ACCUSED SPIES PORTRAYED AS INCOMPETENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404690005-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: October 5, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404690005-5
?,T1CL~ hPPEAnED
~ -~ Pr~a~ ~ - ~
~.c~t~s~d Spies
~~rtrayed as
Incompetents
By Jay Mathews
and Mary Thornton
\Yashington PoatStaff Wtflers
SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct. 4-
They seem to have been two am-
ateurs out of their depth: a trou-
bled; journeyman FBI agent mistak-
enly given a new assignment to
catch spies and a Soviet emigrant
houseazfe in love with the idea ~ of
? being a spy for anyor,~ who would
take her.
.One FBI official today called
Richard ~'V..Miller, the first bureau
agent ever charged with espionage,
"an incompetent" with black marks
on his record for being overweight
and, according to another source,.
selling Amway products from the -
trunk of his government car.
A Russian Orthodox priest today
portrayed the housewife, Svetlana
Ugorodnikova, the Soviet emigrant
who apparently lured Miller to his
downfall, as "aggressive, abrasive
2nd ... sleary," so immersed in her
own fantasies that she threatened
"to bring the .FBI over" when her
son was expelled from a church
school because of his mother's
openly pro-Soviet activities.
Of the many mysteries attached
to the strange story of Miller and .
Ogorodnilsova, perhaps the most
haunting is why the FBI allowed
them to get together and then did
not realize immediately what they
were about.
The crucial flaw, in the view of
many people who knew them, was
.that Miller and Ogorodniltova never
seemed a real threat to anyone. So
it took more than twoweeks-dur-
ing which a secret U.S. counterin- ~
telligence manual of uncertain value
fell into So~~et hands=before the
FBI realized the two people so well-
knowm to the bureau had pulled off
an espionage coup right beneath its
nose.
WASHINGTON POST
5 October 1984 .
Iii the?_,wake -of Miller's arrest
~'ue~sday;~'`~attorneys, friends and
other agents disclosed today that he
Was severely burdened with finan-
ciai~ problems because of a failing
avocado farm and responsibility for
eight children.
--. "r; One agent who knew Miller ex-
~ pressed :'chagrin in "hindsight that
~ for the'last three years Miller was
assigned to difficult counterespio- ,'
Wage work in the ethnic cauldron of i
I.os Angeles. One FBI official who;
asked not to be identified said Mill-~.
~sr was transferred from a job in the ~ i
semirural Riverside =County office ?='
'because of incompetence. ~ '
';,Agents in Los Angeles said they
', were aware of Miller's reputation'.
for occasional lapses of judgment; ..j
-but still liked and .respected him as
a pleasant= man being paid more.
than $40,000 a year but struggling .
with severe financial problems.
With 20 years of FBI service be-
hind him, the 47-year-old graduate
of Brigham Young University might
,have eased'?mto a quiet retirement
.~f he~}iad not encountered Ogorod-
~vkova, a;_iiny, sharp-nosed blonde.
~;vhq ~odicated to "acquaintances and
.;?venother FBI agents that she des-
~erafely wanted to be known'.as an
~~gnp~rtant "person to the. Soviet. and
''-~5. govemments.~ .
~_5he allegedly involved her. hus-
:~and Na~col~y Ogorodnikov in her .
;,?efforts; ar%i both have been charged
:-along with,Millei in a conspiracy to
~'giie secrets to the Soviet'Union.
But it was Ogorodnikova, living
%on~welfare and her husband's meat-
paeking~~hecks?.who -was
always
.
pushing,-teUing "the FBI im 1982 .of " ~ spending nights at a small Los An-
her..exploits in stopping ?a Soviet geles suburban house in Lynwood"
shipboard mutiny, wining and dining
Soviet diplomats .in West Holly- .
.wood, and telling Miller she was "a
major in the KGB."
One resident of- Los Angeles'
large Russian emigre community, a
radio broadcaster who asked not.to
~. be' identified, said Ogorodnikova court records say they legally sep-
and her 51-year-old husband made 'orated in September 1982.
such a poor impression that no "one Ogorodnikov; who took his wife's
could believe, they were serious ~ last name instead. of his own, Wolf-
spies. , -
"They were completely unedu-
cated " he said. "They did not even
speak very good Russian."
At her a
les Wedne goro m ova ap-
peared in aced-and-black warmup
jacket; torn khaki slacks and san-
dais. Her husband, arraigned sep-
arately, wore a blue sweatshirt and
jeans, brown loafers and a black
baseball cap. Each was ordered held
without hail. ~ -
At his arraignment today in San
Diego, Miller winked and smiled ~at
his wife, Paula; and i9-year-old-son
-Paul, a Brigham Young University
undergraduates Federal' public de-
~'fender John"'Moot told U.S..Mag= .
istrate . Rogez ,Curtis McKee that
'Miller plarmed to sell some assets
and hire a' private attorney' and
would. plead not guilty. McKee or-
dered Miller held without bail. ~ ,.
About seven years ago, .Miller
moved his family from Santa Ana in
Orange County to a ranch in the
northern San Diego County com-
munity of Bonsall, where he and his
father-in-law tried to turn a profit
on 1,000 avocado trees growing on
a 10-acre tract. Jack Story, an as-
sociate of Barlett Farm Manage-
- ment, which developed the grove
for Miller, said the idea proved
costly with prices hitting all-time
lows.
Miller was continually looking for
'ways to make or save money. The
Millers' five-bedroom .house atop a
small knoll appears worn and ill-
kept, neighbors said.
Miller's acquaintances said he
had hoped to be transferred even-
tually from the Los Angeles Field
Office to the FBI office in San Diego
so he could end his - routine of
during the week..
Although neighbors of Ogorod-
nikova said she and her husband
. continued to live together until
their arrest-and FBI agents saw
them take frequent long walks in
the'. ,neighborhood-Los Angeles
scure his Jewish ancestry, reported
an income of $2,000 a rimonth as a
meatpacker at Hoffman Bros. Pack-
Continued
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/09 :CIA-RDP90-005528000404690005-5