FBI spy Robert Hanssen forfeited $1.4 million from Moscow and his pension, and his plea deal left his wife the house, three cars and a survivor annuity

Robert Hanssen was an FBI counterintelligence agent. Around 1980 his wife, Bonnie, found that he was dealing with the Soviets. He told her he was feeding them false information. She made him confess to an Opus Dei priest, the Rev. Robert Bucciarelli, who told him to give the money to charity and stop, and did not report him to the FBI. Hanssen made payments to a charity linked to Mother Teresa. He was arrested in 2001. On 6 July 2001 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, 13 counts of espionage and one of attempted espionage. The agreement fixed life without parole, so the government did not seek death. He forfeited up to $1,437,000 paid or set aside for him by the Soviet Union and Russia, and his government pension, except the part that becomes a survivor annuity. His wife would receive that annuity, 55 percent of the pension or about $38,000 to $39,000 a year, as long as she kept cooperating. The family kept its house in Vienna, Virginia, and three vehicles. Bonnie Hanssen said she knew nothing of his later spying, and her lawyer said a polygraph showed no deception. She stayed in the house with their six children and taught at a Catholic school. Hanssen was sentenced on 10 May 2002 and held at ADX Florence from 17 July 2002. Staff found him unresponsive on 5 June 2023, and he was pronounced dead, aged 79.