EX-ARMY WORKER INDICTED IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606240044-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 44
• Publication Date: April 10, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-005
ARTICLE r3F :L~
on pSGE p -/ WASHINGTON POST
10 April 1984
More U.S. Agents Feared Revealed
Ex-Arm Worker Indicted in
`? .- By feria I un
Wuh ngwn Post StafX Writer
A former Army counterintelligence specialist who last
week was charged with selling the Soviet. Union informa-
tion about one American double a Rent, also provided the
r
th the Re titi s_of five o er au a agents
federal authorities said yesterday.
All six of the a ents were involved in hi hl classified
operations esi a to netrate the soviet KGB spy
gang, e offs ' said.
A :fllr _g_rand jury in Alexandria alleged in a five-
coumt indictment yesterday that the former Army work-
er, Richard Craig Smith, 40, of Bellevue, Wash., was paid
$11,000 for the information by a Soviet KGB agent and
was offered an additional $100,000 to $150,000 for more
secret information. A federal law enforcement' official
who declined to be named said it. was unclear whether
Smith?provided additional information.
The indictment adds considerable detail to the gov-
`ernment's case against Smith, who worked for the Army
;Intelligence and Security Command from 1973 to Jan-,
nary 1980 and was given military and civilian intelligence
:assignments in-Japan, San-Francisco and Fort Meade,
.Md.
Smith has been held without bond since his arrest by
the FBI last Wednesday at Dulles International Airport.
A move to reduce his bond is scheduled to be heard
today at 9 am. in U.S. District Court. -
The indictment returned yesterday alleges that Smith
contacted the KGB agent in November 1982 in Tokyo
and offered to furnish information about Army double
agent operations in exchange for $25,000. After three
meetings, Smith allegedly gave the agent, Victor I.
Okunev, an unindicted . coconspirator, enough informs-
tion to identify a double agent code-named "Royal Mi-
ter." Smith also released information about five other
double agents, according to court papers.
In return, the indictment alleges, Okunev paid Smith
$11,000 in cash and offered him between $100,000 and
$150,000 for more information.
Smith, who declared bankruptcy in his native Utah
2! years after he left the Army, is charged with one
count of conspiring with Okunev, who has been first sec-
retary at the Soviet embassy in Tokyo since October
1980, to transmit national defense information. That of-
fense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment
He is also charged with two counts of transmitting the
identity of a double agent operation known as
"Royal Miter" during meetings with Okunev at
the Soviet commercial compound in Tokyo on
Nov. 7, 1982 and Feb. 13, 1983. Each of those
counts also carries a maximum penalty upon
Case
jconviction of life imprisonment. Smith its also
charged with two lesser counts of transmitting
classified information, each of. which carries a
maximum penalty of 10 years and a $10,000
fine.
Smith, who was the case officer in charge of
"Royal Miter" and had top secret security clear-
ance, which allowed him access to other double
agent operations, was accused of providing in-
formation about double agent operations code-
named "Lancer Flag," "Landscape Breeze," "Ca-
nary Dance," "Hole Punch," and "Lariat Toss."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph -J.. Aronica,
who is prosecuting the case, said he could not
comment on the damage the case may have
done to national security. .
-A federal law enforcement source, who de-
clined to be named, said -all six double agent
operations were targeted against the Soviet
Union, but that the "Royal Miter" operation .
was the most important.
The Army intelligence command directs and
supervises double agent operations, in which
Army personnel "appear to be disloyal to the
United States [and] to cooperate with a hostile
intelligence service," said the indictment.
Smith allegedly used fictitious names such as -
"Mr. David" and "David Hemingway" when he
was arranging to meet Okunev. To avoid cus-
toms declarations of more than $5,000 cash
when he reentered the United States, Smith
travelled to Hong Kong and Taiwan where he
supposedly spent some of the cash after the
meetings in Tokyo, authorities said.
When Smith allegedly met a third time with
Okunev on 'Feb. 13, 1983, Okunev offered
Smith between $100,000 and $150,000 for ad-
ditional information and showed Smith "envel- '
opes of Japanese yen estimated to be worth
.S25,000 to $30,000," said the indictment. The
two agreed to meet again in April 1983,-a meet-
ing that never took place, authorities said.
The FBI began investigating Smith for sus-
pected spy activities in December 1983. In Feb-
ruary of this year, Smith told the FBI that he
provided classified information to the Soviets,
according to an FBI affidavit filed in Alexan-
dria last week.
He -agreed to come to-.Washington and was
arrested as he stepped off a plane from Seattle
at Dulles.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606240044-7