The arrest of former German Federal Intelligence Service president August Hanning on suspicion of espionage has renewed attention to earlier BND cases involving leaked documents, surveillance of journalists and allies, and suspected sabotage.
In one of the more recent cases, prosecutors accuse BND employee Carsten L. of obtaining nine internal documents in September and October 2022. Prosecutors allege that businessman Arthur E. passed information to Russia’s FSB. Both are charged with particularly serious treason. Their trial has been under way since December 2023. Bruno Kahl, who headed the BND at the time, described the case as serious damage to the agency’s reputation.
Hanning himself was previously drawn into a separate controversy. In November 2005, while serving as BND president, he apologized to a writer who had been monitored by agency employees seeking to identify sources of leaks. The affair was also examined by parliament.
In 2014, BND employee Markus R. was exposed as a spy for the US Central Intelligence Agency. From 2008 to 2014, he passed on more than 200 documents, some of them classified, and received at least 80,000 euros. A court sentenced him to eight years in prison in March 2016.
Another investigation concerned surveillance targets in EU and NATO countries. In 2015, it emerged that the BND had used its own search criteria to monitor targets in allied states. A parliamentary oversight panel found that these included the governments of friendly countries and EU institutions, and that many targets were outside the agency’s mandate and unlawful.
BND espionage cases also reach back to the early 1960s. Heinz Felfe headed the agency’s Soviet counterintelligence unit while also working for the KGB. He was arrested in November 1961 and sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason in 1963. He was released in an agent exchange in 1969 and went to East Germany.
Other incidents included the disappearance of classified blueprints for the BND’s Berlin headquarters in 2011. In 2015, unknown intruders removed taps and flooded parts of the building. Investigators suspected sabotage. The cases have returned to public discussion amid the current investigation of Hanning, while the allegations against him remain subject to legal proceedings.