He retired from the U.S. Army as a first sergeant (E-7) in 1991 and quietly took up residence in Germany – his second wife’s country. David Sheldon Boone no doubt thought he had successfully run the gamut of risk associated with his having committed espionage against his country on behalf of the USSR/Russia. His retirement terminated his direct access and his active cooperation with the KGB/SVR. He had pocketed $60,000 from the KGB for his three years of espionage.
Yet, such was not to be the case. He was found out, but it took a number of years before he was identified as a KGB asset. Perhaps his unveiling was as a result of the treasure trove of counterespionage leads which came from the “Mitrokhin Archive” or from another Russian intelligence asset with knowledge of Boone’s intelligence activities in the U.S. and Germany.
Regardless, once identified, the FBI put together a sting operation and in late-1998, Boone was arrested and pleaded guilty. However, his arrest and guilty plea was almost 10 years after he began his espionage and walked into the Soviet Embassy in 1988.
It was on this date in history, February 26, 1999 that Boone was sentenced to 24 years and four months for committing espionage against the United States.
Boone, now 69 years of age, has been released from prison (January 14, 2020) and on May 16, 2021, the court discharged, early, his need for supervised release.
David Boone U.S. Army First Sergeant
The FBI criminal complaint of October 1998 tells us that in late-1988, David Boone, an Army careerist, with professional proficiency in the Russian language, and who was a Senior Cryptologic Traffic Analyst, was assigned to United States Army Field Station (USAFS) in Augsburg, Germany as the senior enlistee in the Army Technical Control and Analysis Element.
In 1988, Boone’s personal life was also in shambles. That year, he took out a signature loan. In October 1988, he and his wife entered into a voluntary separation agreement where she would receive his entire U.S. Army pay, providing him with $250/month. Boone’s wife and children remained in the U.S. as Boone headed to USAFS. Prior to departure for Augsburg, he took an advance of three months’ wages, landing him in Germany cash strapped.
Boone’s espionage
The criminal complaint lays out in detail how Boone came to commit espionage and the means by which he selected the information to provide to the KGB/SVR. The FBI didn’t know the extent of the damage he had inflicted on the United States until the sting operation of 1998. It was during this operation that they learned, from Boone, the totality of his espionage.
October 1988 – It was on the eve of his assignment to Germany and ASAFS that Boone presented himself at the Embassy of the USSR in Washington D.C. and volunteered to commit espionage. At the initial meeting, he presented his NSA badge and U.S. Army identification as bona fides. He also provided a classified report he had written based on NSA decrypted intercepts. He was paid U.S. $300 and given a wig and glasses to wear when he returned for the next meeting. At that point, they needed to vet his information and determine if he was bona fide or a double agent dangle.
Boone, wearing the wig and glasses, showed up a second time at the Embassy, he provided NSA documents, which highlighted his span of access within the NSA. They discussed his impending assignment to Germany. He was paid $1,500.
How did Boone get his documents out of the NSA? He printed them and folded the documents, 15-20 pages at a time, and slid them into his Army windbreaker’s half-liner.
His motivation? He needed money and was “angry.”
The Russian’s gave him a clandestine communications plan for use in Germany, which included meeting sites, emergency meeting sites, and signal sites. They knew they had a goose laying valuable eggs. They planned to use impersonal communications and infrequent personal encounters to harvest what Boone had to offer. They were not disappointed.
According to Boone, he provided information based on three factors.
- Their value to the KGB/SVR
- Amount of detail contained within the document
- The variety of information provided.
Boone brought the goods. The Russian’s literally got a steal for their dollars.
Over the course of the next three years, Boone was met about four times at various locations along the Rhine River. Sometimes in person, and sometimes Boone would load a drop with classified information. All told, at the end of his collaboration, he was paid a total of U.S. $60,000 and had a reserve account maintained by Moscow which contained additional monies.
Boone compromised a number of sensitive SIGINT planning documents to the Russians. These included direct tasking from his handler to provide specific United States Signals Intelligence Directive publications, which Boone accommodated, providing USSID 514, dated May 6, 1988, classified Top Secret, which contained the “tasking the targeting of U.S. nuclear weapons against Soviet targets.”
He also provided the original, number copy of the “Joint Tactical Exploitation Manual” which was classified Top Secret Umbra. The copy provided was one of two registered copies located at USAFS Augsburg. This document earned him a “reserve fund” set up in a Soviet bank into which additional funds for his espionage were being deposited. This manual, according to the criminal complaint, is the “handbook of the United States reconnaissance programs and collection systems.”
