ACCUSED SPY HALTS TRIAL TO PLEAD GUILTY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302610008-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: September 29, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302610008-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
NEW YORK TIMES
29 SEPTEMBER 1981
Accused Spy Halts Trial to Plead Guilty
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 28 (AP)
- A former Army warrant officer inter-
rupted his Federal trial today and
pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell mili-
tary secrets to the Soviet Union over a
17-year period. In return, the Justice De-
Partnent dropped three counts of espies
nage_
Sentencing for the defendant, Joseph
G. Helmich Jr., was set for Nov. S. The
maximum penalty is life imprisonment:
Mr. Helmich, 44 years old, made his
surprise plea as his trial entered its sec-
ond week. He insisted that the informa-
tion he relayed to the Soviet was not as
important as the Government contend.
ed.
Under questioning by Federal District
Court Judge Susan Black, Mr. Helmich
admitted that he made contact with
Soviet agents in Paris in January 1963,
while he was facing a possible court.
martial because of bad checks.
"I had been in the Army since I was 17
and it was the only family I had known,"
Mr. Iielmich said. "I got into some
financial problems."
$131,9W In 143 and 184
From January 1963 to July 1964, the
charges against him said. a Soviet Intel-
ligence agent paid him $131,000 for Infor-
mation about the KL-7 Cryptosystem,
including the coding machine's parts,
repair and maintenance manuals and
lists of codes.
However, the KL-7 machine was not
as important to the armed forces in 1963
as the Government contends, according
to Mr. Helmich, who was based in Paris
with the United States Signal Corps.
Discussing information on the KL-7,
Mr. Helmich said: "Anything that was
being passed was no longer being used
on the first line of defense. It was really
getting limited use."
Nevertheless, the information ranged
from classified to top secret, he con-
firmed.
.. Mr. Helmich, who pleaded not guilty
to all four counts on July 16, denied en-
tering-the conspiracy to hurt the United
States. But he told Judge Black that he
knew he had been dealing with the
Soviet and that the Soviet would use the
information to their fullest.
No'Intentto Injure' U.S.
? "Your honor, while I knew it was to
the advantage of a foreign nation, it
wasn't done with the intent to injure the
United States of America," said Mr.
Helmich, who resigned from the Army
in 1966 as a chief warrant officer.
The conspiracy charge alleged that as
late as August 1980, Mr. Helmich made
contact with the Soviet to try to pick up
money that was supposedly being held
for him in a Swiss bank account.
Mr. Helmich, a Fort Lauderdale,
Fla., native, said that in fact he had
made the contact but had learned that
the Soviet had no funds set aside for
His court-appointed attorney, Peter
Dearing, interjected: "They lied, your
Another portion of the charge stated
that Mr. Helmich had agreed to make
contact with the Soviet in case of attack.
Mr. Helmich said he had never warned
the Soviet about any war plans but ad-
mitted he had entered such an agree.
The plea change was made after
jurors heard a Federal Bureau of Ines.
tigation agent testify Friday about Mr.
Helmich's confession, in which he de-
scribed the first meeting at the Soviet
Embassy in Paris, later meetings with a
K.G.B. agent at the Soviet Trade Mis-
sion, and shuttles from Fort Bragg,
N.C., to Paris for further contacts.
The F.B.I. agent, James K. Murphy, .
told the jury that Mr. Helmich had said 1
he would have been court-martialed for
passing bad checks if he had not come
up with the money in 24 hours. .
"Mr. Helmich told me he decided to
contact the Russians and make some
money that way," said Mr. Murphy;
who interveiwed the suspect Feb. 4,1981
at a motel in Niagara Falls, N.Y. At the
time, Mr. Helmich was working as a
tile-sitter in Niagara Falls. He later
Mr. Murphy said that Mr. Helmich
had taken a coded message on his first
trip to the Soviet Embassy to show "he
had access to this type of stuff.,.
By July 1964, Mr. Murphy said, Mr.
Helmich had met with a K.G.B. agent,
identified by prosecutors as Viktor
Lyubimov, who took him on at least two
high-speed drives through Paris streets.
Other meetings were held at the Soviet
Trade Mission and at two French cafes,
Mr. Murphy said.
The
continued after Mr. Hel.
mich had been transferred frorp Paris to
the 50th Signal Battalion at Fort Bragg,
N.C., Mr. Murphy said. i
Mr. Helmich made four trips to Paris
from the United States, even taking his
wife and sister along on one, Mr. Mur-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302610008-3