FBI: AGENT SOLD SECRETS TO SOVIETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280030-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: October 4, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280030-2
119
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
4 October 1984
,.By Murray Dubin
Inquire 59aj; Wr, er
LOS ANGELES - An FBI agent
here has been arrested and charged
with selling intelligence secrets to
two agents of the Soviet KGB, FBI
Director William- H. Webster an.
nounced yesterday. It is the first time
that an FBI agent has been charged
with espionage.
.Ricbar< T. Bretzing, special agent
in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles
office, told a news conference yester-
day that "we have to conclude that
U.S. intelligence techniques cer-
tain objectives, activities we have
been involved in, have been compro-
mised. -
"The damage done is being as-
sessed at this time."
Held without bond and scheduled
for arraignment today was Richard
W. Miller, 47, a 20-year veteran of the
FBI who has been working in the
agency's counterintelligence unit
for the past three years.
Miller was arrested at 11:30 p.m.
Tuesday in his weekend home in San
Diego, Bretzing said. He had been
fired from his job earlier in the day.
Arrested at midnight Tuesday at
-.their home in Los Angeles were Sovi-
et emigres Nikolay Ogorodnikov, 51.
a butcher, and his wife Svetlana
Ogorodnikova, 34, a nurse. Both have
been in this country since 1973, the
FBI said.
They were arraigned here yester-
day before U.S. Magistrate Volney V.
Brown Jr. and ordered held without
.bail pending a preliminary hearing
Oct. 15. -
"This is a most serious matter, in-.
volving a special agent alleged to
have committed a crime against the
U. S.," Webster said in Washington
f ?,
Miller and the Ogorodnikovs were
arrested by FBI agents and charged'
with conspiracy to provide national-
defense information to a foreign gov-
ernment -If they are convicted, the
maximum penalty is life imprison-
ment.
Bretzing said Miller became in-
volved with the Soviet couple "be-
cause he had some financial prob-
lems. To our knowledge, he was
motivated by money." .
According to an FBI affidavit filed
in federal court to obtain approval
for search and arrest warrants,
Miller sought 550,000 in gold to put in
three safety deposit boxes and
515,000 in cash in return for remov-
ing classified FBI documents and giv-
ing them to the Ogorodnikovs.. The
document did not, indicate whether
Miller had ever received any money
from the Soviet couple._
Miller was first approached' by
Ogorodnikova in late' May, at which
time he told her of his "personal,
professional and financial prob-
lems," according to the affidavit.
which was signed by P. Bryce Chris-
tensen, assistant special agent in
charge of the Foreign Counterintelli-
gence office in Los Angeles.
Christensen said that the affidavit . ~,
was based , upon interyiews FBI
agents conducted with Miller and
the Soviet couple in the last week, as
well as surveillances, a wiretap of
the Ogorodnikovs' telephone and a
search of Miller's home. Miller was
also given a lie-detector test Sunday,
according to the affidavit. . .
Miller, who has eight children and
who was described:- by one FBI
spokesman as "a family man who
never went out drinking after
hours," was asked by the Soviet wom-
"It is an aberration on the proud an on Aug. 12 to provide her FBI
record of patriotic and_ dedicated documents, the affidavit stated.
service of thousands of special During the second or third week of
our history." August, the affidavit stated, Miller
agents throughout
Attorney General William French gave her a copy of a secret FBI docu-
Smith said of Miller's arrest: "Every ment titled. "Reporting Guidance:
now and then a rotten apple will Foreign Intelligence Information." It
show up." was dated March 15, 1983.
"Discovery of this document would
give the KGB a detailed picture of
FBI and U.S. intelligence activities,
techniques and requirements,"
Christensen stated in the affidavit.
Miller told FBI agents that he be-
lieved-that the document was given
to officials at the Soviet Consulate in
San Francisco, the affidavit stated.
The affidavit further stated that
Miller gave the Soviet woman at least
one other classified document.
The affidavit said that OQorodni-
kova, in an FBI interview, described
her husband, also known as Nikolay
Wolfson, as "having 30 years experi-
ence in handling financial matters
for the 'network,' and who autho-
rized to pay Miller for his coopera-
tion." The affidavit states that the
couple are "both covert agents of the
KGB." .
Miller and the Ogorodnikovs were
planning a trip to Vienna next
Wednesday, the affidavit stated.
The document stated that the FBI,
in its search of Miller's home, found
a number of classified documents
stamped "secret" dating back to 1980.
Some of the documents pertained to
the FBI's investigation of the Soviet
woman.
Prior to the press conference here
yesterday, FBI spokesman John Hoos
said, "This is a very emotional time
for all of us." -
Asked how he felt personally,
Bretzing said that he had "no person-
al feelings that I care to discuss.'-'
U.S. Attorney Robert Bonner for
the Central District of California
said yesterday that he expected a
Grand Jury to return indictments
against Miller and the Soviet couple
sometime next week.
?
The Ogorodnikovs were well-
known in the Los Angeles-Soviet emi-
gre community for their pro-Soviet
views, said Alexander Polovets, the
publisher of the Soviet weekly Pan-
orama, which is distributed through.
out the United States.
Polovets, in an interview, said that
the couple openly distributed -pro-
Soviet magazines and showed pro-
Soviet movies.
They -also collected money from
Soviet emigrants, ostensibly to help
relatives imprisoned in the Soviet
Union.
"I wouldn't say that they were.very
smart people. I'd be suprised if they
really worked for the KGB," he said.
Bretzing would not say bow the
FBI came to investigate Miller, but
he did say that agents had long been
aware of the activities of the Soviet
woman.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000404280030-2