Robert Hanssen, FBI agent who spied for Russia, found dead in prison

Robert Hanssen, the former FBI agent turned spy whom the bureau describes as the most damaging in its history, was found dead in his prison cell on Monday, U.S. authorities said.

Hanssen, 79, was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison after pleading guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.

Prison staff initiated life-saving measures after finding Hanssen unresponsive on Monday morning but were not successful, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. It did not provide a cause of death.

Hanssen joined the FBI in 1976 and began selling classified information to the Soviet Union in 1985, according to the FBI’s website.

By the time of his arrest in 2001, he had been compensated with more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds and diamonds, in exchange for compromising numerous human sources, intelligence techniques and classified U.S. documents, the FBI’s website says.

Read more: Reuters