George Trofimoff was a United States military intelligence officer of Russian descent.
28 Facts About George Trofimoff
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George Trofimoff was convicted in a US federal court of having spied for the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s.
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George Trofimoff was sentenced to life imprisonment on September 27,2001.
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George Trofimoff is the most senior officer in US military history to have been charged with or convicted of espionage.
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George Trofimoff was born in Berlin, Weimar Republic, on March 9,1927.
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In 1943, Vladimir George Trofimoff remarried and his son moved in with him and his new wife.
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George Trofimoff then fled the advancing Soviet Army into the American Zone of Occupied Germany.
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George Trofimoff enlisted in the United States Army in 1948 and received a commission in the United States Army Reserve in 1953.
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George Trofimoff received an honorable discharge from active duty in 1956, and retired from the United States Army Reserve with the rank of colonel in 1987.
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From 1959 through 1994, George 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.
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George Trofimoff had access to all classified information received by or produced by US Army Intelligence at the JIC.
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George Trofimoff continued to hold this position until his death in 1999.
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In 1999, George Trofimoff boasted that he routinely smuggled every classified document he could obtain home to be photographed with a special camera and tripod.
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George Trofimoff traveled frequently to Austria to meet Iriney and other KGB operatives, according to the indictment.
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George Trofimoff further explained that Iriney paid him a standard amount of 7,000 Deutschmarks per week.
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The payments were always made in used bills and when George Trofimoff needed more money toward a down payment on his house, Iriney "went to his contact in Moscow," and returned with 90,000 DM.
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In 1999, George Trofimoff further explained that Iriney ordered him to cease his espionage work for the KGB in 1987.
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The German BKA, the FBI, and US federal prosecutors allege that George Trofimoff was paid $250,000 over the course of his espionage career.
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George Trofimoff did admit that "The KGB was everywhere, in the Church".
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Jutta George Trofimoff further stated "If I had any doubt that he was telling me the truth I would have divorced him on the spot".
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George Trofimoff was reduced to bagging groceries in a local supermarket in the vain hope of getting out of debt.
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George Trofimoff says it will be difficult to send and it will have to come through Church channels.
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On February 24,1999, George Trofimoff met with Droujinsky inside the Comfort Inn at Melbourne, Florida.
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On June 14,2000, George Trofimoff arrived at the Tampa International Airport Hilton Hotel to meet Droujinsky, who had promised to give him $20,000 in cash.
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The trial of George Trofimoff began at the Sam E Gibbons US Courthouse in Tampa on June 4,2001.
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On June 26,2001, a Federal jury in Tampa, Florida, convicted George Trofimoff of spying for the Soviet Union.
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George Trofimoff claimed to have believed Droujinsky would help him only if he were in such a dire situation.
28.
George Vladimirovich Trofimoff died at the United States Penitentiary, Victorville, on September 19,2014.