costing the lives of a dozen double agents, died Monday in custody, US authorities said. 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 Soviet Union between 1985 and 1993 -- compromising secret missions and costing lives -- in exchange for more than $2.5 million. Ames had been head of the Soviet branch in the CIA's counterintelligence group, and gave the Kremlin the names of dozens of Russians who were spying for the United States. The couple's luxurious lifestyle at the time -- they kept cash in Swiss bank accounts, drove a Jaguar and ran up $50,000 annually in credit card bills -- drew suspicion. Federal prosecutors said Ames spied for the Soviet Union -- and kept selling Russia information after its collapse -- until he was exposed in 1994. Relying on bogus information from Ames, CIA officials repeatedly misinformed US presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and other top officials about Soviet military capabilities and other strategic details. Ames' prosecution heated up tensions between Washington and Moscow as Russia and the US were trying to normalize their relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. (Bssnews)