George Trofimoff (March 9, 1927 – September 19, 2014) was a United States military intelligence officer of Russian descent. He was convicted in a U.S. federal court of having spied for the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on September 27, 2001. George Trofimoff is the most senior officer in U.S. military history to have been charged with or convicted of espionage.
Background
George Trofimoff was born in Berlin, Weimar Republic, on March 9, 1927.Byers (2005), The Imperfect Spy: The Inside Story of a Convicted Spy. Page 8. His paternal grandfather, Vladimir Ivanovich Trofimoff, a brigadier general in the Imperial Russian Army General Staff, had been arrested and shot by the Cheka in 1919. His father, Vladimir Vladimirovich Trofimoff, had attended the Page Corps military academy. During the Russian Civil War, Vladimir had served as a major in the anti-communist White Army. George's mother, Ekaterina Kartali, had been a successful concert pianist before marrying Major Trofimoff in 1926.Byers (2005), pages 5-8. (Rank detail: The rank of Brigadier in the Russian Imperial Army was abandoned in the early nineteenth century, replaced in the late nineteenth century with the rank Major-General)
After the death of his wife in 1928, Major Trofimoff descended into abject poverty. In response, he temporarily sent his son to be raised by Vladimir and Antonina Sharavov, both of whom were fellow White emigres. Antonina's son from a previous marriage was Igor Vladimirovich Susemihl.Byers (2005), pages 8-10. Even into his old age, Trofimoff continued to describe Susemihl as "my brother."Byers (2005), page xiii.
In 1943, Vladimir Trofimoff remarried and his son moved in with him and his new wife. However, the family was soon forced to separate again due to Allied bombing raids on Berlin. They would not meet again until 1949, when George Trofimoff was a U.S. Army officer assigned to the occupation of Germany.Byers (2005), pages 15-16.
In the fall of 1944, George Trofimoff was ordered to report for conscription into the German Army, or Heer (usually conflated with the Wehrmacht or German Military). Rather than comply, he fled to occupied Czechoslovakia and remained in hiding near Pilsen until the end of the Second World War. Trofimoff then fled the advancing Soviet Army into the American Zone of Occupied Germany.Byers (2005), pages 16-19.
After working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army, Trofimoff made his way illegally to Paris, France. While staying there, he was embraced by Paris' community of White emigres, many of whom had known his father and grandfather. Soon after, Trofimoff was sponsored by the Society of Friends for emigration to the United States. In December 1947, he boarded a KLM Royal Dutch Airliner and flew from Amsterdam to New York City.Byers (2005), pages 17-31.
Trofimoff enlisted in the United States Army in 1948 and received a commission in the United States Army Reserve in 1953. He received an honorable discharge from active duty in 1956, and retired from the United States Army Reserve with the rank of colonel in 1987. From 1959 through 1994, Trofimoff was employed by the United States Army as a civilian working in military intelligence, serving primarily in the Kingdom of Laos and in West Germany.
Espionage
Throughout his career with the United States Army, Trofimoff held Secret and Top Secret clearances. In 1969, he became the chief of the United States Army Element at the Nuremberg Joint Interrogation Center (JIC). The JIC, a center for questioning defectors and refugees from the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries, was jointly run by American, French, and West German intelligence services. Trofimoff had access to all classified information received by or produced by U.S. Army Intelligence at the JIC.
His indictment statesGeorge Trofimoff Affidavit that, following his promotion to head of the U.S. Army at the JIC, Trofimoff renewed his acquaintance with his foster brother Igor Susemihl. Under the monastic name Iriney, Susemihl had become a hieromonk and a bishop within the Russian Orthodox Church. After learning that Trofimoff was chronically short of funds, Bishop Iriney "recruited him into the service of the KGB." The indictment states that the KGB possessed several similar collaborators among Moscow Patriarchate clergy, both inside and outside of the USSR.
At the time, Iriney was auxiliary bishop of Munich and West Germany, but later became the Metropolitan of Vienna and Austria in 1975. He continued to hold this position until his death in 1999.Ириней (Зуземиль) Biography information on the web-site of the ROC
Beginning in the 1960s, Trofimoff and the Metropolitan met often and maintained a close personal relationship. In a 1999 conversation with an undercover FBI agent, Trofimoff described his recruitment as follows,
... it must have been the '70s. But it was very informal. There were no photographs, there was just talking. He would ask me something and I would tell him something--verbal information. He had a few questions about current events. First, it was just a conversation between the two of us. He would ask my opinion on this and that--then, he would maybe ask me, 'Well, what does your unit think about it?' Or, 'What does the American government think about it?'"Byers (2005), pages 111-112.
Upon being asked whether Bishop Iriney's actions made him suspicious, Trofimoff responded,
No, not in the beginning. I said I needed money. And I told him my wife bought some furniture and I can't pay for it, I don't know how to get the money. And he says, 'I tell you what, I'll loan it to you.' So he gave me, I think, 5,000 marks and then, it wasn't enough, because I needed more, and about three or four weeks later I said to him, 'You gotta help me one more time, and I'll give it back to you when I have a chance.' And that was the end of it. Then he talked to me a couple times. Always like this. Then he says, 'Well, you know, I'll tell you what. You don't owe me any money. And if you need some more, I can give you some more. Don't worry about it. You're going to have to have a few things, this and that.' And this is how it started.Byers (2005), page 112.
