whose code name was “Nelly,” served as a courier between the ille-
gal apparatus and NKVD officers under “legal” cover as diplomats.
She also maintained a safe house in Baltimore where Akhmerov
could meet agents.
Akhmerov was a clever and careful case officer. During his second
tour as an illegal, he ran a number of agents within the Franklin D.
Roosevelt administration, including sources in the White House, the
nascent American intelligence services, and the State Department. In
1942 and 1943, he transmitted 300 rolls of microfilm with classified
documents and assessments to Moscow, while in 1944 more than 600
rolls of scientific and technical intelligence reached Moscow from
Akhmerov’s agents. One of his most effective couriers was Eliza-
beth Bentley, who turned herself in to the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation in late 1945, disclosing Akhmerov’s operations. Following
Bentley’s defection, the Akhmerovs served as illegals in Switzerland,
taking the name of a famous American millionaire. In the 1950s, they
returned to Moscow for good. He was promoted to colonel and
served as the deputy chief of the service’s illegals department. Helen
taught English in Moscow to a new generation of illegals, while
Akhmerov instructed them in tradecraft.AMERASIACASE. One of the earliest investigations of Soviet espi-
onage occurred in 1945 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation
raided the editorial offices of Amerasiamagazine in Washington,
DC, confiscated several hundred classified U.S. documents, and ar-
rested several people. Of the detained, two pled to minor charges of
illegal possession of classified documents and were fined. The oth-
ers were cleared. One of those involved but never prosecuted was
John Service, a foreign service officer who had served in China dur-
ing the war. Amerasiaeditor Philip Jaffe, who had been a Commu-
nist Party member, claimed that he was collecting documents to
complete a detailed study of the Chinese civil war. Jaffe received
documents from Service, who acted out of a personal desire to ex-
pose Washington’s alliance with the corrupt Nationalist regime in
China. It is not known if any of the information reached Soviet in-
telligence, but the scandal demonstrated how lax U.S. security was
during the war, and the unilateral steps some professionals would
take to release classified material.8•AMERASIACASE06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:54 AM Page 8