Robert Philip Hansen, who traded US secrets to the former Soviet Union for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds, has died in prison at the age of 79, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Henson was involved in one of the biggest scandals in American history.
Prison officials noted that Hansen was unresponsive in his cell at a federal prison in Florence, Colorado, and was later pronounced dead.
The former spy died of natural causes.
The 79-year-old spy who died revealed important information about US intelligence gathering, including procedures by US officials that covered Russian espionage operations since at least 1985.
It has been maintained that he was somehow responsible for the deaths of three Soviet officials working for US intelligence.
According to GuardianHenson received more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, diamonds, and Rolex watches in exchange for providing vital national security information to the Soviet Union and later Russia.
Despite the financial advantages, he lived a modest life in Virginia with his family of six children and drove a Taurus and a minivan.
Hansen said he was motivated by money rather than ideology, but a 1985 letter to his Soviet handlers noted that a large payment could have led to complications because he had not spent it without setting off warning bells. could
Under the alias “Ramon Garcia,” Hanson gave his handlers about 6,000 documents and 26 computer disks, authorities said.
According to officials, he detailed cover-up techniques, helped confirm the identities of Russian double agents and uncovered other secrets. He pointed Moscow to a secret tunnel the Americans had built under the Soviet embassy in Washington, officials said.
It went undetected for years, but subsequent investigations turned up red flags.
“When he becomes the focus of a Russian mole hunt, Hanson is caught taping a garbage bag full of secrets under a footbridge in a park in a dead drop for Russian handlers.”
He was serving a life sentence in prison and had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and other charges.