In 1999, Trofimoff boasted that he routinely smuggled every classified document he could obtain home to be photographed with a special camera and tripod. The film was passed on to KGB agents during meetings in Austria. According to former KGB General Oleg Kalugin, however, Trofimoff, who was given the codename "Markiz," always received his money from Iriney. Trofimoff traveled frequently to Austria to meet Iriney and other KGB operatives, according to the indictment.Onetime Army Employee Is Charged With Spying for Russia for at Least 25 Years. The New York Times, June 15, 2000.
Trofimoff further explained that Iriney paid him a standard amount of 7,000 Deutschmarks per week. The payments were always made in used bills and when Trofimoff needed more money toward a down payment on his house, Iriney "went to his contact in Moscow," and returned with 90,000 DM. This sum was then worth 40,000 American dollars.Byers (2005), page 114.
In 2001, Kalugin testified under oath to having invited Iriney to visit his dacha in 1978. According to Kalugin "He did good work, particularly in recruiting Markiz. I wanted to thank him for what he had done."Byers (2005), page 172.
In 1999, Trofimoff further explained that Iriney ordered him to cease his espionage work for the KGB in 1987. According to Trofimoff "he told me to destroy the camera, so I smashed it with a hammer and I threw it in the garbage, far away."Byers (2005), pages 113-114.
The German BKA, the FBI, and U.S. federal prosecutors allege that Trofimoff was paid $250,000 over the course of his espionage career. According to Kalugin, Trofimoff was also awarded the Order of the Red Banner, which he describes as the USSR's "highest military award for meritorious and dangerous service." Kalugin further states "After all, he deserved the award for the work he did for us."Byers (2005), page 172.
Arrest in Germany In 1992, a retired KGB archivist named Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the United Kingdom, taking with him thousands of pages of classified papers and handwritten notes on KGB operations at home and abroad. Major Mitrokhin's information included evidence that a NATO interrogation center was being compromised by a mole, codenamed "Markiz". He handed over KGB records that showed classified documents that exceeded 80 volumes – 50,000 pages taken over 25 years. Mitrokhin did not have a name, but he was able to produce a vague sketch of the traitor. Furthermore, the Soviet files he delivered described the spy as a "career American intelligence officer", and the courier who carried the secrets as a Russian Orthodox "clergyman".
On December 14, 1994, Trofimoff and Iriney were arrested and interrogated by the German Federal Police, or Bundeskriminalamt, based on the mentioned sketch. While in custody, Trofimoff was informed by his commanding officer that his security clearance and pension had both been revoked. Shortly thereafter, Trofimoff and Iriney were brought before Bernhard Bode, a judge of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, for a preliminary hearing. During the hearing, Iriney admitted to having loaned Trofimoff money, but denied having links to the KGB. He did admit, however, that "The KGB was everywhere, also in the Church".Byers (2005), page 80. Iriney also admitted to having "a very strong, personal relationship", with his female housekeeper, Gudula Walker.Byers (2005), page 82.
As Germany's espionage laws have a five-year statute of limitations, Bode refused to file charges. As a result, both Trofimoff and Iriney were released. Trofimoff's fifth wife, Jutta Trofimoff, was devastated by her husband's arrest. She later recalled "I had no knowledge of any spying activities by George. I was completely surprised by his arrest and as soon as he got home that morning I asked him to tell me truthfully what happened. He said, 'I swear on my mother's and father's graves that I did nothing'".Byers (2005), page 83. Jutta Trofimoff further stated "If I had any doubt that he was telling me the truth I would have divorced him on the spot".Byers (2005), page 83.
After this short vindication, George and Jutta Trofimoff left Germany to retire in a gated community in Melbourne, Florida.
Retirement In Florida, Trofimoff was unable to control his spending. According to Colonel Andy Byers, who lived in the same gated community, Trofimoff also loved to entertain his new neighbors with gourmet meals and fine wine. Trofimoff later recalled "... we had therefore acquired considerable debts, especially on the so-readily available credit cards. I have to admit that I was the person responsible for getting us into this hole. Jutta kept cautioning me, but I just didn't want to listen to reason, and thought to be smart enough to get us out of this dilemma. I took out a second mortgage on the house, which temporarily relieved the burden ... but only temporarily."Byers (2005), page 88.
Their debts were compounded when Trofimoff insisted on buying a new Chrysler automobile despite his wife's insistence that they could not afford it. Trofimoff was soon reduced to bagging groceries in a local supermarket in the vain hope of getting out of debt.
According to Byers, Trofimoff repeatedly said of Metropolitan Iriney, “My brother tells me he will leave money for me when he dies. He says it will be difficult to send and it will have to come through Church channels."Byers (2005), page xiii.
The sting