An FBI veteran accused Tuesday of spying for Russia graduated from Northwestern’s business school and listed his Russian language skills on his application, NU officials said.
Robert Philip Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, received his MBA in accounting and information services in 1971 from NU’s Graduate School of Business, now called the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is accused of spying for more than 15 years in exchange for $600,000 in cash and diamonds and $800,000 placed in an off-shore account.
Hanssen, 56, was arrested Sunday night in suburban Virginia after he dropped off documents for his Russian handlers, government officials said. FBI agents found $50,000 hidden nearby that they say was intended for Hanssen.
Hanssen attended NU twice, said Vice President for University Relations Alan Cubbage. In 1966 he enrolled in the Dental School but dropped out in 1968. The next year he entered the Graduate School of Business and graduated in 1971.
On his business school application he listed his Russian language skills, Cubbage said. The FBI also reported that Hanssen studied Russian in college.
Cubbage said NU has minimal information on Hanssen.
“He’s what we call a ‘lost alum,'” Cubbage said.
Cubbage said lost alums do not have a current address listed with the university, indicating that they probably have not made financial contributions to NU.
Some former classmates recalled Hannsen – but barely.
“I can remember the guy,” said Michael Wurzburg, who graduated from the business school with Hanssen in 1971. “He was tall, skinny and had glasses – it’s unbelievable.”
Classmate Jack McKinney said he remembered Hanssen “vaguely” and recalled that his father had been a police officer.
Hanssen was born in Chicago in 1944. He went to Taft High School there, graduating in 1962.
Hanssen earned an undergraduate chemistry degree from Knox College. A Knox spokesman declined to comment on Hanssen’s academic record or whether he had studied Russian there.
Spokesman Peter Bailley said Hanssen’s page in the 1966 Knox yearbook listed him as having participated in intramural sports throughout college. But it offered no information about other interests or activities, he said.
After graduating from NU, Hanssen worked briefly at a Chicago accounting firm.
He then joined the Chicago Police Department as an investigator in the Financial Section of the Inspection Services Division. In 1976, he joined the FBI, where he worked for almost 10 years before allegedly going to work for the KGB.
James Rubenstein, secretary of the business school’s class of 1971, said he saw Hanssen’s picture on the news Tuesday.
“I said, ‘My God, he’s my age,'” Rubenstein said. “We probably sat together in class, but I don’t recall him.”
Neither did Allan Drebin, a professor of accounting at NU since 1969.
“It’s possible I had him in class,” Drebin said, but “I really don’t remember him.”
At that time the accounting department was located on the Chicago campus, Drebin said.
According to a 100-page FBI affidavit, Hanssen betrayed three American double agents working inside the KGB. The affidavit further says that beginning in 1985, Hanssen sent Moscow information about top-secret U.S. intelligence and counterintelligence activities.
Hanssen is only the third FBI agent ever accused of espionage, and news of the charges drew harsh criticism from politicians and law enforcement officials.
President George W. Bush called it “a difficult day” and FBI Director Louis Freeh said “the criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country.”
Plato Cacheris, Hanssen’s attorney, told the Associated Press that he plans to plead not guilty.
Hanssen could face the death penalty and as much as $2.8 million in fines if convicted.
