The case of the arrest of the former head of the German Foreign Intelligence Service (BND), August Hanning, highlights the “profit” of retired senior officials in Germany from their previous relationships and their access to sensitive files and state “secrets.”
Investigators suspect Hanning of involvement in leaking “state secrets” as part of his consulting work after retirement, and the suspicions amount to attempting to spy for a foreign country.
The Public Prosecution said in a statement, “Hanning is strongly suspected of committing acts of espionage that constitute treason to the state... collecting information that falls within state secrets,” as well as “attempting to commit high treason... and working as an agent for an intelligence service.”
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One of August Hanning's sources of information after the end of his presidency of foreign intelligence in 2005 was his former office director, Manfred D. (64 years old), who continued to hold senior positions in the agency until his retirement in the spring of 2026.
It is suspected that Manfred D. Involved in “aiding and abetting attempted treason and espionage leading to treason.”
According to information from Der Spiegel magazine, Manfred D. provided His former boss received about 2,000 documents from the intelligence service in exchange for a sum of money. The documents were prepared for the “intelligence briefing,” which was provided to the advisor on a weekly basis.
Negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah
Hanning, the son of a brick factory owner in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, began his career after obtaining a doctorate in law in the Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellery under Helmut Schmidt, who was Chancellor of Germany between 1974 and 1982.
In his professional career, his work in the West German mission in East Berlin, between 1986 and 1990, was a milestone, where he worked in the legal department and as a “security officer.”
After returning to the chancellery in Bonn, he worked with the Commissioner of the Intelligence Services and was assigned sensitive security tasks, such as negotiations between Hezbollah and Israel, and communicated directly with the party’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah.
After assuming the presidency of the agency in 1998, he initiated major reform in the agency, especially after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the perpetrators of which included terrorists who had studied in Hamburg. He also worked to bring the agency closer to political circles, especially the government, including geographically: he pushed for moving the agency’s headquarters from Bavaria to Berlin.
After ending his presidency of the intelligence service in 2005, he worked for four years as Minister of State in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, and was close to the then Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.
He was one of those calling for granting the Foreign Intelligence Service broader powers, and he complained about the "culture of leaks," according to what the German magazine "Der Spiegel" reported.
In the fall of 2015, former Chancellor Angela Merkel called for her to change her course regarding opening the door to refugees.
After retirement: private work in security consulting
After his career in public service ended, he founded Hanning Consult with his wife. He also worked with the security company System 360 and its parent company, Pluteos, which is based in Switzerland.
In his new job, motivated by his quest to make money, the man tarnished his reputation and became involved in providing services to suspicious clients, including some Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin. He was also involved in several cases, including the bankruptcy of a bank in Latvia.
Recently, the authorities searched his home on suspicion of his involvement in a case of kidnapping the two children of the heiress of the Block House steakhouse chain. In this case, Hanning and a retired police officer were accused of accepting an assignment from Christina Block for more than 100,000 euros ($112,000) to return the two children from Denmark, where they were living with her ex-husband.
During the inspection, the authorities obtained a “bycatch”: sensitive data belonging to the German intelligence service.
According to Der Spiegel magazine, Hanning used information from the intelligence service to prepare an analysis for an Azerbaijani intelligence officer.
What is the impact of the scandal on allied intelligence?
According to the German public network "ARD", the information conveyed by Manfred D. It included materials related to the Iranian nuclear program and the Russian army.
The network quoted security sources as saying that some of this information was received from partner intelligence agencies abroad.
