Guruchaz | Friday, February 23, 2001 - 08:36 am  A German court told an ex-spy to return $138,000 that he earned for selling a German intelligence agency information taken from the agency's own files. The 51-year-old former bank manager code-named "Source Albert" sold around 1,000 documents to the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) that he said were previously unreported secrets about the former Soviet Union. Presiding judge Ursula Lewenton told the Munich court on Thursday that Source Albert's information was anything but unreported. It had been gathered by an accomplice working in the BND's archives. "He tried on purpose to give the impression he had received the information from his connections outside the BND," she said. The defendant has already been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and assessed a fine of $9,200. His accomplice is serving a four-and-a-half year sentence after being found guilty of fraud and espionage. |