Aldrich Ames Aldrich Hazen Ames ( born May 26 , 1941 ) is a former Central Intelligence Agency counterintelligence officer and analyst , who in 1994 was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia . So far as is known , Ames compromised the second - largest number of CIA assets — second only to those betrayed by Robert Hanssen . While spending nine years working in CIA counter - intelligence , he declared an annual income of $ 60 , 000 but his credit card spending of up to $ 30 , 000 a month funded a lifestyle that included a new Jaguar and a $ 540 , 000 house that was paid for in cash . Biography . Early life and work . Aldrich Ames was born in River Falls , Wisconsin to Carleton Cecil Ames and Rachel Ames ( née Aldrich ) . His father was a college lecturer , his mother a high school English teacher . Aldrich was the eldest of three children and the only son . In 1952 Carleton Ames began working for CIA ' s Directorate of Operations in Virginia , and in 1953 he was posted to Southeast Asia for three years accompanied by his family . Carleton received a " particularly negative performance appraisal " in part because of a serious drinking problem and spent the remainder of his career at CIA Headquarters . Ames attended high school at McLean High School in McLean , Virginia . Beginning in 1957 , following his sophomore year , Ames worked for the CIA for three summers as a low - ranking ( GS - 3 ) records analyst , marking classified documents for filing . In 1959 , Ames entered the University of Chicago planning to study foreign cultures and history , but his " long - time passion " for drama resulted in failing grades , and he did not finish his sophomore year . Ames worked at the CIA during the summer of 1960 as a laborer / painter . He then became an assistant technical director at a Chicago theater until February 1962 . Returning to Washington area , Ames took full - time employment at the CIA doing the same sort of clerical jobs he had performed in high school . CIA career . Five years later , Ames completed a bachelor ' s degree in history at George Washington University . Ames did not originally plan to make his career with the CIA , but after attaining the grade of GS - 7 , and having received good performance appraisals , Ames was accepted into the Career Trainee Program despite several alcohol - related brushes with the police . In 1969 Ames married fellow officer Nancy Segebarth , whom he had met in the Career Trainee Program . When Ames was assigned to Ankara , Turkey , Nancy resigned from the CIA because of a rule that prohibited married partners from working as officers from the same office . Ames ' job in Turkey was to target Soviet intelligence officers for recruitment , and he succeeded in infiltrating the Communist Dev - Genç organization through a roommate of student activist Deniz Gezmiş . In spite of this success , Ames ' performance was rated only " satisfactory " , and Ames , discouraged by the critical assessment , considered leaving the CIA . In 1972 , Ames returned to CIA headquarters where he spent the next four years in the Soviet - East European ( SE ) Division . His performance reviews were " generally enthusiastic " , apparently because he was better at managing paperwork and planning field operations than at agent recruiting . Nevertheless , his excessive drinking was also noted , and two " eyes only " memoranda were placed in his file . In 1976 Ames was assigned to New York City where he handled two important Soviet assets . His performance was excellent , and Ames received several promotions and bonuses and was ranked above most operations officers in his pay grade , although his tendency to procrastinate in submissions of financial accounting was noted . Ames ' inattention to details also led him to make two important security violations , including once leaving a briefcase of classified operational materials on the subway . Ames apparently received only a verbal reprimand . In 1981 Ames accepted a posting to Mexico City while his wife remained in New York . His evaluations in Mexico were mediocre at best , and he also engaged in at least three extramarital affairs . In October 1982 Ames began an affair with María del Rosario Casas Dupuy , a cultural attaché in the Colombian Embassy and a CIA informant . Despite CIA regulations , Ames did not report his romance with a foreign national to his superiors , even though some of his colleagues were well aware of it . Ames ' lackluster performance reviews were in part the result of heavy drinking . At a diplomatic reception in Mexico City , Ames got into a loud , drunken argument with a Cuban official that " caused alarm " among his superiors . Nevertheless , in September 1983 , the CIA assigned Ames back to the SE division in Washington , placing him " in the most sensitive