Spy who sold out peers to Kremlin dies

Aldrich Ames, the Central Intelligence Agency spy who was sentenced to life in prison for selling secrets to Moscow, costing the lives of a dozen double agents, died on Monday in custody, US authorities said.

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He was 84, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Ames worked as a counterintelligence analyst for the CIA for 31 years and, along with his wife Rosario, was convicted of selling information to the former Soviet Union between 1985 and 1993, compromising secret missions and costing lives, in exchange for more than $2.5 million (about R40 million).

Ames had been head of the Soviet branch in the CIA's counterintelligence, and gave the Kremlin the names of dozens of Russians who were spying for the US.

The couple's luxurious lifestyle - they kept cash in Swiss bank accounts, drove a Jaguar and ran up $50 000 annually in credit card bills - drew suspicion.