Highest-Paid.net

They may not have quite the high tech gadgetry that you see in a James Bond movie, but that doesn’t mean that spying can’t be a lucrative profession. At least five American spies have managed to make over a million through their work for or against the country. Aldrich Ames, the highest paid spy in American history, falls into the latter camp.

The son of a CIA agent, Ames first went to “The Farm” at the age of sixteen to receive CIA training. Eventually, his skill with photographing sensitive documents landed him a job as Counterintelligence Branch Chief of Soviet Operations.

His problems started when he brought his mistress, Maria Del Rosario Casas, to DC. Daily calls to her native Colombia, among other expenditures, quickly mounted up to $35,000 in debt for Ames. Among Ames’ plans to reconcile the debt were such ideas as robbing a bank and selling secrets to Russia.

Apparently, he decided that selling secrets was the most feasible plan.

Receiving $50,000 for the names of three CIA agents in the Soviet Union allowed Ames to pay off his debt but, after another turncoat was caught in the act, Ames decided it would be best to go ahead and give the Soviets pretty much all the names he knew. Of the twenty-five spies he named, at least ten were executed. In return, he was given an annual salary of $300,000—making him the highest paid spy in the world.

Ames and Rosario spent nine years living well beyond the means of his $70,000 CIA salary before they were caught in 1994. Ames was given a life sentence and Rosario served five years in jail before being deported.