element " of the Department of Operations because it was responsible for Soviet counterintelligence activities . Ames had access to all CIA plans and operations against the KGB and the GRU , Soviet military intelligence . In October he formally separated from his wife , and in November , he submitted an " outside activity " report to the CIA noting his romantic relationship to Rosario . As part of his divorce settlement , Ames agreed to pay the couple ' s debts plus provide his wife monthly support for three - and - a - half years , a total of about $ 46 , 000 . Ames thought the divorce might bankrupt him , and he later said that this financial pressure first led him to consider spying for the Soviet Union . Rosario also proved to be a heavy spender — after her arrest the FBI discovered in the Ames ' house sixty purses , more than five hundred pairs of shoes , and 165 unopened boxes of pantyhose . Espionage . Ames routinely assisted another CIA office that assessed Soviet embassy officials as potential intelligence assets . As part of this responsibility , and with the knowledge of both the CIA and the FBI , Ames began making contacts within the Soviet Embassy . In April 1985 , Ames provided information to the Soviets that he believed was " essentially valueless " but that would establish his credentials as a CIA insider . He also asked for $ 50 , 000 , which the Soviets quickly paid . Ames later claimed that he had not prepared for more than the initial " con game " to satisfy his immediate indebtedness , but once having " crossed a line , " he " could never step back . " Ames soon identified more than ten top - level CIA and FBI sources who were reporting on Soviet activities . Not only did Ames believe that there was " as much money as [ he ] could ever use " in betraying these intelligence assets , but their elimination would also reduce the chance of his own espionage being discovered . By 1985 , the CIA ' s network of Soviet - bloc agents began disappearing at an alarming rate . The CIA realized something was wrong , but was reluctant to consider the possibility of an agency mole . Initial investigations focused on possible breaches caused by Soviet bugs or by a broken code . The CIA then blamed asset losses on another former CIA agent , Edward Lee Howard , who had also been passing information to the Soviets . But when the CIA lost three other important sources of information about whom Howard could have known nothing , it was clear that the arrests ( and executions ) originated from another source . As one CIA officer put it , the Soviets " were wrapping up our cases with reckless abandon , " which was highly unusual because the " prevailing wisdom among the Agency ' s professional ' spy catchers ' " was that suddenly eliminating all the assets known to the mole would put him in danger . In fact , Ames ' KGB handlers apologized to him but said the decision to immediately eliminate all American assets had been made at the highest political levels . Meanwhile , Ames continued to meet openly with his contact at the Russian embassy , Sergey Dmitriyevich Chuvakhin , and for a time , Ames summarized for the CIA and FBI the progress of what he portrayed as an attempt to recruit the Soviet . In fact , Ames received $ 20 , 000 - $ 50 , 000 every time the two had lunch . Ultimately , Ames received $ 4 . 6 million from the Soviets , which allowed him to enjoy a lifestyle well beyond the means of a CIA officer . When , in August 1985 , Ames ' s divorce became final , he immediately married María del Rosario . Understanding that his new wealth would raise eyebrows , he developed a cover story that his prosperity was the result of money given him by his Colombian wife ' s wealthy family . In 1986 , Ames told the KGB that he feared he would be a suspect after the loss of several CIA assets . The KGB threw U . S . investigators off his trail by constructing an elaborate diversion whereby a Soviet case officer told a CIA contact that the mole was stationed at Warrenton Training Center ( WTC ) , a secret CIA communications facility in Virginia . U . S . mole hunters investigated 90 employees at WTC for almost a year and came up with ten suspects , although the lead investigator noted that " there are so many problem personalities that no one stands out . " Ames was posted to Rome in 1986 . There his performance once again ranged from mediocre to poor , and included evidence of problem drinking . Nevertheless , in 1990 - 91 , Ames was reassigned to the CIA ' s Counterintelligence Center Analysis Group , providing him with access to " extremely sensitive data , " including information on U . S . double agents . CIA response . In late 1986 , the CIA assembled a team to investigate the source of the leaks . The team , consisting of Jeanne Vertefeuille and four other investigators , examined different possible causes , including the possibilities that the KGB had either bugged the agency , intercepted its communications , or placed a mole . By 1990 , the CIA was certain that there was a mole in the agency . Recruitment of new Soviet agents came to a virtual halt from fear that the agency could not protect its current assets . Prior to this , in November 1989 , a fellow employee reported that Ames seemed to be enjoying a lifestyle well beyond the means of a CIA officer and that his wife ' s family was less wealthy than he had claimed . Nevertheless , the CIA moved slowly . When the investigator assigned to Ames ' s finances began a two - month training course , no one immediately replaced him . Investigators were also diverted by a false story from a CIA officer abroad who claimed that the Soviets had penetrated the CIA with an employee born in the USSR . In 1986 and 1991 , Ames passed two polygraph examinations while spying for the Soviet Union and Russia , respectively . Ames was initially " terrified " at the prospect of taking the test , but he was advised by the KGB " to just relax " . Ames ' s test demonstrated deceptive answers to some questions but the examiners passed him , perhaps in the later opinion of the CIA because the examiners were " overly friendly " and therefore did not induce the proper physiological response . The CIA finally focused on Ames after it realized that despite a salary of only $ 60 , 000 , Ames had been able to afford : Arrest . Finally in March 1993 the CIA and FBI began an intensive investigation of Ames that included electronic surveillance , combing through his trash , and a monitor installed in his car to track his movements . From November 1993 until his arrest , Ames was kept under virtually constant physical surveillance . When in early 1994 he was scheduled to attend a conference in Moscow , the FBI believed it could wait no longer , and he and his wife were arrested on February 21 , 1994 . At arrest , Ames told the officers , " You ' re making a big mistake ! You must have the wrong man ! " On February 22 , 1994 , Ames and his wife were formally charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union and Russia . Ames ' betrayal resulted in the deaths of a number of CIA assets . He pleaded guilty on April 28 and received a sentence of life imprisonment . His wife received a 5 - year prison sentence for tax evasion and conspiracy to commit espionage as part of a plea - bargain by Ames . In court , Ames admitted that he had compromised " virtually all Soviet agents of the CIA and other American and foreign services known to me " and had provided the USSR and Russia with a " huge quantity of information on United States foreign , defense and security policies " . It is estimated that information Ames provided to the Soviets led to the compromise of at least a hundred U . S . intelligence operations and to the execution of at least ten U . S . sources . Ames said he was not afraid of being caught by the FBI or CIA but was afraid of Soviet defectors , saying , " Virtually every American who has been jailed in connection with espionage has been fingered by a Soviet source . " Additionally , when asked about the polygraph tests , Ames said , " There ' s no special magic . . . Confidence is what does it . Confidence and a friendly relationship with the examiner . . . rapport , where you smile and you make him think that you like him . " Post sentence . Ames is Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner # 40087 - 083 , serving his sentence in the high - security Allenwood U . S . Penitentiary near Allenwood , Pennsylvania . The CIA was criticized for not focusing on Ames sooner , given the obvious increase in his standard of living ; and there was a " huge uproar " in Congress when CIA director James Woolsey decided that no one in the CIA would be dismissed or demoted at the agency . " Some have clamored for heads to roll in order that we could say that heads have rolled , " Woolsey declared . " Sorry , that ' s not my way . " Woolsey was forced to resign . Ames ' s attorney , Plato Cacheris , had threatened to litigate the legality of FBI searches and seizures in Ames ' s home and office without traditional search warrants , although Ames ' s guilty plea made the threat moot . Congress then passed a new law giving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that specific power . Ames ' story is dramatized in the 1998 movie " Aldrich Ames : Traitor Within " , starring Timothy Hutton as Ames . Ames was also included as a character in the 1997 Frederick Forsyth novel " Icon " , in which he betrays several Soviet agents recruited by the United States . See also . Other agents in place in the U . S . Government or Military who worked as a mole for either the KGB or the SVR , include :