28 Facts About Karl Koecher

Karl Koecher studied physics and mathematics at Charles University as well as film at the Academy of Performing Arts.

Karl Koecher became a radio comedy writer and was allegedly frequently scrutinized by the Communist security forces for his satire that mocked the regime.

Karl Koecher joined the Communist Party in 1960, and the Czechoslovak intelligence service in 1962 using the codename Pedro.

Karl Koecher claimed that constant harassment from the Czechoslovakia State Security due to his history of anti-state and anti-social behavior, ruined his different careers and in order to end the harassment, he decided to join the StB.

Karl Koecher was selected to become a mole in the West working with the first directorate in the Stb because of his English language skills.

In 1965 he and his wife, Hana Karl Koecher, seemingly emigrated to the United States via Austria posing as defecting dissidents.

Karl Koecher returned to New York in 1967 and he gained a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University, and became an American citizen in 1971.

Karl Koecher was given high level security clearance and given the job of translating and analyzing documents handed over by CIA agents and transcripts of wiretaps and bugs.

Karl Koecher quickly became one of the USSR's best sources of information, allowing them to mount an effective defense against CIA covert actions.

Karl Koecher translated documents from a key CIA asset in Moscow, Ogorodnik.

In September 1976 Karl Koecher was summoned back to Prague to a meeting with KGB head of counter-intelligence, Oleg Kalugin.

Kalugin claims that after interrogating Karl Koecher, Kalugin argued that he was in fact a triple agent and his information could not be trusted.

Finally, Karl Koecher agreed to become a triple agent working for the Americans, provided that they agreed to grant him immunity from prosecution.

However, it was then decided that Karl Koecher was not reliable enough to be a triple agent and was likely to defect and return to Czechoslovakia.

Karl Koecher was held on espionage charges and Hana Karl Koecher as a material witness.

Karl Koecher's confession was given only after his interrogators promised him immunity as a ruse, and was thus invalid.

Karl Koecher's wife had been denied access to a lawyer despite frequent requests for one, which reportedly caused Justice Department officials to refuse to charge her.

Karl Koecher refused to testify against Karl, asserting spousal privilege, though prosecutors argued this did not apply given the two had been partners in crime.

The issue of whether or not Hana Karl Koecher could be compelled to testify against her husband went before the US Supreme Court but the fact that both spouses were returned to Czechoslovakia in a prisoner exchange before the court's opinion was published rendered the case moot.

Karl Koecher was the victim of an attempted stabbing by an unnamed inmate while in prison.

Karl Koecher, worrying about his own safety, sent through his lawyer and his spouse's father, a request to the KGB chairman that he be part of a prisoner exchange with the Soviets.

Karl Koecher pleaded guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage for Czechoslovakia, and was sentenced to life in prison, which was reduced to time served provided he left the US and never returned.

Karl Koecher returned to Czechoslovakia to a hero's welcome and was given a house and a Volvo car as a reward for his services.

Karl Koecher was given a job at the Prague Institute for Economic Forecasting, where many future politicians worked; Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman, the future Czech presidents, were among them.

Some US journalists stated they had seen Karl Koecher issuing orders at the Laterna Magika theatre during the early days of the Velvet Revolution.

Karl Koecher denied any involvement in the Velvet Revolution, saying that journalists must have mixed him up with the then unknown Vaclav Klaus, who had a similar appearance.

The fall of communism has seen Karl Koecher fall from prominence, with the exception of his alleged involvement in a scheme run by Oswald LeWinter, a self-professed former CIA operative, to defraud Mohammed Al-Fayed with false documents that would support his conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana.

Karl Koecher continues to live in the Czech Republic in relative obscurity.