Boone loses his clearance
Shortly after arrival, Boone met a female German citizen and in March 1989, moved in with her. In June 1990, one of Boone’s supervisors informed the Defense Investigative Service (DIS) that Boone appeared to be severely in debt, owed numerous creditors and that his estranged wife was seeking funds that had been garnished by debtors.
When interviewed by DIS, Boone acknowledge that he purposefully allowed his debts to accumulate to the point of his pay being garnished so as to deprive his estranged wife of his pay. He also told the investigators about his relationship with his German girlfriend, which he had previously not disclosed.
The U.S. Army had seen enough, they suspended Boone’s national security clearance and access to classified information “because of his lack of personal and professional responsibility.” Boone was reassigned to the U.S. military hospital in Augsburg where he served as Sergeant of the Guard, until his retirement in June 1991.
His divorce was finalized in December 1991, and in 1994, he married his German girlfriend, with whom he had cohabitated since 1989.
FBI’s Bait hooks Boone in 1998
Meet Dmitry Droujinsky, a highly successful impersonator, fluent in nine languages. He was often called to role play as a KGB/SVR intelligence in support of FBI counterintelligence and counterespionage investigations. Droujinsky, retired from the FBI in 1998. It was in a 2016 interview with Smithsonian Magazine, he shared his role in hooking Boone. It was to be one of his last Russian intelligence officer impersonations. This interview, coupled with the criminal complaint provides a complete picture of the FBI sting used to confirm Boone’s guilt and lure him back to the United States to be arrested.
In early-September 1998, the FBI’s operational asset (Droujnsky) called Boone in Germany and identified himself as a Russian colleague who wanted to meet to discuss proposals and his “reserve account” (an escrow account of funds being held by the Russians). Boone is quoted as saying, “Where and when?”
A meeting was set up for London just a week later. Boone flew to London, and a series of meetings ensued, with the FBI, posing as the KGB/SVR. The first meeting lasted for four and a half hours, in a hotel room controlled by the FBI. Boone reviewed his prior espionage, in minute detail, from the moment he walked into the Embassy in 1988 through his retirement from the U.S. Army when the relationship terminated. At the conclusion of that first meeting, the FBI’s lead had been confirmed.
The second meeting was the next day. Boone was met for one hour and 45 minutes. At this meeting, he confirmed his willingness to continue to collaborate with Russian intelligence and accepted payment of U.S. $9,000. In addition, he volunteered to relocate to the United States and be a full-time or part-time support asset for Russian intelligence. He also agreed to travel to the United States for additional meetings on October 2, 1998, stay at the Dulles Airport Marriott, and return to Germany on October 4, 1998.
A series of phone calls followed which had the date of the meeting changed to the 9-11 October 1998. Boone flew into Dulles and checked into FBI prepared room 1431 at the Marriott. He was told to bring with him a handwritten note describing how he could assist the KGB/SVR. Boone arrived on the 9th and on the 10th, he presented himself at another room where he expected to meet his Russian handler, whom he had met in London. Droujinsky recalled in the interview, what transpired when Boone knocked on the door and when it opened, he said, “Oh, I was looking for someone else.” The strangers in the room said, “He’s right here.” As the FBI agents took Droujinsky out of the room, he shouted back “I’m a diplomat! You can’t do this.”
Boone was arrested on that date – October 10, 1998.
Counterintelligence Failure?
There were ample opportunities to detect Boone’s subterfuge during the period of time he was actively committing espionage.
- He printed and removed documents from classified areas of work, which he hid on his person.
- His personal life was in disarray prior to his being assigned in 1988 to Augsburg and the ASAFS, thus calling into question his suitability for an assignment abroad.
- Once in full-on collaboration mode with the Russians, he met, multiple times clandestinely, passing to them many materials including a Top Secret Umbra 300-400 page binder, one of only two copies at the ASAFS, confident that no one would notice it had gone missing.
- The FBI failed to identify the walk-in who entered the Soviet Embassy in 1988, on two occasions, once without disguise and a second time with “light disguise” (Wig/glasses).
- His all-cash existence during his three years at Augsburg should have been a red flag to his colleagues.
- His debt did evoke a response from a supervisor who noted his lack of suitability and had engaged the process to have his clearance revoked and his being reassigned to a billet that did not require a clearance. Unfortunately, no one opened a counterintelligence investigation, and his espionage went undetected.
