On June 26, 2001, George Trofimoff, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa for espionage. From the early 1970s to 1994, Trofimoff passed classified military intelligence to the Soviet Union’s KGB while working as a civilian chief at an Army interrogation center in Nuremberg, Germany.
The conviction resulted from a 1997 FBI sting operation, during which Trofimoff confessed to agents posing as Russian operatives. He received payments of $250,000–$300,000, facilitated by a Russian Orthodox priest. On September 27, 2001, Trofimoff was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
