One of essentially the most infamous American double brokers has died in jail.

Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent, was sentenced in 2002 to life behind bars after pleading responsible to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.

He had divulged details about US intelligence-gathering since a minimum of 1985 and was believed to have been partly liable for the deaths of a minimum of three Soviet officers who have been working for US intelligence and have been executed after being uncovered.

The 79-year-old was discovered unresponsive in his cell at a federal jail in Florence, Colorado, on Monday and was later pronounced lifeless, jail officers mentioned.

He is believed to have died of pure causes, an individual accustomed to the matter advised The Associated Press.

Spy took greater than $1.4m in money and diamonds

Hanssen was paid greater than $1.4m (£1.1m) in money, financial institution funds, diamonds and Rolex watches in trade for a wealth of extremely categorized nationwide safety info, together with in depth element about how US officers had tapped into Russian spy operations.

He didn’t undertake an clearly lavish way of life, as a substitute dwelling in a modest suburban residence in Virginia together with his household of six kids.

He would later say he was motivated by cash reasonably than ideology, however in a letter written to his Soviet handlers in 1985 he defined a big payoff might have triggered problems as a result of he couldn’t spend it with out setting off alarms.

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Traitor tipped off Moscow to secret American spy tunnel

Under the alias “Ramon Garcia”, Hanssen handed some 6,000 paperwork and 26 laptop discs to his handlers, authorities mentioned.

They detailed eavesdropping strategies, helped affirm the id of Russian double brokers and divulged different state secrets and techniques.

Officials additionally imagine he tipped off Moscow to a secret tunnel the Americans had constructed underneath the Soviet embassy in Washington for eavesdropping.

Hanssen’s duplicity went undetected for years, however later investigations discovered a number of pink flags had been missed.

He turned the main focus of a hunt for a Russian mole and was caught taping a garbage bag stuffed with secrets and techniques to the underside of a footbridge in a park in a “dead drop” for his Russian handlers.

His story was made into a movie known as Breach in 2007, starring Chris Cooper as Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe as a younger bureau operative who helps to convey him down.