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i eke . -- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07 : CIA-RDP87M00539R000901 190016-2 SECR ET Ernst Ludwig Forbrich: Neutralization of an EGIS Agent On June 29, 1984, Ernst Ludwig Forbrich, an agent of the EGIS, was convicted of espionage, and on August 3, 1984, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Forbrich had been arrested on March 19, 1984, after selling classified documents for $550 to a UCA. The Forbrich investigation also spawned the arrest in West Germany of Michael Cameron, a U.S. citizen, on charges of espionage, and also led to investigations (some of which are still ongoing) of several other individuals. The investigation was initiated in July, 1982, when the estranged wife of a former U. S. Army major reported to the Tampa Field Office of the FBI that her husband had sold military secrets to the East Germans while he was serving in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The period during which he sold the documents occurred during the 1970s. The woman reported that Ernst Forbrich, a citizen of the FRG and an operator of an auto repair facility, served as a conduit through which the documents were passed to the EGIS. In the course of an interview, the woman stated that her husband's activities first came to her attention in June, 1980, during a visit by "John" (Forbrich), who had been a friend of the major since the 1970s. While her husband and John were having a secretive meeting in a bedroom (she noted that such meetings were commonplace in the course of the relationship which extended back several years, between John and her husband), she decided to interrupt the exchange. On a bed were numerous documents, official in appearance, which John was photographing with a small camera. Her husband became outraged and demanded that she leave the room. SECR ET - 29 - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07 : CIA-RDP87M00539R000901190016-2 _