Suspicion of espionage: BND affairs: moles, surveillance and security gaps

The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is again suspected of espionage: The current case involving ex-President August Hanning draws attention to previous affairs. A selection:

Suspected betrayal of Russia

In the Carsten L. case, the Federal Prosecutor's Office accuses the BND employee of obtaining nine internal documents in September and October 2022. The businessman Arthur E. is said to have transmitted information to the Russian secret service FSB. Both are charged with particularly serious treason. The process, which has been ongoing since December 2023, is ongoing. The then BND President Bruno Kahl spoke of “serious damage to our reputation”.

Former BND boss Hanning had journalists in his sights

August Hanning, who had just been arrested on suspicion of espionage, had to explain an affair once: In November 2005, the then head of the BND apologized to an affected publicist. BND employees had monitored journalists to detect leaks. The affair was also subject to a parliamentary investigation.

A mole among German-American friends

Secrets also flowed to an ally: in 2014, a BND employee was exposed as a spy for the CIA. Between 2008 and 2014, Markus R. passed on more than 200 documents, some of them top secret, and received at least 80,000 euros for them. In March 2016 he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Scouting among allies

The BND also had targets in friendly countries in its sights. In 2015 it became known that the service had used its own search features to monitor targets in EU and NATO countries. According to the findings of the Parliamentary Control Committee, these included governments of friendly countries and EU institutions. A large number of the recorded targets were not in accordance with the order and were legally inadmissible.

A spy in counter-espionage

The cases of betrayal at the BND go back to the early 1960s: Heinz Felfe headed the “Soviet Union Counter-Espionage” department at the BND and at the same time worked for the KGB. He was arrested in November 1961 and sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason in 1963. In 1969 Felfe was released in an agent exchange and ended up in the GDR.

Secret plans, open taps

Unusual incidents also made headlines: secret construction plans disappeared during the construction of the BND headquarters in Berlin in 2011. In 2015, unknown people removed taps and used them to flood parts of the main building. The investigators assume sabotage.