,000 pages taken over 25 years. Mitrokhin didn’t have a name, but he was able to produce a vague sketch of the traitor. Furthermore, the Soviet files he delivered described the spy as a “career American intelligence officer," and the courier who carried the secrets was a "clergyman" in the Russian Orthodox church.

In 1994 Trofimoff was arrested and held briefly by German authorities based on the mentioned sketch, but was released due to lack of evidence. After this short vindication he left Germany to retire in Melbourne, Florida. Then on July 10, 1997, an undercover FBI agent, Igor Galkin, wrote and phoned from the Russian embassy repeatedly seeking a meeting with Trofimoff and offering him money. After years of gentle persuasion and recorded meetings in a motel, Trofimoff finally discussed his past services for the KGB and his hopes for future compensation, Trofimoff agreed to meet Igor in Tampa to receive $20,000. He was then arrested for espionage by the FBI on arrival and has been in jail ever since. Trofimoff later recanted his admissions of espionage saying he only made himself out to be a spy in order to obtain money from Galkin whom he believed to be a legitimate servant of the Russian Orthodox Church. He implied that he believed Galkin would only help him only if he, Trofimoff, were in such a dire situation.

U.S. attorney for Florida Donna Bucella, "declined to estimate the damage wrought" by Trofimoff's suspected spying. Stating that, "several factors suggested a major security breach, including the sensitivity of the Nuremberg center, a NATO facility staffed by Germans, British, French and Americans;... Trofimoff's clearance to view virtually any documents, and his longevity in the job."

On 26 June 2001, a jury at a federal court in Florida convicted Trofimoff of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for over at least 25 years. He was given a life sentence.

Trofimoff says he has always been a loyal army officer who spent his career defending his country and calls himself "a patriot that served this country for 46 years and a half or 47 years." Trofimoff maintains his innocence.

Other notable American moles

Other Agents in place in the US Government or Military who worked as a Mole for either the KGB or the SVR, include:

*James Hall III - An Army warrant officer and intelligence analyst in Germany who sold eavesdropping and code secrets to East Germany and the Soviet Union from 1983 to 1988.
*Aldrich Ames - A CIA mole charged with providing highly classified information since 1985 to the Soviet Union and then Russia.
*Robert Hanssen - Arrested for spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for more than 15 years of his 27 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
*Earl Edwin Pitts - An FBI agent charged with providing Top Secret documents to the Soviet Union and then Russia from 1987 until 1992.
*Harold James Nicholson - A senior-ranking Central Intelligence Agency officer arrested while attempting to take Top Secret documents out of the country. He began spying for Russia in 1994.

ee also

* Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR)
*United States government security breaches
*FSB
*GRU
*Federal Protective Service
*OSNAZ
*FAPSI
*First Chief Directorate
*Ninth Chief Directorate
*KGB
*Lourdes SIGINT Station

External links and references

CIA Centre [http://cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Trofimoff_Affidavit.htm]

The Literature of Intelligence - Muskingum College [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/spycases_folder/trofimoff.html]

CBS News Article "The Perfect Spy." [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/25/60II/main504585.shtml]

CIA Bookshelf [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no3/Bookshelf_8.htm]

Audio indictment (CNN) read by U.S. Attorney Donna Bucella [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/06/14/military.espionage.02/bucella.A.20.wav]

Retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel accused of selling secrets to Soviet Union (CNN) [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/06/14/military.espionage.03/]