Aldrich Ames, Notorious CIA Double Agent, Passes Away at 84

Thu Jan 08 2026 14:24:47 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Aldrich Ames, the CIA agent who betrayed his country by selling secrets to the Soviets, died at the age of 84. His actions compromised numerous covert operations and led to espionage-related deaths.

Aldrich Ames, a former CIA officer and double agent, has died at 84 while serving a life sentence for espionage. Arrested in 1994, he admitted to providing the Soviet Union with sensitive information over nearly a decade, resulting in significant losses for the CIA and the death of several agents. His betrayal was driven by financial issues, leading to a lavish lifestyle funded by his actions.

Aldrich Ames, a CIA officer who became one of America's most damaging double agents, has died aged 84. The former counterintelligence officer, who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, died on Monday at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, CBS News reported.

Ames was jailed on April 28, 1994, after admitting to selling secret information to the Soviet Union and later Russia. His actions compromised over 100 clandestine operations and revealed the identities of more than 30 agents spying for the West, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 CIA intelligence assets.

Seeking money to pay debts, Ames began providing the KGB with the names of CIA spies in April 1985, receiving an initial payment of $50,000. Known by his KGB code name, Kolokol (The Bell), Ames ultimately identified nearly all of the CIA's spies in the Soviet Union and received approximately $2.5 million in return, which he used to live extravagantly, owning a new Jaguar and a $540,000 house.

Ames's career in the CIA, supported by his father who was also in the agency, commenced in 1962. His early marriage to fellow CIA agent Nancy Segebarth gave way to problematic personal issues, including alcohol dependency and escalating debts that fueled his treachery.

His double life started in the 1980s during his tenure in Mexico, where he eventually married his second wife, Maria del Rosario Casas Dupuy. Despite prior security violations, Ames rose to head the CIA's Soviet counterintelligence department.

His betrayal spanned nine years and culminated in his arrest in February 1994. Ames cooperated with authorities and secured a lenient deal for his wife, who was charged as his accomplice. CIA director at the time, R. James Woolsey, characterized Ames as a 'malignant betrayer of his country' whose greed resulted in the loss of innocent lives.